I am a high school senior who will (most likely) be at UW-Madison next year. I love running with a passion but my high school PR's so far suggest that I probably would not make the varsity team at UW next year. However, I definitely plan to keep running and if someone could tell me a bit about how the WI Track & Field club works- what races they do, how you become a member, etc... it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I am a freshman, and I ran for the Wisconsin track club. We ran at several D3 highly competitive cross country invites (Jim Drew, Beloit, and Parkside) unattached, and we were also scored as a team at Jim Drews. We also ran at a couple local races and the club will be fielding a team for club xc nationals. I'm not as familiar with what they do for track, but I know that there are a few indoor meets, and some outdoor meets in the spring.
To be a member its 20$ a year, and you just show up for practice or one of the first meetings to join. There is a pretty wide range of talent, and we meet for practice twice a week. There are people that run 70 miles a week that train with us and there are people who aren't as serious but still train often.
Here is the website:
I've run with WTC team for the last few years. When I started it was a rather small group but it has definitely grown. This fall we were getting between 20 and 40 people to practices.
The group that comes to official 'practices' is mostly students - some grad students but mostly undergrads. Almost everyone is in your situation - they love running, ran in high school, want to continue training in some organized setting and want to compete at the college level but aren't good enough to run for the Badgers. Some women on the team have walked on with the Badgers, though.
Cross country is probably the biggest focus of the club. We usually go to 3-5 Divison III meets in the fall. We will often score in the middle to lower half of teams but that depends on who decides to race that weekend and what meet we go to. If we get all our top guys together at any one time we can do pretty well. We don't require people to come to practice or run in meets so it's not really like running for a real college program. You will get coaching, a training group and the opportunity to race as a team at college meets in the Midwest.
This fall we are sending a team of guys to USATF club nationals in Rochester, NY, as well as a team of masters women. This is the first time the club has done this since the mid '90s I think, when there were more elites running with the club. We are subsidizing everyone's trip out there. The team will not be that competitive, probably, but it will be a great experience for them.
We do race indoor and outdoor track in the spring, and get to train on the UW track. We sponsor a very fun series of 4 open track meets in the summer where we have 3 year olds running the 50m dash and people like Matt Groose qualifying for nationals in the 1500m. (Andrew Rock's sister is a member as well so you might get to meet him someday.) We also sponsor the Capitol Mile in July, which is a one mile race around the Capitol Square where we do try to bring in some elite runners. We're still looking for someone to break 4:00, though.
You can go to our website at
for more info and a membership application. If you know other people in your situation let them know about us.
Hope this helps.