Derek Franz, Derek Cruz, Brad Luetschwager, Sam Sheibley, Isaiah George and Tyler Tanko of the SPASH boys cross country team look on as the final team scores appear on a nearby scoreboard, moments before they learned they won the WIAA Division 1 State Title at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids Nov. 2, 2013. (John Kemmeter photo)

This story is a reprint from the Nov. 8, 2013, edition of The Portage County Gazette.

Portage County Gazette

By John Kemmeter

Despite having its top runner out of the lineup, the Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) boys cross country team was still able to bring home the WIAA Division 1 State Title.

With senior Sam Anderson out due to an injury, the top-ranked Panthers finished with 83 points to win the State Championship over second-ranked and defending State Champion Madison West (124) and 12th-ranked Eau Claire Memorial (126) at the WIAA Division 1 State Meet at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids Saturday, Nov. 2.

The State Title was the 10th in school history for SPASH, and its first since 2008.

“It feels great,” said junior Derek Cruz. “I came into this season thinking maybe we had a shot, and then it really kind of went away when we found out that Sam Anderson was hurt.

“And we just really pulled together,” said Cruz. “Everybody stepped up and did their part.”

“It’s an incredible story,” said 37th-year SPASH boys cross country coach Donn Behnke. “I told these guys last week, they ‘can’t win a State Meet, because we don’t have the track times, we don’t have the credentials and we lost Sam Anderson, the No. 6 returner in the state.

“‘How are we going to win a State Meet?’” said Behnke. “‘It just doesn’t add up.’”

After spending almost all of last season as the top-ranked team in the state, the Panthers went on to finish third at last year’s State Meet, despite putting together the seventh fastest average time in course history.

“Two years ago I ran and we got seventh, and we knew that we were a year or two away from really developing and getting up close to the podium,” said junior Evan Hatton. “And last year we were disappointed, going in ranked No. 1.

“That really put a chip on our shoulder this year to come out here and really take it,” said Hatton.

SPASH returned five of its top six runners from last year and entered this season as the third-ranked team in the state, before it moved to the top of the state rankings in the fifth week of the season.

The Panthers went on to claim their 26th consecutive Wisconsin Valley Conference Title and won the SPASH Sectional Oct. 26 to advance to state for the 35th time in the last 37 years.

However, Anderson suffered a leg injury at the Smiley Invitational Sept. 21, and it was determined in the week leading up to Sectionals that he would be shut down for the rest of the season.

“Our motto going into the State Meet was ‘next man up,’ and we knew that we were going to have to fight through it,” said senior Sam Sheibley. “But he was in our hearts the whole time, and we knew that we were running partly for him, because he deserves to be there, and he just had an unlucky break.

“But I think he was still with us during the race,” said Sheibley.

At the State Meet, senior Isaiah George was at the back of the lead pack at the one-mile mark in about 30th place, with Sheibley, Cruz and Hatton right behind at the start of the second group.

By the time the runners hit the two-mile mark, Cruz had moved into the Top 10, with Hatton in the Top 20 and Sheibley, George and junior Tyler Tanko following behind in the next several groups.

After the first pack of runners emerged down the final stretch toward the finish line, Hatton was at the front of the next group, as he finished 12th overall to lead the Panthers with a time of 16:16.82.

“I went out a little slower than I wanted to, the whole team kind of did, but we moved ahead in the second and third mile, which is what we needed to do,” said Hatton, whose older brother, Nate, was the top finisher on SPASH’s 2008 State Championship team. “But I felt good.”

“Evan got out a little bit slow, but he made a great, great charge late, which is his strength,” said Behnke.

Cruz was close behind in 15th with a time of 16:20.91, while Sheibley came in next in 24th at 16:26.83.

“Derek was in sixth place at two-and-a-quarter, and then he couldn’t hold that,” said Behnke. “He dropped a lot of places late, but he held on for everything he was worth. That was a tremendous race by him, and in the last three weeks he had become the runner I always thought that he could be.

“And Sheibley has been a rock for us all season,” said Behnke. “He anchored our team.”

George finished 37th in 16:39.44 and junior Tyler Tanko was 56th in 16:52.06 to close out the scoring for SPASH, as each team’s first five runners count toward the team’s score, while senior Brad Luetschwager was 111th in 17:22.05 and freshman Derek Franz took 125th in 17:25.08.

“Isaiah went through an abdominal infection, I thought his season was over, and he fought his way back from that,” said Behnke. “I don’t know that I’ve had anybody mentally tougher than him.

“Tyler had a very severe injury the first couple of weeks of the season, missed some training time, fought his way back and he’s made himself into a really quality runner,” said Behnke. “Bradley’s just worked so hard to make himself into a real runner, and D-Franz had a tremendous season for a freshman.”

At the finish line it was hard to tell if the Panthers had done enough to win the State Title, as Eau Claire Memorial had its first three runners come in ahead of the first three runners from SPASH, while the Panthers had their Top 5 runners finish before the fourth runners from either Memorial or Madison West.

Following the race, SPASH waited around with the rest of the teams in the fenced-off, post-race staging area for several minutes, before the final team results started to appear on the nearby scoreboard, counting down team by team from 20th place to first.

And when Madison West appeared in second place with 124 points, the SPASH runners erupted, and began to celebrate as their team name followed in first place with 83 points.

“It was just pure elation,” said Sheibley. “Everyone was so excited, there were hugs going all over the place, and it was just great.”

“That was the greatest feeling in my life,” said Cruz. “Everybody screaming, jumping up and down.

“It was perfect,” said Cruz.

The Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) boys cross country team won the State Title at the WIAA Division 1 State Meet at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids Saturday, Nov. 2. Team members include, from left: Coach Kevin Hopp, Sam Anderson, Tyler Tanko, Isaiah George, Derek Franz, Evan Hatton, coach Donn Behnke, Sam Sheibley, Brad Luetschwager, Derek Cruz and assistant coach John Ceplina. (John Kemmeter photo)

And after winning each of the 10 meets they competed in this fall heading into Saturday, the Panthers were able to cap their perfect season with a State Title.

“I got very discouraged when Sam (Anderson) was out of the lineup, and then we lost Isaiah to the abdominal infection, and I thought basically, ‘well, our chance of winning a State Title probably went down the drain,’” said Behnke. “But those guys, they just never thought that way.

“They just kept hammering away at the workouts and kept believing, and did some good things here in the last three weeks,” said Behnke. “I’m just so happy that I’ve been able to work with these guys.”

“Everyone knew that we had come up short the past two years, and there was just something different about this year,” said Sheibley. “We just had a sort of energy, and we had a sort of team bond this year that just wasn’t quite there last year.

“We just knew that we believed in ourselves and we believed in our team,” he said.