It's the reality these days. Many kids' interests have changed, and the idea of ​​pounding the pavement for about five miles every afternoon during practice may be just as tempting as it once was.

That's why Slamka is thrilled that his entire team qualified for the State Boys & Girls Cross Country Championships at Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids on Saturday. Leading the way is junior Landon Franke, who finished 60th in a field of 190 at Wisconsin Rapids last season.

“We have a group of decent runners who, when they were younger, were willing to put in the work,” Slamka said. “That's about all you need, I think. They work hard all year round, so the whole thing pretty much takes care of itself.

“Now I feel like we’ve got the ball rolling a little bit. Now it’s about recruiting and getting some young guys and hopefully we can carry it on a little bit longer.”

Slamka has learned that it is more difficult than ever to fill a squad with good runners.

“There are always children,” he said. “Like my guys are willing to put in some work. It's just not the easiest sport to sell. I spoke to one of the Waterford parents and they said the tennis team has about 50 kids and the cross country team there is shrinking.

“Many children don’t want to play a sport that requires them to work hard every day. I think this is the best thing for children.”

One Horlick runner who has particularly paid the price is Franke, whom Slamka compares to former Horlick star Scott Brinen, who placed fourth at the state meet as a junior in 1990 (for this reason he did not compete at the state meet as a senior ). Disease).

Franke placed second at the Case Sectional on Oct. 26 with a time of 16:31.30.

“He’s just a talented, very tough kid,” Slamka said. “He does everything right. He makes sure that he goes to bed early, that he eats right, that he cares deeply about recovery, so he takes care of all the little things.

“As he enters his senior year, he will be ready to increase his mileage. I think he will be phenomenal next year. On paper, he runs similar times to Scott when he was a junior and senior.”

One of the others who could be a force for Horlick is Gio Maccanelli, who is overcoming injuries. At the Case Sectional at UW-Parkside, Maccanelli placed eighth in 17:24.10.

“He had to cancel some races due to injury, but he held on really hard in the section,” said Slamka. “His knee wasn’t doing too well, but he really stepped it up. He just ran a great race.”

Another Racine County team qualifying as a team is the Case Girls, making their first state appearance since 2019. Under Mike DeWitt, a former longtime coach at UW-Parkside, the Eagles finished second in the 11-team sectional they hosted at UW-Parkside with 55 points – just four points behind champion Kenosha Indian Trail.

Led by senior Grace Neumann, Case's other highlights include second place at the Southeast Conference Meet with 54 points (six behind champion Franklin) and third place at the 13-team Westosha Central Invitational with 77 points (Westosha won with 71 and Badger finished second with 74). ).

Case defeated 55 schools and lost to 29 this season.

Neumann was the Eagles' No. 1 seed and placed fifth at the sectional tournament and fourth at the SEC meet. DeWitt said she defeated 87% of her opponents.

Other top runners for Case include senior Lilly Reaume (sixth in the section, seventh in the SEC), freshman Emma Barnes (eighth in the section and fifth in the SEC) and junior Camila Aquino (18th in the section, 22nd). in the SEC).

Meanwhile, Ashley Lamers is the first girl in program history to qualify for the state championship all four years. At the sectional meet, she ran a time of 19:54.3.

“Ashley was our No. 1 runner in seven of our nine meets,” Union Grove assistant coach Mike Mikula said. “Ashley is a gifted runner and one of the smartest runners we have had the opportunity to train in the last four years.”

Other Racine County runners participating include Catholic Central senior Emma Bond and Prairie senior Carly Lopez. Both compete as individual qualifiers.