How To Win The Day: Another Look At Conference Championships Weekend

When it comes to Division III cross country, few conferences make as much noise – or carry as much history – as the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The men first toed the line at a conference meet back in 1961, a full 12 years before the inaugural NCAA DIII Championships in 1973. The women joined the tradition in 1978, and together they’ve built a history of dominance and depth.

Whether you pronounce it as the we-ac or the why-ac, it is anything but weak. 

I still remember my very first WIAC meet in 2021. It was in Colfax, Wisconsin, on a frost-covered golf course in November. Our roster was blended with veteran leadership and talented freshmen. A perfect mix to win our program’s first WIAC title since 1965.

Before the race, Coach Miller brought out that 56-year-old trophy. It glittered with a type of ancient gold that was synonymous with a former time of greatness. It had been standing on a shelf and all Warhawk runners had passed by it for the last half century. It was our chance to turn the tide and add a newer version to that trophy case.

We left it all on the course with three finishers in the top four: David Fassbender in first place, Gunner Schlender in third, and me in fourth. Our fourth and fifth runners, Justin Krause and Kyle Neuroth, could have been many teams’ first runners, yet they were surrounded by a pack of Eagles from UW-La Crosse.

The final result hit us like a punch to the gut: UW-La Crosse 31, UW-Whitewater 36. It was our first real loss of the season – and it hurt. 

It also stung on a personal level. I walked to a secluded part of the course, dropped to one knee, and cried into my hands. We all cried. We felt like we’d let our coach down. This has been our one shot to prove that we weren’t a fluke – and make school history – and we came up short.

But in the back of my mind, what Coach Miller always said resonated with me: “You might not always win, but can you still win the day.”

It took me three years to understand what he meant, but it finally clicked last year at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana.

We won the day – fourth place as a team, marking the first podium finish in program history (by a single point, which meant every runner truly mattered). Gunner earned the Elite 90 Award for having the highest GPA of any male athlete at the meet, and I won Whitewater’s first individual cross country title.

So, as the conference meet approaches and the postseason ramps up, take a deep breath, look around, and focus on winning the day – not just the meet. When you try to win the day, you race to compete at your best. When you aim to conquer something, you usually lose. Too often, we treat this sport as me versus you, when it’s really me versus myself.