Can ‘Jay boys make it three straight?

Athens has run at state the past two seasons

By Casey Krautkramer

The Athens varsity boys cross country team took 13th place at the WIAA Division 3 state tournament the past two seasons, after snapping the school’s 53-year state tournament drought. Before 2021, the Bluejays last competed in the Small School state tournament in 1966 through 1968.

Athens has experienced an impressive state tournament stretch the past two seasons, but now the challenge is to maintain this type of success every year.

Last fall, Connor Sheahan took fifth place as an individual runner to achieve a spot on the state tournament podium. Sheahan has since graduated high school and is running college cross country this fall with his former Athens teammate, Johnathon Nowacki, at Division 2 UW-Parkside in Kenosha. Athens’ other top cross country runner last season, Nathan Wolf, also graduated in spring.

Senior Andrew Schaer is now the top Athens boy cross country runner back this season. He realizes that it’s his job to help the team’s younger runners succeed this fall so that the entire boys team can be successful.

“I worked pretty hard in summer and I really kicked it into gear once the season started,” he said. “I’m just trying to help my teammates along to get them faster too so hopefully we can go to state as a team again this season, because that is our main goal. We are hoping for three years in a row at state.”

Schaer took seventh place in 18 minutes, 26.9 seconds at Thursday’s Marathon Invitational at Nine Mile Recreation Area in Rib Mountain. He is taking what he learned from being teammates with Sheahan and Wolf last season to help him run faster in races this fall.

“I learned from them that pain is a temporary thing and you are going to need to push through it,” he said. “They were really good at hiding their pain and to just keep going. Your body might hurt a little the next day after a race but once you start running again then your body loosens up and you feel better.”

Besides Schaer, the following are the other top returning Athens boy cross country runners this season: Seniors Drew Haines and Garret Knott, junior Nick Pittman and sophomores Eli Paul and Brandon Krause. Senior Isaac Bushman, who is also playing football this fall, is a top newcomer to the Athens boys cross country team this season.

Korey Rottscheit is in the midst of his ninth season as the Athens varsity boys and girls cross country head coach. Karla Erickson is his varsity boys and girls assistant coach this year. Rottscheit realizes it’ll be tough to replace top boy runners Sheahan and Wolf this season.

“It’s going to take some of our athletes to step up in order to fill their shoes,” he said. “I have high hopes for Andy Schaer this year to hopefully make it to state as an individual. Last year, had our team not made it to state, Andy would have still qualifi ed for state as an individual which is exciting for him going into this year. Nick Pittman has shown some excellent work ethic so far this season and I can see him having a shot as well if he keeps working hard at it.”

Schaer took 12th place at the Marawood Conference cross country championship meet last season which was good for second team all-conference. He’s hoping to improve his finish time this year so he can place in the top eight runners to earn first team allconference honors.

“I’m going to need to push hard in races and work on my mental game to make sure I know where I’m at in the race so I can really push myself through it even though I’m in pain,” he said.

The top returning Athens girl cross country runners this season are juniors Brianna Sheahan and Aleah Frahm. Freshman Terah Schreiner is the top newcomer on the girls varsity team.

Brianna Sheahan took seventh place at Thursday’s Marathon Invitational in 21:56.6. Rottscheit is expecting even bigger things from Brianna Sheahan this fall. “Brianna is always getting better and better,” he said. “She works very hard at everything she does. She has the potential to make it to state at some point in her high school career as long as she keeps pushing herself.”