GOALS REMAIN HIGH
Badger cross country will begin season Aug. 27
Badger Boys Cross Country team leaders, Anderson Greenberg, Sam Reed, Mason Scheel, and Coach Jacob Kiefer.
LEFT: Mason Scheel is expected to return for another season on the Badger Cross Country team.
ABOVE: Sam Reed will be another key returning runner for the Badger Boys Cross Country team this season.
The Badger Boys Cross Country team will soon be back on the course and once again looking to win another Southern Lakes Conference title.
Head coach Jacob Kiefer is excited to get the season started.
"I'm thrilled with the group we have coming in," Kiefer said. "We're chasing our eighth straight Southern Lakes Conference championship, and to have that streak alive is just such a phenomenal thing to put as one of our major team goals for the year."
Team leaders include Anderson Greenberg, Sam Reed, and Mason Scheel all said they are excited to start the season and make some great times this year.
Greenberg made it to State Championships last season while Reed and Scheel made it to Sectionals, with their goal this season on a team state run.
"I just want the boys to be able to look in the mirror at the end of the season and be like, I gave my best effort," Kiefer said. "I left it all out there and hope that they had the most enjoyable time possible while at the same time pushing themselves physically as much as they can."
Several other returning athletes to keep an eye on this season are sophomores Quinn Vander Weit, Grant Stricker, Colton Lindberg, Caden Bernales, junior Hunter Smotherman, and senior Caden West.
"Quinn was in the top five of our alltime freshman list and in Badger cross country history," Coach Kiefer said. "So to have him hopefully making that next step sophomore year, he's been getting his runs in the summer, and he'll just be able to continue to grow."
Kiefer said he was really happy with the summer improvements Hunter Smotherman has had, including logging three 40-mile weeks and was on pace for at least one more before the season officially starts.
"There's plenty of names that I'm missing, but I think what's so special about our team is that we do everything together, we enjoy our successes together, make it through the difficulties together," Kiefer said.
"And when we have won our conference previously, we always get a team shirt, and we don't just put the varsity guys on there. We have every single team member, and the reason for that is everyone contributes to that title."
Several meets are circled on the team calendar as important to the team, but the two they are looking forward to the most are the Janesville meet that brings great energy, and then of course, the conference meet, Kiefer said.
The Badger boys Cross Country team schedule is: 8/27 at Badger 9/5 at UW Parkside 9/10 at Hales Corner Park *9/15 at Fox River Park 9/26 at Blackhawk Golf Course 10/8 at Fox River Park *10/15 at Leeson Park Asterisk marks a conference meet.
