LANCASTER — Through hard work and self discipline, along with the leadership of one of the state’s most acclaimed coaches, the girls cross country program at Lancaster High School has had a string of success that few teams in the state have, or ever will, experience.

Under coach Taylor Reynolds’ tutelage, Lancaster has sent a girls team to the Division 3 Cross Country State Championships eight times in the last nine seasons, where they have won division 3 state titles in 2018, 2020 and 2023, with a runner-up finish in 2017.

As you might expect, Lancaster’s success did not come about without countless hours of training and self-discipline. Many hot summer mornings were spent running the streets on their own in preparation for the upcoming season. Struggles through injuries were overcome during many rain-soaked meets, and the willingness to push their bodies to the point of exhaustion was met with fierce determination time and time again.

It’s those life lessons that coach Reynolds believes in so strongly, and instills in his young athletes, assuring them that if they put in the hard work, and are dedicated to being the best they can be, they will be rewarded.

But, with the recently enacted Competitive Balance Initiative approved by 265 school districts throughout the state, and adopted by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA), that same hard work and dedication now appears to come with a price.

Because Lancaster has had a girls cross country team advance to the division 3 state meet the last three seasons, and won a state title last October, the recently enacted Competitive Balance Initiative states that they must now be “promoted” to division 2 for the upcoming 2024 postseason tournament.

That’s right, Lancaster, who has a student enrollment of 318, will be in the same sectional this fall as Mount Horeb, who has a student enrollment of 782, as well as McFarland at 742, Monroe at 715 and Edgewood at 619.

But, make no mistake about it, while coach Taylor Reynolds is in no way supportive of the Competitive Balance Initiative that is punishing his program for its recent success, the goals for the upcoming season have not changed.

“The frustration is just going to be a little gas on our fire and we’re not going to let it get in our way,” explained coach Reynolds of his team’s promotion to division 2. “We’re going to work hard and tear it up in D2.”

Before we get ahead of ourselves though, let’s take a look at how we got to this point and exactly what has lead to Lancaster’s “promotion.”

The birth of the Competitive Balance Initiative

It’s no secret that grumblings have been made over the years, specifically concerning private schools, who some feel have an unfair advantage when it comes to WIAA tournament appearances and the divisions those schools compete in.

For that reason, a 24-member Competitive Balance Ad Hoc Committee was created nearly three years ago in August 2021 by the WIAA Board of Control, to address the growing concerns of competitive imbalance within the tournament series and to develop a plan that will help alleviate those concerns.

The committee consists of District Administrators, Superintendents, Principals and Athletic Directors, from public, private, small, medium and large schools throughout the state, giving the committee a diverse representation of the WIAA’s membership.

What the committee came up with was a Competitive Balance Initiative, which was voted on by 380 school representatives at the WIAA’s annual meeting on April 26, 2023.

Of the 380 member schools present, 265 voted in favor of the plan, with 115 voting against it. Passing by a margin of two-to-one, the WIAA Board of Control approved the plan, putting it into effect for the 2024-25 school year.

“People can say whatever they want to say, but there are just two main reasons why this thing got passed,” said coach Reynolds of the Competitive Balance Initiative.

“Basically, a committee came to the WIAA wanting a multiplier of enrollment for private schools, primarily to address the private schools that are overwhelmingly winning or going to state each year,” Reynolds explains. “The WIAA would not enforce the multiplier, while other states have done or still do, so they came back with this competitive balance thing, but I think little consideration was given to the negative impact it would have on hard-working and dedicated programs like ours, or on a small rural school with no open-enrolled athletes. We’re not making any unfair super teams.”

“I think the second reason it passed was that I’m really concerned that schools selfishly voted for what was in their best interest and not for what was most fair for the sport as a whole,” Reynolds added. “It was their opportunity to get their team in the playoffs for the first time in a long time, or go further in the tournament, instead of asking athletes to be more dedicated.”

“One of the quotes I read from Tim Flood (Green Bay schools athletic director and member of the sports advisory committee), and I don’t know if it’s accurate or not, but one of the quotes I saw was like, ‘If the same teams are winning sections each year, then it’s time for other teams in those sectionals to go to state,’” Reynolds explained.

“I don’t agree with that. I think it’s time for those teams to work as hard as we do or put a better system in place,” Reynolds said. “The WIAA and the schools who supported competitive balance essentially O.K.’d penalizing the hard work and dedicated kids instead of the kids who are less dedicated. They have the same opportunity. It’s really not right.”

How does the plan work?

In essence, the plan awards points to programs who have reached a certain level in the WIAA tournament season, and is applied on a sport-by-sport basis, with the exception of track and field and swimming and diving, which will continue to use enrollment for divisional placement.

Programs that have accumulated at least six tournament performance factor points in a three-year span, will be promoted to the next highest division.

In the case for cross country, one point is given to teams that qualify for the state meet; two points to teams that win a sectional title or place third and fourth at the state meet, three points to the state runner-up team and four points to the state championship team.

The points earned by a program are those assigned to the highest level of tournament success, not a cumulative total of points. For example, a team does not receive two points for being sectional champions and four points for being state champions in the same season, they simply would receive the maximum points of four for their highest level of tournament success, not six.

The Lancaster girls, who qualified for the state meet in 2021 and 2022 received one performance point for each of those two years, and then received four points for their state championship in 2023, giving them six points in a span of three consecutive seasons. 

Because they have accumulated six performance points in a three-year span, the Competitive Balance Initiative indicates the Lancaster girls cross country team must be moved up to division 2 for the 2024 season.

In fact, it was nearly a week after winning the Division 3 state title, that coach Reynolds was notified by Lancaster Activities Director Brett Rollins that his Flying Arrows would be bumped up to division 2 the following season.

“I had kind of a sick feeling in by stomach,” coach Reynolds said after receiving the news of their promotion. “We were still on cloud nine, and I feel like it took some wind out of my sail.”

“I feel like we should have a right to defend our state championship. We should have a right to win back-to-back state championships. The kids have earned that, and to take it away from them is wrong, it’s just wrong in my opinion,” Reynolds added.

Schools have a chance to appeal

Built into the Competitive Balance Initiative was a process in which those programs being promoted, could appeal to the committee in an effort to remain in the division their enrollment indicates.

According to the WIAA’s explanation of the appeals process, a number of factors would be taken into account as to whether or not a schools promotion was justified.

Those factors include:

* Prior year of out-of-building student percentage on rosters or historical movement of student athletes

* The socioeconomics and demographics of the school’s population

* Competitive history and balance.

* Geography

* The school’s enrollment trends

* Student participation rate in WIAA sponsored activities and other student enrollment factors such as open enrollment, and students from outside the school’s location.

Taking all of the above mentioned factors into consideration, those at Lancaster High School initially thought they would have a solid case to remain in division 3, but quickly learned that wasn’t going to be the case.

The information coach Reynolds was hearing from other administrators and people from around the state was to not worry about it and that they should win an appeal.

Then he said things changed, where people were getting tight-lipped and not so sure, which obviously made him nervous.

Even still, Reynolds, along with activities director Brett Rollins and District Administrator Rob Wagner, put together a written appeal addressing all of the above mentioned criteria for the girls cross country program.

“We put hours and hours and hours into it, included data and all this other stuff, and I feel like it was looked at for a few minutes and denied,” Reynolds explained. “To me it was a waste of time. I question even if it got read.”

In fact, for the fall sports season alone, 60 programs from throughout the state are being promoted, including the Boscobel girls cross country team, the Dodgeville/Mineral Point girls cross country team and the Darlington football team.

Of those 60 fall sports programs being promoted, 24 appeals were submitted, only one of which the classification committee approved. 

Since then, 37 programs from the winter sports season have been promoted, with 12 appeals being submitted, and one being approved. For the spring sports season, there are 37 programs being promoted with 10 schools submitting appeals, and again one being accepted.

Among the number of programs being promoted were those already competing in division 1, whom the Competitive Balance Initiative does not affect because there is no higher division for them to be promoted to.

For cross country specifically, a promotion from one division to the next is a considerably higher jump compared to football that has seven divisions or basketball with five.

Even still, with the Lancaster girls cross country team doing things the right way by not building a super team with open enrollment or pulling from a large inner-city population, one would have thought an appeal was a slam dunk.

“This competitive balance is supposed to address teams that have unfair competitive advantages, and I’ve asked the WIAA and the appeals committee, what unfair advantage does Lancaster have? I’ve just never received any real answer,” said Reynolds.

“It’s basically straight up, it doesn’t matter if you’re all homegrown kids, if you win, you’re receiving a penalty for it,” Reynolds added. “We have not had an open-enrolled athlete or transfer student who had joined the girls cross country team in the last 15 years. All of our student-athletes have been in school at Lancaster their entire lives.”

LHS activities director Brett Rollins was equally as disappointed in the denial of their appeal.

“We have 14 girls in our cross country program and we just happen to have some good kids right now. We’re in rural Wisconsin. There isn’t one kid who ran on our team that didn’t go to kindergarten here,” Reynolds explained.

“It’s not on the WIAA. People should not be hammering on the WIAA. It’s the schools that voted this in, like two-to-one, it wasn’t even close,” added Reynolds.

Also moving up to division 2 from division 3 is the Boscobel girls cross country program, while the Dodgeville/Mineral Point girls cross country team moves from division 2 to division 1.

The Bulldogs earned four points from their D3 state title in 2021, and two more points from their sectional title in 2022. Despite receiving no points last year, Boscobel technically still accumulated six points in a span of three consecutive seasons, and therefor is being moved up a division this fall.

Only one runner, Nora Jillson, returns this season for the Bulldogs from their 2021 state championship team.

“Now they have new athletes paying the penalty for people who had success. It needs to go away,” said Reynolds.

The Dodgeville/Mineral Point girls won a D2 state title in 2021 and was state runner-up in 2022. Last season they qualified for state again and finished fourth, giving them eight points in the past three-year cycle.

“I feel bad for Dodgeville/Mineral Point too, because they move up to D1, and the repeat D1 state champions don’t have to do anything,” said coach Reynolds. “Division 2 and 3 are treated differently than D1.”

Going about their business

Right, wrong or indifferent, the Lancaster girls cross country team will be competing at the D2 Deerfield/Cambridge Sectional on Friday, Oct. 25, while the Lancaster boys will be at the D3 Prairie du Chien Sectional on the following Saturday.

Moving up a division has it’s challenges, especially for a small rural school like Lancaster.

“We might have 14 girls out for cross country, and Mt. Horeb and McFarland might inherit 14 freshmen to go with their 35 or 40 other kids,” explained Reynolds. “That’s a big jump there.”

That doesn’t mean that coach Reynolds and his team of talented runners are going to throw in the towel though. In fact, he still likes his team’s chances of not only competing at a high level at the sectional meet, but at the state meet as well.

“As far as being moved to division 2, our goals for the season will not change or be altered in any way,” said coach Reynolds. “Honestly, because we’re going from D3 to D2, and the highest quality D2 teams are now going to D1, actually our landscape come tournament time could look very similar.”

“I want to reassure our athletes that we’ll be just fine,” Reynolds added. “Let’s work hard and we can get this done. I’ve ran the data, and it looks like we’ll be a top team coming in, like in the top two or three.”

“I don’t agree with it, but yet we’ll be just fine. We’re going to work hard and we’re going to try to pursue another trophy this season, and I don’t want anyone to be discouraged in any way, shape or form,” explained Reynolds.

“With six or seven varsity runners returning and some very talented eighth graders coming up and joining the team, even if it is a little tougher, our team will be a little tougher this year too,” Reynolds added. “We’re still full steam ahead on getting to state and getting a trophy.”

One last thing to ponder

During my extensive talk with coach Taylor Reynolds about the Competitive Balance Initiative, he made one particular point that I personally took notice of.

You see, hanging in my office bulletin board for years has been a piece of paper with one of my favorite motivational sayings on it. It reads, “You don’t get what you wish for; you get what you work for.”

I bring this up because coach Reynolds obviously feels the same way, and instills that same message into his cross country athletes at Lancaster High School. Their hard work and dedication over the years has produced multiple state championships and the satisfaction of their well-deserved reward.

Yet here they are, being penalized for their hard work, while other less dedicated programs from around the state are getting their wish for an easier path to undeserved success.

“We’re told that if you work hard and do things that other people are not willing to do, that you’ll be able to achieve things that other student-athletes are not able to achieve,” coach Reynolds said. “I do feel that the girls are being penalized for working hard, being dedicated and for achieving success. It seems very backwards to American values and counterproductive to what we’re trying to teach.”