Tigers cross country undergoing youth movement

MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield High School cross country teams have a number of returning student-athletes from a year ago, and most are underclassmen.

“Well, the girls, we have Natalie Scharenbroch and Adeline Lonsdale, and those two were both first team all-conference (last season). They both qualified for the state track meet in the 3,200-meter relay. We have junior Natalie Schmitt, senior Kassidy Christopher, senior Miriam McKee, sophomores Logan Boon and Madison Bauer. We have (freshman) Leeann Luedtke. And we have some nice young kids coming up as well, and some new kids that came out for the team,” Head Coach Dan Akin recently told Gene DeLisio, WDLB/WOSQ.

“The boys are solid,” added Akin. “We lost Owen (Hoerneman) of course. He was our all-conference second team runner and our state qualifier two years ago. But we have Marshall Neve and he had a terrific track season. He’s only a sophomore. Lincoln Berger had a great track season and a good junior year.

He’s our lone senior on varsity. Paxton Tippen, Alex Parker, Roman Drach, Connor Reisner, and some young boys to compliment them as well. We have three freshmen, (including) Chris Berg, Liam Hoerneman. And we have Dom Blanchard, too. We have a number of kids that are going to help us out in that regard.”

Akin says the cross country numbers are back up this year.

“I’m really pleased with the numbers we have,” he said. “Fifty-six kids out and we have thirty girls and twenty-six boys. Our numbers a few years ago were real low. I give a lot of credit to the middle school program. BJ Beathard and Preston Tippen have made it fun for kids to go out for cross country. They work hard, they have a lot of fun and we’ve seen those numbers improve, and a lot of that credit should go to those two guys,” said Akin.

As for expectations coming into the season, Akin said that really depends on each individual runner.

“We give the kids a running plan and the new kids have a little bit different plan than the veteran kids. Basically, everybody has their own plan. Some kids we want running just about 25 miles a week. A lot of it depends on their age. If they’re a junior or senior, they might be able to handle some more miles than a freshman or sophomore. So, the plans are real individual and tailored for each student-athlete and based on everybody’s abilities,” Akin explained. “Hopefully, the plans change and get a little tougher each year, but we do give them a road map for the 10-week summer. (They get) a little bit of rest after track if they were in track or soccer and then our training plan starts.

“We were able to see the kids a few times in the summer and they’ve been working hard, and they did most of that – like 95% of that – on their own. I guess that’s the great thing about cross country is that you can just put on a pair of shoes, head out the door and get a run in, all on your own for the most part,” Akin added.

Akin likes his team’s chances coming off a solid season a year ago.

“The boys were third in the conference, losing to a solid DC Everest team and you know how Stevens Point is so solid every year. They were state champions again last year. The girls took second to Stevens Point.

“We moved Sectionals this year. We’re back to Standing Rocks (County Park) hosted by (Stevens) Point. All the (Wisconsin) Valley schools are going to be together, plus Neenah, Menasha, Hortonville, Sparta and Tomah. Both the Menomonie Sectional and the Stevens Point Sectional are tough sectionals.

They have some outstanding teams. And Standing Rocks, just like Menomonie, is a tough course. It’s a lot like the state meet course (the Ridges, Wisconsin Rapids, Nov. 1) a week later.

“The kids want to work hard. We’re trying to do a hill workout at least once a week. These kids are determined. They have their goals in sight and they’re working really hard to try to achieve them.”

To help his runners achieve their goals, Akin and his assistants nurture younger athletes with programs designed to help them develop and maintain their skills.

“We have a number of different workouts and everybody does something a little bit different based on what kind of shape they’re in. The kids that didn’t do any running this summer, we do something called ‘Circuits’ the first month of the season, where we break their running bouts into short bouts, do some exercises, then in a couple weeks they’ll be able to run a consistent distance, so we have about four different workouts every day, based on the needs of the kids and where they’re at. I’m just grateful for my assistants that we’re able to each take a crew and get them to where they need to be and they all get a solid workout in at the end of the day,” said Akin. “We don’t work hard two days in a row. They need recovery time. After a race, they need about 48 hours of recovery time. So, we try to throw in some hills in the first part of the season.”

At the Columbus Catholic Invitational held Aug. 30 at Wildwood Park, both Tigers teams finished in second place among the large schools, and both featured three runners placing in the top 10.

Marshfield’s Marshall Neve finished in third place in boys competition (17:00.9), while teammate Lincoln Berger took fourth (17:19.6).

Liam Hoerneman finished in seventh place (17:29.7).

On the girls’ side, Marshfield’s Natalie Scharebroch finished in sixth place (20:20.9), while teammates Natalie Schmitt (20:52.1) and Adeline Lonsdale (21:11.0) finished ninth and tenth.

The Tigers hosted the Marshfield Invitational on Sept. 9, featuring 800 high school and middle school runners from 23 schools, including Auburndale, Columbus Catholic, Granton, Greenwood, Pittsville, Spencer and Stratford.
Results were not available at press time.

Marshfield will participate in the Stratford Invitational, scheduled for Friday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. at RiverEdge Golf Course.

That meet will feature more than 40 schools, including Spencer, Pittsville, Loyal/Greenwood (Coop team), and Columbus Catholic.