WISCONSIN RAPIDS – For years during the John Hoch era, Lancaster High School was known for their accolades on the football field, making 11 state finals appearances and winning seven state championships during his illustrious 39-year coaching career.

Just putting the wraps on his 15th season as head coach of the LHS cross country program, Taylor Reynolds is also putting hardware in the school’s trophy cabinet and making the state take notice of another successful fall sports program in town.

With a team score of 92, the girls cross country team at Lancaster High School finished first at last Saturday’s WIAA Division 3 State Championship held at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.

With coach Reynolds at the helm, Lancaster has had a girls cross country team compete at state eight of the last nine seasons, and have now brought home three state titles and one runner-up trophy.

This year’s Lancaster team dominated at state, finishing a whopping 46 points ahead of second-place Phillips and Darlington, who each had a team score of 138.

“I was super surprised,” said coach Reynolds of the point differential. “If someone would have bet me my entire life savings, my bank accounts, my house, everything, and said that we would win by 46 points, I would have said there’s no way, the field is way too good. Even if someone had said we would win by 25, or even half that, I would have thought that would not be possible.”

“I actually went into the week telling the girls I predicted that 10 points would separate first through fifth,” Reynolds added. “To win by 46 points, I was completely blown away and could not believe it. I’m still a little bit in shock that we won by that margin, it was unreal.”

Having been to the state meet so many times, coach Reynolds and his assistants were no strangers to the proceedings, and had a game plan that worked to near perfection.

“They just threw down the greatest race of their lives,” coach Reynolds said of his squad. “It was probably the best executed race plan that I’ve ever seen. It never goes perfectly as planned, but that was about as perfect as it gets.”

The emphasis on Saturday was to get out fast, even faster than they had at any other race this season.

In the middle portion of the 3.1-mile race, the Lancaster ladies have been  known for holding their position and not letting anyone pass.

And in the last third of the race, the emphasis is on attacking the final stretch and leaving it all out on the course.

After the first mile of Saturday’s race, Lancaster was sitting at 104 points, with Darlington and Phillips at 127 and 128. After the second mile the Arrows were at 99, with Darlington and Phillips both at 138.

In the final mile, the Lancaster ladies dropped seven spots to 92, while Darlington and Phillips each remained at 138.

“I think that toughness in the last mile is because they were motivated to reach their goal and they were not afraid to hurt to get it,” Reynolds said. “They weren’t afraid to push through the pain.”

“I was really, really proud, because we got out fast, and then we dropped five points in the middle mile and then we dropped another seven on the hardest mile. That kind of showed just how bad they wanted it and how hard they were willing to fight to make sure that they were the state champs,” Reynolds added.

Leading the charge for Lancaster on Saturday was senior Mallory Olmstead, who finished 18th of 152 competitors with a sub 20-minute time of 19:56.7. It was her fourth appearance at the state meet, her second team state championship and the icing on an already pretty amazing career.

“She has been our number one runner for the last four years,” Reynolds said of Olmstead. “She’s a leader in summer running, she’s a leader in the logistics of stretches, cool downs, warm ups, timing, and then she’s a leader by her attitude. There’s no replacing someone like Mallory Olmstead. She’s meant everything to our program over the last four years. I’m really, really sad to see her go, and extremely proud of the way she went out. She dialed it up come championship time.”

Next to cross the finish line for Lancaster was sophomore Kylie Olmstead, who with a time of 20:11.2 placed 24th overall. She was followed by freshman Katie Murphy in 39th (20:40.2), sophomore Sara McWilliams in 42nd (20:42.8) and junior Carley Vesperman in 76th (21:25.1). Rounding out Lancaster’s top seven were freshman Brielle Schmitz in 90th (21:59.0) and junior Macie Galle in 113th (22:48.8).

The importance of all five finishers for Lancaster can not be overlooked, as their efforts and places were all so vital in their team’s success.

McWilliams, who was sitting in 52nd place after the first mile, caught four runners in the middle mile and another six in the last.

Carly Vesperman also passed 10 runners from the first mile to the last, all of which accounted for Lancaster’s dominating performance last Saturday.

“Overall, the majority of our team is underclassmen, so the fact that they are a young team and are willing to push that hard, they’re a motivated crew,” Reynolds said. “I think the belief grew, the motivation grew and the willingness to do whatever it took was also growing. All three of those things were growing, and you could tell they were ready to go.”

Losing just one senior from this year’s team, and a new crop of middle school athletes coming in next season, the future looks very bright for the Flying Arrows.

“It does look super bright, and I’m super excited to see what the future holds, because we have our returning runners that I don’t foresee slowing down, and we’ll bring on a lot of eighth graders who have a lot of promise too,” said Reynolds. “I’m already excited for next season.”

It’s no secret with eight state appearances in the past nine years, that the Lancaster girls cross country program has something amazing going for them. The secret to how they got to this points is a combination of many things though.

“I have a lot of belief and confidence in our training system, which is rooted in proven exercise science, it’s not just me making stuff up,” Reynolds explained.

“But I think more importantly, as we built the program up to the level of excellent, as we bring in new runners each year they get to witness excellence. They basically get to shadow excellence and so they just basically carry it on,” he added.

“The kids before them have gotten it done and they know what it takes, and so they pass that down to each freshman class that comes in. They basically, teach them, show them and lead by example,” Reynolds said.

Since their first day of summer running back on June 13, members of the cross country program have 140 days invested into this year’s state championship, a dedication and willingness to work that hasn’t gone unnoticed by coach Reynolds.

“You don’t usually sign up for cross country if you’re lazy or if you have a poor work ethic,” Reynolds said. “These kids are hard workers and they are kids of great character too.

Reflecting back on the three state titles in 2018, 2020 and now 2023, coach Reynolds is reminded of a quote from John Wooden that says, “Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.”

He also thinks back to the program’s first state title in 2018 when he and his assistant coaches wondered if the excitement of winning another state title could possibly match that of the first.

“It sure doesn’t get old, that’s for sure,” Reynolds said after this year’s championship. “Honestly, it’s no different. There’s just nothing better, it’s just as fun and rewarding as the first one, the second one or the third one.”