DASH Cross Country 2020 Homeschool Championship Meet Report

October 19, 2020 in Uncategorized

Hello DASH families,

The full DASH cross country team was up north in Jackson to compete in the annual Homeschool Championship last Saturday. The weather was very cool with a threat of rain, and it did not take long for the wind to pick up. The athletes would be keeping their coats and sweats on as long as possible as they prepared to run the familiar Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School course. The competition at this meet has been on the upswing of late, and this year many non-homeschool teams were allowed into the middle school race. In my opinion the middle school race lost its homeschool feel, but with our races all being smaller this year it was nice to see us get into a big one.

The big day of racing got going at 9:30 AM with 118 middle school boys up first. Sam Collier ran a flawless race, getting through traffic early and then holding down his spot to the end. He lowered his 2 mile time by two seconds over the tough course. He was 19th with a 13:16. If it was a homeschool-only team race he would have been 11th and been on the medal stand. I wish we could have seen that. Josiah Chu was equally impressive running confidently and staying with Sam the whole way while lowering his pr by 23 seconds with a 13:18 20th place finish. Our 7th graders were great. Eli Collier ran steady and smooth, and deceptively fast. Eli went well under 15 minutes this time with a 14:43, and yet he looked like he could have run another mile at the end. Noah Caspers fell early, but then worked hard to get back into the race. He was relentless at keeping up his working hard pace and pr’d by 29 seconds with a 14:56. Our 5th graders both came in ahead of the coach’s lofty expectations. Inspiring. Emmett Collier did not let the tough course keep him from giving us yet another pr. He came down the hill to finish soon after Noah with a 15:09, passing some big guys on the way. These boys were so good! Ephraim Radtke was our one casualty. He fell on the banked hill heading around the track and never recovered. He coasted in with a 15:48, well off his 14:17 from last year. Fortunately, the boys backed up Ephraim as best they could.

The middle school girls ended up being the most unpredictable, with plenty of ups, but with a couple downs that we could not fully recover from. Aleigha Standerwick scared me a little when she went out with the leaders, but it turned out to be a good decision this time. Aleigha got into a fast 7 minute mile pace and held it to the end without a lot of other runners around to push her along. This was easily her best 2 mile effort, and it may have been as impressive as her big win in Elkhorn. She won the 8th place medal, and I really liked her 14:05 time. I thought she had that in her. It was worth the wait. Cecilia Budnik came down sick at the end of Tuesday’s practice, and it was noticeable that she was not quite at her best. But Cecilia really battled at the end to hold down her spot. She clocked in at 15:16 in 26th place. It was a much-appreciated, much-needed gutsy effort. Andrea Chu has had some impressive races for us this year, but nothing like she gave us this time. I had her down as probably our 6th runner in, instead she went all out from the start and came down the last hill not far behind Cecilia. What a big time race! Andrea did 17:02 12 days ago. She hit the finish at 15:25 at the championship. Double wow!! Charline Radtke got off to a very promising start, but then she put her on her ‘I don’t think I can do this’ face that we have not seen from her this year. That got the coach to start following her around trying to give her whatever help he could to just keep her going. Having Andrea ahead of her didn’t help. I was seeing Charline going much slower than she was actually running. She ended up giving us a pr of 15:33. Charline, you came through for us again! I will have faith in you and be extra nice to you from here on out. I promise. Well, unless I see you eating too much ice cream or cookies. Bedalia Radtke let her teammates get ahead of her early and she never did get to top speed. I thought Charline was our 5th runner at the end. If I had known it was Bedalia I would have hounded her instead. Bedalia’s time was 16:01. Last year she did 15:00. Bedalia will get extra attention from me while I am being extra nice to Charline. Mary LeSac did a quiet 16:08, about what I thought she would do and really finished the season well. A normal race was very welcome. Now we can start telling her how good she looks in DASH yellow, and reminder her how much she loves us, and how much fun we have, and how she should run with our high school team next year… I was hoping Lucia Budnik would be able to stick with Andrea again this race, but Andrea was out of sight quick leaving Lucia to pace along by herself. Lucia clocked in at 16:32, a respectable time. And she made our top 7. Kudos. Next to come in was Jayleigh Standerwick. (Sigh). She came up the big hill just after Cecilia, but then she disappeared. I was hoping I had missed her finish, but she had stopped at the top of the hill to greet her many fans. No, actually because she was feeling sick. (Sigh). With Andrea running so well we could have made up for one of our stars not at their best, but this gave us two. Jayleigh has been so good and so consistent all year that it just makes you ‘sigh’. The girls ended up 6th. We could have been near 3rd at our absolute best. Savannah Michalski held up well on the long, tough course once again with her 18:45. She could be very good if she sticks with running. The girls gave us such a whirlwind of results this time out. I am glad we had an hour break before the high school races so I could settle down and recover.

I didn’t recover quite as fast as I wanted to because as the high school boys race drew near Abiah Radtke was not to be found. He did get his tags on and to the line just before the race, but it was too late to get a team photo. Alex Taylor led the boys out with Matthew Schaber staying up with him through the first mile. Nathanael Chu and Micah Chan paced close a little farther back with Abiah giving chase, and then Cam Partenfelder went past. It was a very good first mile for the boys. As the boys came back up the hill at about the 2.5 mile mark, Nathanael powered his way up the hill first with Alex and Matthew just steps behind him. Abiah was next, but he was not looking as strong as he usual does through the last mile. The team MVP was on the line today with Nathanael, Matthew, and Abiah all in contention. We saw Nathanael making his case with Matthew just a few steps back. Abiah would have a lot of ground to make up now. I did not race across the soccer field like I often do to catch the racing. The high school boys run so fast that I took it easy and watched the race from a distance. My laziness had me missing some epic racing. As the boys headed to the finish, to my surprise it was Abiah leading the charge. He had done it again! He had gone past Nathanael, Matthew, and Alex and hit the finish at 19:45 just missing out on a top-15 medal. That was courageous. Alex had his best race of the season. His body language was very good this time and he came in strong with a 19:50 for 17th place. An inspired Alex will be one of the keys for next year. Matthew was our third runner in with a 20:00 for 20th place. He likes lower numbers, but the last mile with a strong south wind blowing in your face is so tough. Nathanael Chu could not keep his older teammates behind him this time and settled for fourth on the team. He clocked in at 20:06. He was so close to pulling in another MVP. Micah Chan was exceptional coming in just one second off his pr. He was the only one close in that department. Micah’s 20:24 24th place finish had our top 5 running only 39 seconds apart. Cam Partenfelder raced in with a 21:39. He pushed up the score on the two teams behind us once again. It was a very good effort from the boys. We were one of the four good teams, and we did it without any seniors this time. I am already thinking about next year. I like this team.

A light drizzle was out as the high school girls race started. Terez Wycklendt did not let a little rain slow her down as she immediately raced to the front. We would get to see if anyone would try to give her a race. A Chippewa Valley girl did stay close, but Terez never slowed or showed any sign of weakness. Terez would be the High School Girls Homeschool Champion with a time of 21:01. The Chippewa girl hit the finish in 21:09, and the 3rd place girl would come in over a minute after Terez. Yet another super-impressive win for Terez to cap off a legendary DASH season! The top two girls were both juniors, so we may get a rematch next year. Stephanie Chu came in just ahead of a NEWCHAA girl who beat her last week to claim 5th place. Stephanie has been top-5 for each of the last 3 homeschool championships, quite an amazing feat. Her six years of cross country with us have been so stellar. Next year will be so different without her. Joy Rasch was back with us and got through the course nicely. She took 24th overall with a 26:22 time. I liked her place and her racing at the end. Grace Caspers and Savanna Bruton stayed together the first half of the course with both running very well. Grace was able to keep up her pace through the last mile much better this week and got the one high school pr of the day, 26:40. She is taking to this high school running well. Savanna eased up the back side of the soccer field and then showed off her speed down the stretch to race in just behind Grace with a 26:59. We had our top-5 all in the top-27 and under 27 minutes for the first time this year. We would have no regrets when the team points were added up. Jenna Walters gave us a little insurance and did push up the score on one of the teams behind us. I was very happy to have her on hand racing with us again. At the awards ceremony, the girls went up and got the 3rd place trophy. It was a tight race between the 2 through 5 teams, and things went our way this time. Lots of happy faces at the end of another great day of DASH racing.

Michele Miller from WCHSA and Jilleen Pfarr from the Eagles have hosted two meets each for us this year, all filling gaps in our schedule. Thanks go out to them for helping our season be so much fun. Thanks to Mr. Beck for his help with the coaching, collecting the timing tags, putting up and taking down the team tent, etc. He brought his ‘A’ game to the championship, of course. Thanks to Mr. Standerwick for help getting the middle school girls ready. Thanks to Kettle Moraine Lutheran for setting the course for us and letting us use their facilities once again. Thanks to all the DASH families for getting the athletes to the meet on time, although it was a bit close with Abiah. We made a decision for MVP photographer. It was won by Natalie Radtke, of course. Her talents are on full display once again with her latest photo set. Thanks to Natalie once again. Thanks to all the DASH families for joining us for as ‘normal’ a season as we were allowed to have. Getting together for practices and for meets has been extra enjoyable this year. We do have one little high school meet and the end-of-the-year party left to enjoy each other’s company this last week. I hope to see you there.

Take care,
Jim Caspers