MCDONALD'S SWNEWS4U.COM GAME OF THE WEEK (Oct. 29–Nov. 6)
WIAA CROSS COUNTRY: Division 2 Girls State Championships
By A.J. Gates, Herald Independent
A STATE TITLE STOLEN: Lancaster girls should be celebrating program's fourth D3 state title
WISCONSIN RAPIDS — Chances are, if you were a high school athlete, you’ve undoubtedly dreamt of winning a state championship and experiencing all that comes with it.
Being welcomed back home with a fire truck escort through the streets of your hometown, entering the school’s gymnasium to a standing ovation packed with friends, family and classmates, and forever having the satisfaction of knowing that gold trophy, a symbol of your hard work and determination, will forever be displayed in the school’s trophy cabinet for generations to admire.
As you read this, orders for back-to-back state championship t-shirts should already have been made, a sign should be in the works to hang with the other state championships by the high school football field, and the blue paint on a Wisconsin cutout should be drying, ready to hang in the school’s gymnasium.
And, the headline for this story should read in big bold letters “STATE CHAMPIONS.”
All of this, and much, much more, was unfairly taken from this year’s Lancaster girls cross country team last Saturday thanks to the WIAA’s Competitive Balance Initiative, which was put into affect for the first time this fall.
What the Competitive Balance Initiative essentially did, was punish the Lancaster girls cross country team for their years of success at the Division 3 level and “promoted” them to Division 2.
In essence the Competitive Balance Initiative proclaims that if a program accumulates six or more performance points in a span of three consecutive seasons, they will be “promoted” to the next highest division.
The point system in cross country is awarded as follows:
1 point - to teams who qualify for the state meet;
2 points - to teams who win a sectional title or finish third or fourth at the state meet;
3 points - to teams who finish second at state;
4 points - to the state champions.
Lancaster, who in 2021 and 2022 earned one performance point each of those years for being a state qualifier, also earned four performance points for their state title in 2023, giving them six performance points in the last three seasons.
That earned them a “promotion” up a division, where they were forced to compete against schools and teams much larger than themselves.
At last Saturday’s Sivision 2 state meet, the Lancaster ladies ran an incredible race, finishing fourth of 16 teams with 138 points, finishing 78 points behind the D2 state champs from the University School of Milwaukee and 58 points behind the state runners-up from Bloomer.
But, if you take the top five individual times from Lancaster and figure them in along with the seven other schools bumped up to Division 2, the Flying Arrows would have won their second consecutive D3 state title by nearly 20 points, and would have added the program’s fourth state trophy to the cabinet, had the Competitive Balance Initiative not been in affect.
In fact, with Lancaster’s fourth-place finish at last Saturday’s state meet, they received two more performance points, which assures them of being in Division 2 for the next two seasons.
“I’m extremely angry and extremely bitter,” said longtime Lancaster cross country coach Taylor Reynolds. “I feel that a state championship has been taken away from these girls.
“Yes, to be top four in Division 2 is a great accomplishment, but that doesn’t take away the feeling of being robbed of a state championship by any means,” Reynolds added.
Robbed of a state championship were Lancaster freshman Maddie Driscoll, who finished ninth of 152 runners with a time of 19:01.0, junior Kylie Olmstead who finished 40th (20:17.3), sophomore Katie Murphy who finished 48th (20:22.9), junior Sara McWilliams who finished 71st (20:46.9), senior Carley Vesperman who finished 82nd (21:02.4), freshman Aubrie Stader who finished 139th (23:12.6) and junior Jenna Muench who finished 143rd (23:24.6).
“Everyone performed fantastic, it was exactly what we were hoping for,” said coach Reynolds of his team’s performance.
“Hats off to Bloomer and the University School of Milwaukee, they ran really, really fast and have some good runners there,” Reynolds added. “As far as our performance, I really couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
According to Reynolds’ calculations, when comparing the average times of this year’s team to previous state championship teams from Lancaster in 2018, 2020 and 2023, this team averaged considerably better times, and is the fastest of those three pervious teams.
With that being said, it’s a true travesty to simply think of this year’s team as the fourth best team at the Division 2 state meet, but as one of, if not the best, team in school history.
“I feel bad for our freshman because they should get the experience of what it’s like to win a state championship, and I feel bad for our veterans who should be back-to-back state champions,” said Reynolds. “To punish kids for working hard and being successful is counterproductive to what we are teaching.”
According to Reynolds, and I couldn’t agree more, it’s time to make some noise and let the WIAA know how unfair the Competitive Balance Initiative is to small public schools like Lancaster, and particularly in a three-division sport like cross country.
“I said very little in the media last year because I didn’t know exactly how it would play out, and I didn’t want to rattle the confidence of any of our athletes,” explained Reynolds. “But, I think it’s time for me to speak up more about how wrong this is and how much I’m against it.”
“Behind the scenes I was fighting against the competitive balance initiative, because it’s wrong and it’s unfair, and I think people need to realize that,” he added.
Reynolds would like to see people from the community go as far as contacting WIAA cross country representative Mel Dow to express the unfair nature of the Competitive Balance Initiative.
“What also doesn’t set well with me is that when you talk about division 1, they are not treated the same as division 2 and division 3. For S.P.A.S.H from Stevens Point, their boys just won their third consecutive state championship,” Reynolds explained.
“In the meantime, if nothing changes, we will still get back to work and we will still go on the trophy hunt,” Reynolds said, knowing that with their top two finishes at this year’s D2 state meet, the University School of Milwaukee and Bloomer will be promoted to division 1 next year.
“We’ll see what the landscape looks like for next year. Again, I don’t want the girls to be discouraged. We’re still going to compete to win, but in the meantime we almost need people to contact the WIAA so that they are fully informed of what they are doing and how unfair and how wrong it is that they are doing to these student athletes.”
While the Flying Arrows will continue to work hard and finish as high as they possible can no matter the competition, he has heard talks from some coaches who would consider taking different measures.
One coach he talked to at Saturday’s state meet was considering having his runners slow down at the two-mile mark if they were out of the trophy hunt, but had a chance of finishing in the top four, just to avoid receiving two performance points.
“I already can see that coming, and already hear people thinking about it or doing it, where they are going to intentionally throw races,” said Reynolds.
“I strongly feel that this whole thing just needs to go away completely,” he added.
One might ask yourself why have separate divisions in the first place, and the answer is very simple – because it’s simply not fair for a school of 100 to compete against a school of 1,100.
The cross country season of 2024 may indicate that the girls team from Lancaster did indeed finish fourth at the division 2 state meet, but to their coach, their fans, their families and so many more, they will truly be remembered as state champions.
“They are state champs as far as I’m concerned, because they truly are,” said coach Reynolds. “I told my wife the other day that when I die put it on my tombstone, that we were state champs in 2024.”
“I couldn’t be more proud of their effort and their performance. No one complained or said a word about this whole thing the entire year, we just kept our nose to the grindstone and just worked hard,” Reynolds added. “They deserve better than this.”
WIAA Division 2 State Championships
(from Saturday, Nov. 2 @ Ridges Golf Course, Wisconsin Rapids)
(Girls, 5,000 meters)
Team Standings: 1.University School 60, 2.Bloomer 80, 3.Mount Horeb 108. 4.Lancaster 138, 5.New Berlin Eisenhower 158, 6.Little Chute 163, 8.Kiel 212, 9.Saint Croix Central 223, 9.Shorewood 237, 10.Watertown Luther Prep 237, 11.West Salem 275, 12.Berlin 290, 13.Shawno 294, 14.New Berlin West 300, 15.Tomahawk 317, 16.Prescott 349.
Top individuals: 1.Emerson Drobac (Deerfield/Cambridge) 17:38.9, 2.Ciara Hartman (Bloomer) 17:43.2, 3.Greta Peters (Altoona) 18:15.3, 4.Faith Wehrman (New Berlin Eisenhower) 18:17.2, 5.Bella Grenier (University School) 18:24.0.
Lancaster (138): 9.(6).Maddie Driscoll 19:01.0, 40.(22).Kylie Olmstead 20:17.3, 48.(25).Katie Murphy 20:22.9, 71.(38).Sara McWilliams 20:46.9, 82.(47).Carley Vesperman 21:02.4, 139.(100).Aubrie Stader 23:12.6, 143.(104).Jenna Muench 23:24.6.
