BRODHEAD — As a freshman in 2017, Madelynn McIntyre burst onto the cross country scene for Brodhead-Juda. She dominated many races and earned her way to the state meet after smoking the sectional field by more than 20 seconds.
At this year’s cold and snowy WIAA Division 2 sectional meet in Spring Green Oct. 20, McIntyre’s second-place time of 20 minutes, 4.9 seconds topped her freshman time by nearly 14 seconds. That performance earned her a second-straight trip to the Oct. 27 state meet at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.
“It was nice to see her come back after a great freshman year,” Brodhead-Juda coach Curt Gratz said. “She came back strong after working hard all offseason. There’s going to be tough competition and I’m happy to see her race one more time this weekend.”
McIntyre finished 19th at the state meet a year ago with a time of 20:09.60, the third-best time among freshmen competitors. Wanting to do better, she kept training through the offseason.
“I tried to speed up, pace myself in the summer and get faster,” McIntyre said. “Just pushing myself to drop time.”
Gratz said that he and McIntyre’s goal this weekend is to reach the podium — a top-10 finish. Seven of the 18 runners ahead of her graduated, but one competitor this year has risen above the rest — Kayci Martensen, a freshman from Southwestern-Cuba City. Martensen won the sectional with a blistering time of 18:20.2 and is the heavy favorite to capture this year’s title.
“I told (McIntyre) when we were racing at Platteville (Sept. 29) that there was this girl who was very fast but that she had to just run her own race and not chase (Martensen),” Gratz said. “It’s nice to have some competition like that around here.”
After having now raced against Martensen twice this year, McIntyre isn’t worried about letting the freshman get into her head.
“I try not to get too worried or nervous before the race. She’ll do her thing, and I’ll do mine,” McIntyre said. “I don’t focus on the runners.”
In 2017, Gratz said he and the team “kind of knew” he had something special with his young freshman who had played volleyball in middle school but had never run cross country before.
After an offseason of not wanting to show she was a fluke, McIntyre was pleased from the start.
“We had a triple-dual on the Brodhead course. That first race of the season proved that my work was paying off,” McIntyre said.
Gratz said the program is taking multiple vans of teammates and families to the meet: Some left Friday to stay overnight — which included McIntyre — and a couple more this morning to join the cheering section.
“We’re a tight-knit team. Being a family is one of the highest things I stress,” Gratz said.
McIntyre said she thinks its “cool” how many people are in the crowd at the state meet, and said reaching the podium would be a really great experience.
Gratz not only is pleased with the performance level of his star runner, but also in the way she has begun to grow into a leader for the program.
“Last year was unique — we had three pairs of sisters and the younger ones looked up to their older sisters. This year the dynamic changed and I was interested to see how it would play out,” Gratz said. “Maddy is a quiet leader — she’s not the most vocal but she leads by example.”
Barely into her second year in high school, McIntyre has more than enough time to figure out her post-high school plans, but she said she hopes to run at the collegiate level.
“I really want to run in college,” said McIntyre, who said that she has no idea where she wants to go or what to study, but has been contacted by multiple schools already.
Nothing is guaranteed, she acknowledged, and knows that all she can do is keep working hard and trimming time. That process continues today.
