Champs at Nine Mile

‘Jays senior easily wins the boys race

By Casey Krautkramer

Athens senior Connor Sheahan easily breezed through the competition during Thursday’s warm 86-degree cross country race at Nine Mile Recreation Area in Rib Mountain. He finished the race nearly one-and-ahalf minutes ahead of the next best runner to help the Bluejay boys win the team championship at Marathon’s home meet.

“It means a lot for our team to win the meet championship,” Sheahan said. “My teammates and I finished the race pretty close together. We’ve been working hard and finally our work is starting to pay off.”

Sheahan has shaved a considerable amount of time off last year’s personal record of 18 minutes 51.16 seconds that he achieved at the WIAA Division 3 state tournament race in Wisconsin Rapids. He was one of Athens’ top five boy runners in helping the Bluejays advance to state for the first time in 53 years.

Last season, Sheahan never won an individual cross country race but he’s taken first place in his first two meets so far this year. He won Athens’ first race on Aug. 25 at Timms Hill in Price County in 17:23 to help the Athens boys finish second behind team champion Phillips, which beat Athens by a few points for the Marawood Conference championship last season. On Thursday at Nine Mile, Sheahan ran an even faster time of 17:11.5.

“It’s pretty much just a mental game where you gotta just stay strong and push through the race,” he said.

He credits the hard work he spent running this summer with his friend, Athens alum Jonathon Nowacki, in Athens to prepare for his senior high school cross country season. Nowacki runs cross country for the college Division 2 UW-Parkside Rangers in Kenosha.

“It helps to run with Jonathon because he pushes me a lot more; he is a lot faster so it gives me a spot to reach for,” said Sheahan, who is the son of Patrick and Crystal Sheahan.

Last season was Sheahan’s first full season running cross country, after playing football during his sophomore year. He’s continued to improve as a runner ever since switching fall sports.

“My personal goal is to get under 16 minute times in races this season and win an individual conference championship and make it to state,” he said. “Our team’s goal is to win the conference championship but Phillips has a good team again this season. Our team also wants to make it to state again this season.”

The Athens boys lost one of its top runners, Brooks Kraus, to graduation in spring but the Bluejays still bring back an experienced varsity roster with seniors Sheahan and Nathan Wolf, juniors Andy Schaer and Garrett Knott and sophomore Nick Pittman. The Bluejays also have an influx of new varsity runners in freshmen Riley Schultz-Becker, Drew Haines, Brandon Krause and Eli Paul.

Wolf took third place at Thursday’s race at Nine Mile in 18:30.5 and Schaer was right behind him in fourth place in 18:42.5. Pittman took 11th place in 19:27, Schultz-Becker was 21st in 20:27.5, Haines 53rd in 22:31.4 and Knott 105th in 29:09.2.

Korey Rottscheit, Athens boys and girls cross country head coach, is in the midst of his eighth season. Karla Erickson is his assistant cross country coach this fall. Athens’ top returning varsity girl cross country runners this season are senior Addyson Zettler and sophomores Brianna Sheahan, Aleah Frahm and Malaina Telschow. Isabella Zastrow is a new varsity squad runner this season.

Brianna Sheahan, who is Connor Sheahan’s younger sibling, was the top Bluejay girls runner on Thursday at Nine Mile. She took fifth place in 22:55.5. Zettler placed 31st in 27:03.8, Telschow was 33rd in 27:25.1, Zastrow 49th in 29:53.2 and Frahm 50th in 29:59.2.

Athens will again host this year’s WIAA Division 3 sectional boys and girls races at Erbach Park. The Athens boys cross country team won the sectional championship last season. This year’s sectional championships will be on Saturday, Oct. 23, with the boys race at 3 p.m. and girls race at 4 p.m.