‘Jays advance to state!

Athens boys end 53-year state drought

By Casey Krautkramer

Korey Rottscheit, Athens varsity head cross country coach, has a simple message for his boy runners as Athens prepares to compete in the state championship race for the first time in just over half a century: “Just have fun, enjoy the experience and do your best.”

After just missing out on qualifying for state two years ago to Marathon, the Athens boys made sure on Saturday there would be no doubt they’d quality for team state this season. The Bluejays achieved a low score of 70 points, which is 15 points better than the sectional runners-up Red Raiders.

The top two teams at the sectional qualify for state, therefore both the Athens and Marathon boys will compete in the WIAA Division 3 state championship race at 1:10 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 30, at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids. The Bluejays took third place at their home sectional in 2019, while the Red Raiders finished as sectional runnersup to advance to state.

Coach Rottscheit was obviously excited on Saturday that his boys squad finally got over the hump by winning its home sectional title on Saturday.

“It’s awesome; it’s been 53 years, not since 1968, when the last Athens boys team made it to state so it’s definitely exciting,” he said. “We thought we could have got it maybe two years ago or maybe even three years ago. It’s super sweet to get it with these kids, to have kids ranging from freshmen to a senior, and for them to pull together at the right time and to make it is real special.”

The Athens boys cross country team competed at the state championships three straight years in 1966, 1967 and 1968. Doug Riske, among others, of Athens was a member of the last Bluejays cross country squad to compete in the state championship race.

The Athens boys had extra motivation entering Saturday’s sectional championship race, after they just missed out on winning the Marawood Conference championship by only a few points to Phillips the previous week. Bluejays junior runner Nathan Wolf was proud he and his teammates persevered to win the sectional title and advance to state.

“It felt really great coming here today knowing that we needed to prove ourselves after we didn’t win conference last week,” Wolf said. “We came out here and did it today. It helps knowing where the specific half miles and quarter miles and every downhill is. Every little thing can be used for our advantage, especially because this is our home course, and we definitely used it today.”

Wolf was Athens’ top runner in the sectional race with a seventh-place finish in 17 minutes, 54.8 seconds. Athens sophomore Andrew Schaer took ninth place in 18:01.8, while senior Brooks Kraus was 12th in 18:07.8. Bluejays freshman Nicholas Pittman placed 19th in 18:49.1 and junior Connor Sheahan was 23rd in 18:53.1. Sophomore Garrett Knott placed 70th in 18:53.1.

Coach Rottscheit explains how he prepared his team for its home sectional championship meet at Erbach Park.

“I just told them to run their race,” he said. “I knew if they could run as they always did all season long, then I knew they could do it. I knew it would take everyone of them to pull it off and they did. I just said that, didn’t want to put too much pressure on them this week, kinda stayed back.

“They were probably nervous all week just like I was, and I didn’t want to put any more pressure on them. But I think they knew they could do it. We were ranked real high and our times were looking good, so as long as we came out and ran the best race we could run, we knew we could do it.”