Shorewood Boys & Girls Place 6th in Competitive Rebel Invite

Both the boys and girls team placed 6th overall at this weekends 21st annual Rebel Invite held at UW-Parkside. One of the most competitive venues, the Rebel Invite draws 20 of the top Division 1 and 2 teams from both WI and IL. The course is tough (starting with a long one-mile uphill climb) and the competition deep and broad.

The Boys.....
All things considered the boys fared well. While they have placed higher in recent history (third and second the past two years), given the competition and injuries the team is showing some determination. Comparing times of the top five runners from this year to last year, I believe we can become quite competitive:
Last Year to This Year Times:
16:45 to 16:37
17:26 to 16:53
17:27 to 18:12
18:07 to 18:14
18:28 to 18:25
Last Year to This Year Places:
3 to 2
15 to 5
16 to 44
45 to 45
60 to 49
Three of our top five boys had faster times than our boys posted last year; additionally. four of our top five boys placed better or equal to last year's placing; finally, 139 points got us third last year - our 145 points this year would have done the same. Simply put, the competition was stiff in the middle of the pack this year.
Race Starts Slow....but Finishes Strong for Shorewood Pack
Jockeying for position was a struggle for our top Shorewood runners early on as the traditional finesse to the left of the oak tree was cutoff by enthusiastic fans (rumor has it that our runners counseled the fans with some choice words) .... and their perhaps-misguided-notion that they should take out their first mile at a slow 5:40+ pace. Ben and Peter more than made up the difference in the second mile with a split of at or below 5:00. The two kept their momentum during the last leg but by then the Warren runner (an IL state qualifier in the 800M) cranked it up and there was no catching him. Our "twin towers" came in a very respectable 2nd and 5th overall. Just think what they could have done had they listened to coach on that first mile!
A Commitment to Improve.
Importantly, our boys are committed. As Brendan said, "we will all be under 18 minutes", refering to the 3rd-5th runners - plus Joe, Sam and some of the other boys as they improve. That's the kind of dedication this team has this year. We're going to see some heroic runs by our boys this year, you can count on that.

Speaking of heroic, the boys had a ton of PRs - both course and overall. Here is my best efforts to capture some of them:

Boys Varsity:
Nat Froiland - Course PR at 20:18 compared to 23:35 last year (wow!);
Oliver Heywood - Course PR at 20:17;
Keith Dodd - Overall PR at 19:50;
Brendan Vorphal - Course PR at 18:25 compared to 19:40 last year; believe it is a overall PR;
John Taylor - Course PR at 18:14;
Aidan Mazur - Course PR at 18:12 compared to 19:47 last year;
Peter Drews - Course PR at 16:53 compared to 17:26 last year;
Ben Tyler - Course PR at 16:37 compared to 17:27 last year;
Boys JV:
Colin Brusnahan - Course PR at 24:56 compared to 26:13 last year;
Ian Phillips - Course PR at 22:28 compared to 24:02 last year;
Devin Hollings - Course PR at 22:08 compared to 24:42 last year;
Gavin Schraeder - Course PR at 19:35 compared to 19:38 last year;

The Girls...
The New Team Motto (apparently found on the inside of a dove wrapper) adorning their green warm up t-shirts says “When two hearts race, both win!” Sophomore Emily Bachhuber took 5th place with a time of 15min 30 seconds. “It was the toughest course I’ve ever ran- lots of hills”. Claire Medusa has the course record of 14 min and 21 seconds. Jenny Vrobel ran a great race and had a PR of 16:47 compared to last year's time of 17:55.

On the JV team, Elana Lubka, a junior at SHS who returned to the team after sitting out her sophomore year ran a personal best and was top JV runner for SHS. Rachael Berg, a new freshman runner was the next fastest. The Iron Woman award goes to freshman runner, Maddie Reed, who battled through painful blisters on both her feet. “I’m buying new running shoes this weekend!”
Other Course PRs:

Girls Varsity:
Morgan Baker - Course PR of 16:51 compared to 17:20 last year;
Nora Waters - Course PR of 17:49 compared to 17:51 last year;
Laura Schroeder - Course PR of 18:01 compared to 18:04 last year;
Jenny Hilliard - Course PR of 19:56 compared to 21:39 last year;














We've Got Pictures!
Click on the following link for a quick look at some pictures from the Rebel Invite. More to follow. http://picasaweb.google.com/dontyler22/RebelInvitePictures#
And Results.....
Also, here are the results from meet....
http://wisconsinrunner.com/results/2008rebel_invite/index.htm