Bonduel teams make true on early season goal

The road to state is always a fun journey to look back on for teams and individual athletes.

For the Bonduel girls and boys cross-country teams and Clintonville’s Jesse Wilson, the path to the State Cross-Country Championships — which will be run this Saturday at Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids — was not an easy one, but through hard work, the athletes have reached the sport’s biggest stage.

In the fall of 2017, the Bonduel girls and boys teams qualified for state in the same year for the first time ever. A year later, both teams earned spots at state again after placing first at the Division 3 Westfield Sectional on Saturday.

While Bonduel made the feat look rather easy, it was anything but that. Coming into the year, coach Diane Schnell wasn’t sure the teams could repeat their success, but the runners never had a doubt.

“Last year, I lost 17 seniors and coming into this year, I was quite frankly nervous about having enough depth on the team,” she said. “We get together in August and we have a three-day campout — and during that campout, we set our goals.”

“We ask each person to give an individual goal and a team goal,” Schnell added. “Every single member of the team, 23 of them, put down team state. Without being prompted, they all wanted that goal.”

Bonduel knew the goal was going to be difficult to achieve, but after facing tough competition in conference meets and having each runner accomplish their personal goals, the team goal was also reached.

Senior Jared Wondra has served as the boys top runner this fall while sophomore Kara Troxel led the girls team.

Wondra is coming off a fourth-place finish at sectionals, where he posted a time of 18 minutes, 8.61 seconds. The senior will be taking part in his third straight state meet — he qualified as an individual in his sophomore season before leading the boys team to state as a junior.

”Just stay within yourself and not go out too fast or too slow. Don’t do anything you wouldn’t regularly do, just keep it routine,” said Wondra on the advice he gives to his teammates.

“This is the best place it could happen at,” he said of running at state to end his high school career. “It’s way better knowing that we made it to state and that we did everything that we could. Now we get to go out and have fun on the state course.”

While the Bonduel boys team features a pair of seniors to go along with three juniors and two sophomores on the seven-runner varsity team, the girls team features no runners in their junior of season years.

Troxel burst on to the scene as a freshman after finishing fifth at state. She most recently took second at sectionals with a time of 20:21.45.

“This year, we practiced really hard on hill sprints and mile times, because that’s what helps us improve during our races,” Troxel said. “My main goal was to get the people who didn’t run at state last year to state this year.”

Of the seven runners who competed at state a year ago, the girls team returns five of those runners — Troxel and fellow sophomores Madison Kurey, Katlin Thompson, Breanna Schnell and Erin Timler. Freshmen Jessica Ewing and Kim Smith will also get their first taste of the state meet.

“It feels really good,” Breanna Schnell said of the team making state. “When you pass the finish line at sectionals and have a pretty good idea that you made it (to state) — it’s still a little nerve-racking because it’s not for sure yet — but a lot of sweat and pain goes into the season, so once you pass the finish line and know that work paid off, it’s pretty exciting.”

“It’s an excitement,” Madison Kurey said. “To think about last year being the first year that both boys and girls made it to state and to make it again with both teams just makes me happy and sets a good example for the school.”

The Bonduel boys will bring a little more inexperience with them as only Wondra, senior Colin Ewing, and juniors Carter Kurey and William Beaumier appeared at state last year. Junior Colen Klosterman and sophomores Jack Johnson and Alex Jasch round out the team.

Clintonville freshman Jesse Wilson has made a name for himself in his first year of varsity competition, racking up several first-place finishes, including one at the Freedom Sectional last Saturday.

Wilson built a comfortable lead before holding off New London senior Noah Schiedermayer for the title. Wilson finished the course in 16:51.01.

By making it to state, the freshman, who also took first at the North Eastern Conference Meet, accomplished another one of his personal goals for the season.

He’s performed well this season despite going up against more experienced runners by taking the same approach into each race, something he will try to do on Saturday.

“I know it is the state championship meet, and that is huge. However, I am trying to approach this as if it were any other meet in both my preparation and my mindset. Listening to music and taking deep breathes seem to help calm me down,” said Wilson, who also thanked his biggest supporters, from his coaches, mentors and family to his Clintonville teammates.

Racing will start at noon from Ridges Golf Course on Saturday, with Wilson in the Division 2 boys race and Bonduel team competing at the Division 3 level.