Lake Country This Month
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SPORTS Page 2B • FREEMAN & ENTERPRISE LAKE COUNTRY NOVEMBER 2013 Injury leads to competition Pewaukee girls run to second in league Schleusner adapts quickly to Ironman CUDAHY – Sophomore Ashton Keene finished seventh in helping the Pewaukee High School girls cross country team to second place in the Woodland Conference Championships at Sheridan Park last month. Keene finished in 15:52, just ahead of Pewaukee senior Lian Arzbecker, who was eighth in 15:54. Pewaukee boys finished sixth, with sophomore Robert Wagner fifth in 16:39 and freshman Kyle Turba ninth in 17:05. By Daniel Mike Freeman Staff HARTLAND – Taylor Schleusner was a runner at Lake Country Lutheran High School, but injuries led him to train in the water and on a bicycle. It didn't take long for him to transition into triathlons, and eventually advance to Ironman triathlons – a competition involving a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bicycle ride and running a marathon (26.2 miles). Schleusner was 18th in the men's 18 to 24 category and finished 518th out of 2,134 professional and agegroup competitors in the Ironman in Hawaii last month.. He discussed his preparation for the world championships recently with The Freeman: Q: HOW DID YOU GET INTO TRIATHLONS, AND WHAT EVENTUALLY LED YOU TO IRONMAN? A: Throughout high school, I competed in cross country and ran distance during track and field for all four years. Until my sophomore year, I really struggled with injury, getting overuse injuries almost every season. My coach, Mark Newman, competes in Ironman and other triathlons and encouraged me to cross train on the bike and in the water in order to save my legs from some of the impact of running. Q: WHAT TYPE OF SUCCESS DID YOU HAVE AT LAKE COUNTRY LUTHERAN? A: During my sophomore and junior years, I was the first male to ever qualify for the state cross country meet by qualifying individually My senior year I led the first. ever complete boys cross country team to state. My sophomore and junior years I was injured during track so I was not able to compete, but my senior year I qualified for the 3,200 meters at the state meet. This was a surprise to me as I was not training for track – I was training for Ironman Wisconsin 2012. Q: WHAT DID IT TAKE YOU TO PROGRESS TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW? A: Before competing in Ironman Wisconsin 2012, where I qualified for the 2013 Ironman World Champi- – Freeman Staff IN BRIEF Submitted photo Lake Country Lutheran graduate Taylor Schleusner competes in the Ironman Wisconsin. At a glance Who: Taylor Schleusner Age: 19 High school: Lake Country Lutheran Currently: exercise science/nutrition major at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Family: father, Greg; mother, Kelly; sister, Alyssa Notable: second-youngest competitor at the Ironman World Championship, where he finished 18th in his age group (men 18 to 24) onships by winning my age group, I had been a runner for four years, a cyclist for three and a swimmer for two. I never take any time off in the offseason. I incorporate appropriate amounts of training volume and rest that allow me to train all year long and, therefore, improve all year long. Q: HOW HARD CAN IRON- MAN BE? A: Pretty dang hard. It doesn't take much to convince anyone that moving your body 140.6 miles in one day is difficult. However, the real challenge is getting the training in. During training you never do a full Ironman, but training every day takes hours and hours of your time. Motivation is never a challenge on race day but it definitely takes a dif, ferent kind of mentality to get through 12 months of brutal training. As Cole Braun, the founder of the team I race for – Team RACC (Racers Against Childhood Cancer) – says, "Race day is merely a celebration of the work you put in during the last year." It really is. Ironman is one big party for the fittest people on Earth that chose to dedicate the last year of their lives to training for this event. Q: HOW MUCH TRAINING IS INVOLVED? WHAT DOES A DAY, WEEK, MONTH LOOK LIKE FOR YOU? A: During the offseason, I train about 10 to 12 hours a week. During the season, I peak somewhere around 24 hours a week. Q: WHAT HAS BEEN THE TOUGHEST OF THE THREE STAGES FOR YOU TO GET ACCLIMATED TO? A: Running is usually consid- ered the hardest of the three events. It burns the most calories, is the last event, creates the most body heat and just by the nature of the discipline makes ingesting nutrition much more challenging than it is on the bike. Luckily for me, this is also the event I am by far the strongest in and it is the event I enjoy the most. During Ironman Wisconsin 2012, my run was the fastest in my division by over 22.5 minutes. Swimming is my weakest of the three sports, but luckily it only constitutes about 10 percent of the total time in an Ironman. Therefore, I don't lose nearly as much time in the water as I would on the bike or in the run. Q: SEEING AS YOU'RE A STUDENT AT UWL, HOW TOUGH HAS IT BEEN JUGGLING TRAINING, COMPETING, ETC. WITH SCHOOL? A: Tough balance. My academics sometimes have to take a back seat to my training, and my training sometimes has to take a back seat to my academics. It sucks having two full-time jobs. There is definitely no time to spend on the party or drinking scene like most college students do. Q: WHAT KIND OF FUTURE DO YOU SEE IN ATHLETICS? A: Anything can happen, but I would love and intend to enjoy this sport for the rest of my life. It's really a great lifestyle that I enjoy living. Athletics aren't the most important things in life by any means. However, the lessons, character traits and discipline that sports – especially one of this nature – teach people are applicable to every area of life. That's really the big takeaway from this all for me. Email: dmike@conleynet.com Four Arrowhead girls first-team all-state in field hockey TOWN OF MERTON – The state-champion Arrowhead High School girls field hockey team had four players earn first-team all-state honors from the Wisconsin High School Field Hockey Association. Senior Mackenzie Cissne, junior Laura Bero and sophomore Abby Myers earned first-team honors on offense, and senior Ellie Lithte was selected on defense. Earning second-team honors were Arrowhead sophomore Samantha Dunn and University Lake senior Mali Ehrsam on defense. Arrowhead's Warren to swim for Northwestern TOWN OF MERTON – Mary Warren, a senior at Arrowhead High School and a member of the Lake Country Phoenix swim club, has verbally committed to swim at Northwestern University next fall. Warren, a sprint freestyler, has qualified for the Winter Junior Nationals being held December 12 to Dec. 14 in Greensboro, N.C. – Freeman Staff 234363004 682 E. Wisconsin Ave,Oconomowoc 262-567-4873 • 800-371-4873 www.radtkeappliance.com APPLIANCE & T.V. 235181007 Monday & Thursday 8:30-7:00 Tues, Wed & Fri 8:30-5:30 • Saturday 8:30-3:00 235399001 Healthy legs are just a phone call away... Now is the time to stop the pain, discomfort & unsightly appearance associated with varicose veins. 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