SPASH boys finish as State Runner-up
Portage County Gazette
By John Kemmeter
The top-ranked Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) boys cross country team’s run for a State Title came up a little short, as it finished second at the WIAA Division 1 State Meet at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids Saturday, Nov. 2.
Second-ranked Middleton totaled 104 points to win the State Championship over SPASH (116), which brought home a State Trophy for the 19th time in 43 seasons under coach Donn Behnke.
“I feel very proud of our guys, we worked really hard this season and we put a lot of effort into this race,” said senior Christian Manthey. “We put our heart out (there) today, and even though we put our heart out, we came up a little bit short, but sometimes that’s how it goes.”
“Obviously we weren’t running for second place, and since we were the No. 1-ranked team and undefeated on the season, the goal was pretty clear,” said Behnke. “But we knew all along that Middleton was a very good team, and we knew that they’d been struggling and they’d started to run better during the last couple of weeks of the season.
“But still, we felt that if we ran a good race, we were probably the best team,” he said. “And our guys ran very, very well.”
At state, SPASH and reigning State Runner-up Middleton met for the second time this season, after the Panthers scored 36 points to beat third-ranked Madison LaFollette (46) and Middleton (59) at the Stoughton Invite Oct. 5.
On Saturday afternoon, junior Jake Bourget finished 14th overall in 16:14.5 and was ninth among runners from teams that qualified for state to lead SPASH, while senior Jake Lepak was 20th overall and 12th among runners from state-qualifying teams, as the Panthers had their first two runners come in before anyone from Middleton.
“Jake Bourget had just a terrific season, he ran 16:55 last year at state, so that was a huge improvement, but he finally got healthy,” said Behnke. “Jake Lepak had a stress fracture at the end of the summer, he got through that, and then he got a sinus infection and he was sick basically the whole second half of the season. I don’t think he ever got himself healthy, and still he was 20th overall and he still managed to run 13 seconds faster than he did last year.”
Senior Braedon Gilles (22nd overall, 13th team) was right behind for Middleton, which followed with senior Egan Johnson (35th, 21st), sophomore Griffin Ward (38th, 22nd), senior Peter Hoferle (39th, 23rd) and senior Zach Leffel (44th, 25th) to close its scoring with five runners in the Top 25 for team points.
Manthey (45th overall, 26th team) was next for SPASH, with sophomores James Jacobs (51st, 31st) and Zach Scharbarth (59th, 38th) closing the scoring for the Panthers, and senior Tristan Sernau (63rd, 39th) and junior Josh Bourget (71st, 45th) rounding out the lineup.
“Christian had just a wonderful season, he was really our most consistent guy, and there were only 11 guys in the race that ran a better last mile than he did,” said Behnke. “James ran consistently well all season, he was dealing with some injury difficulties earlier in the year, and then he ran really well the last month of the season for us.
“Zach had an injury and two weeks ago he wasn’t able to run for us at our Conference Meet, he came back and ran really well for us at our Sectional, and he had a nice race at the State Meet, but had he been healthier, he might’ve been able to run a little faster in that last mile,” he said. “Tristan had a really nice end to his career, he was the best sixth runner in the state by 27 seconds, and Josh was the best seventh runner in the state by 21 seconds, and was another kid who just gave everything he had.”
In the end, Middleton finished with 104 points to win the State Title over SPASH (116), 10th-ranked Hortonville (179) and ninth-ranked Madison West (182).
“They ran great, so you can’t take any credit away from them,” said Lepak. “They earned it.”
“We put seven guys under 17 minutes, that’s only the fourth time that’s happened in the 32-year history on that course,” said Behnke. “We knew the Middleton kids were very good, four of them had been on their State Championship team two years ago, and they were on their runner-up team last year, and they were back this year as seniors.
“And they just really pulled it together here at the end of the season,” he said.
It was the ninth State Runner-up finish for SPASH under Behnke, who has also guided the Panthers to 10 State Titles.
Behnke said that he was really fortunate to be surrounded by fellow SPASH boys cross country coaches John Ceplina and Kevin Hopp again this season, as well as the parents, booster club, alumni and fans of the program, as the Panthers won the Wisconsin Valley Conference Title for the 32nd year in a row, and advanced to state for the 14th consecutive season and the 41st time in 43 years.
“I just love this group of kids, and the fact that they were so dedicated this summer,” said Behnke. “They came to practice every day and just gave a great effort, they were so excited about the possibly of going home with a State Title.
“And that made it difficult, because I was hoping that we could send these guys off with that Gold Trophy,” he said. “But we just ran into a team that ran better on a day.”