Sippy and bloomquist lead cross country team to state success
november 2 by gabby petruzzello and kayla dawkins
Silence.
Everyone is waiting and ready. 10-9-8- 7-6-5.
The gun goes off and the race begins.
Now, the real challenge begins.
The girls cross country team and Brian Bloomquist qualifed for the WIAA State Championship on Saturday, October 28.
At the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids, Sippy claimed a state title with a time of 18:01.56, over 4 seconds ahead of #2, Kate Sperka from Muskego.
When asked about her feelings on winning the state meet, Sippy said, “It still feels like a dream to me, but I can finally say that I completed a goal I have been working 4 years for, so I have to say it’s the best feeling I’ve ever felt.”
The Girls team finished 4th with 177 points, 3 points behind Onalaska who had 174 points.
Bloomquist finished 22nd in his race with a time of 16:28.82.
Bloomquist was the second underclassman and the first freshman.
His time qualifies him as the fastest 5K freshman at Craig.
“If you don’t like our sport, and one with a bench in it. Running is a mental sport, and we’re all insane. No half times. No time-outs. No breaks. From start to finish...we run cross country.” -Unknown
The Craig cross country team has been improving throughout the season. The girls varsity is ranked in the state but the boys varsity also has the potential to go to state. All of the athletes work very hard to improve as an individual as well as a team.
“The amount of work cross country [teams] have to put in is really inspiring. They’re running 6 days a week. The Varsity kids are usually running 40 miles plus a week..as well as many kids are coming in in the mornings at 6 a.m. to swim,” said Coach Miles
The Girls Varsity received 2nd place at the Big 8 Conference Meet with Peyton Sippy in 1st, followed by 8th, 13th, 14th, 16th, 18th and 20th places for the rest of the girls Varsity. The Craig Varsity Boys were 5th with Aaron Leverson in 13th, followed by 20th, 26th, 36th, 44th, and 46th place. Some of the top JV boys performances include Daniel Thompson (17:55) in 20th and Coley Riley in 41st with a time of 18:42. Some of the top JV girls performances include Cambria Thompson (20:49) in 5th and Zoe Williams in 8th with a time of 21:09.
“Everybody matters on team, you can’t just solely focus on 5, 6, 7 kids...Everyone pushes each other to get better,” said Coach Mrs. Lawton.
Recently, the Cougars ran the Sun Prairie Invitational. This meet was mainly run by Craig’s JV athletes with a few of Craig’s Varsity athletes. The girls team won 2nd place with Gabby Petruzzello
in 2nd place with a time of 20:19. Notably, Cambria Thompson finished in 7th place. Some of the other runners finished in 12th, 13th, and 15th place. The boys team also placed 2nd with Zander Arena finishing 3rd with a time of 17:25. Other runners placed 4th, 7th, and 14th. Teamwork helped to motivate all of the runners to perform really well.
Coach Mrs. Lawton stated, “This team has been really strong emotionally sup- porting each other both the boys and the girls,” and “I really enjoy watching friendships grow”
“The amount of time that they’re spending preparing, even focusing on how they eat and how they hydrate has been really impressive this season and part of the reason why we’ve been as good as we’ve been,” said Coach Miles.