Posted: June 1, 2010 |(0) Comments

The topic could not be brought up under any circumstances, no matter how often anyone on the thought about it in the camp of the Homestead boys track team.

No matter how wide the margin, no matter how many meets were won, it simply was not to be discussed.

It was just going to have to be like veteran coach Dan Benson said: "One meet, one practice at a time."

But after dominating their own WIAA sectional meet May 27, qualifying 10 individuals and two relays in the process for this week's WIAA State Track and Field Championships in La Crosse, it can now be thought about it, envisioned and even possibly done.

"It" being a state team championship.

"We're trying not to worry about it," three-event champion Gabe Genovesi said, "but yes, we can start thinking about it, hoping for it. It was so different this season, being so hush-hush about it. Now we can dream of it."

Even Benson, who after a long and successful career is still looking for that first state team title, is a little caught up in the adventure.

"We've been led by our seniors," he said, "and now we get to compete together one more time. Our schedule prepared us for this meet (sectional). Our schedule put us against everybody we would see here. Our schedule focused us and prepared us not only for the intensity of this meet, but also for the intensity of state."

"And it's all driven by seniors who are really focused and driven."

That much is fact, as it is seniors who have driven Homestead to eight major meet titles this season - and they are the ones who have led the Highlanders to five top seeds going into state.

They include Genovesi, who has the top time in the 800 meters and who has anchored the 1,600 and 3,200 relay teams to similar positions. Other seniors on the 1,600 relay include Andrew Holtorf and Mike Collins.

Danny Schiller, a senior and two-time state placewinner, is tied for the top seed in the high jump, and classmate Justin Barber is more than 10 feet clear of the rest of the field in the discus.

These athletes will try to duplicate what has been done only twice in school history (at the 1963 and 1964 state Class B meets) - and not once on Benson's successful 22-year watch.

"What's been really nice over the last several years, and what has really been my pleasure to see, is that really good teams like Madison LaFollette (2002), Arrowhead (2004 and 2009) and Germantown (2006) have been winning state titles," Benson said.

"It's very satisfying to see good track teams win meets. … And we've been building to this point and it's looking like we can do some really good things (at state). Everyone saying we're the favorites doesn't change a thing.

"It's just the reality of the situation."

A reality that became crystal-clear after the Highlanders scored 127 points to win the 16-team sectional.

Genovesi and Doug Mueller led the way for Homestead. The pair were on the winning 1,600 (3:18.8) and 3,200 relay (7:50.26) teams that not only set new state bests, but also broke Homestead records.

The pair was joined on the 3,200 by Mike Cronce and Nate Routhier and on the 1,600 by Holtorf and Collins. Genovesi also won the 800 with a track record of 1:53.32, with Mueller earning a state slot in third (1:56.63).

Mueller is looking forward to the challenge of state.

"It's been our No. 1 goal and now it's just ahead of us," he said. "It's what we've been waiting and working for all year. Now we get to go after it."

Barber won the discus easily (178-11), and Schiller lost out in the high jump despite tying his school and the track record with an effort of 6-10. He lost out on the basis of more collective misses to Nick Hughes of Rufus King.

"The only thing I have left ahead of me is to go out and win it," Schiller said, referring to his second-place finish at state in 2008 and his third-place finish last year.

The Highlanders' other qualifying efforts were: Routhier, third, 3,200 (9:49.11); Taylor Ruffin, third, 300 intermediate hurdles (39.01); Matt Savage, third, pole vault (13-3); Brad Pelisek, second, long jump (21-11); Barber, second (55-6), and Max Vielmetti, third (49-6), pole vault.

UP NEXT

WHAT: WIAA State Track and Field Championships at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse's Veterans Memorial Stadium

WHEN: 9:30 a.m. Friday with trials and some finals; the remainder of the finals will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday

NOTES: The 1963 and 1964 WIAA state champs coached by Robert Thelen were dominant teams, too; the 1963 group scored 24 points to outdistance runner-up Sheboygan Falls (11) and, in 1964, the margin was even wider, 33-15, over Whitnall. In those days, it was harder to accumulate points under the old five-place scoring system (6-4-3-2-1). The 1963 team won without a single individual state title, while in 1964, Dan Snider claimed both the 120-yard high and 180-yard low hurdles while other wins went to the 880 relay and to Steve Schwandt in the high jump.