Why wait until the WIAA State Meet in June to find out who was performing well in Track and Field? That was the thought of Bill Cross, the track coach at Whitefish Bay high school. The year was 1962. During alternating years Whitefish Bay hosted Milwaukee Pius XI and coach Dick Basham’s Milwaukee Marquette track squads in April track meets. Coach Cross was impressed by the good performances in those early season meets. He began compiling performances and sending them to the Milwaukee Sentinel and Milwaukee Journal newspapers. In addition, Mike Walden sports director at WTMJ in Milwaukee agreed to promote track and field by giving radio and TV time to announce Honor Roll results. When coach Cross was an announcer at the WIAA State Track and Field Meet he would phone in reports of performances to WTMJ.

Coach Cross recorded radio spots during his lunch hour that were aired on WTMJ at 6:15 PM on Wednesdays. Results were also sent to the AP. Although some newspapers refused, enough papers around the state sent their papers via the mail to coach Cross so he could compile a balanced report on Track and Field in Wisconsin. When Mike Walden moved on and took a media job in Los Angeles his replacement, Jim Irvin, gave a lower priority to high school track and field. However coach Cross continued his Honor Roll even though he moved on to jobs in administration in other school districts.

Bill Cross was an Assistant principal at South Milwaukee, principal at Lake Mills, and an assistant principal at Menomonee Falls before becoming principal at Oostburg high school in 1977. Despite administrative duties he continued to compile the Honor Roll with help from his wife Ginny. Ginny noticed the long time that Bill took to retype results [ before the days of spreadsheets with sorting] and volunteered to type the Honor Roll in order to speed the process.

When the WIAA began sponsoring girls track and field in 1971 Lois Wolf who was the first girls track coach at Whitefish Bay High School began compiling the Girls Track and Field Honor Roll. She was assisted by West Allis girls track coach Barb Reisner. There was plenty of goods news to report. Lois Wolf coached Liz Berry in 1974. Berry set the National High School record in the mile [5.07.4] in late May of 1974. However at the 1974 State Meet Lynn Morin from Coach Reisner's West Allis Hale team beat Berry in the mile race.

For a few years the WIAA sent $25 to Mr. Cross for materials needed to print the Honor Roll. Coaches and media would send 10 SASE so that results could be sent out once a week. After a wrestling controversy arose over the season ranking of wrestlers prior to the WIAA wrestling meet the WIAA stopped its support of ranking in track and field and wrestling. However it should be noted that under WIAA Track and Field Administrators Karen Kuhn and now Marcy Thurwatcher the WIAA has been a great help in supplying information that allows the Honor Roll to be compiled.

Loren Seagrave edited the girls honor roll from 1978 to 1981 while he was an assistant track coach at UW-Madison. Those honor rolls were published through an organization titled the Wisconsin Athletic Congress. In those days computers were not the craze, so Loren compiled the lists on a memory typewriter that used cassette tapes to record the data. In relation to compiling those lists Loren stated, “I was foolish enough to produce lists for, then, the four classes of schools.”

In 1982 and 1983 Bill Cross also compiled the girls honor roll. Prior to 1980 a student at Oostburg high school, Jack Rauwerdink, began helping Mr. Cross with organizing the honor roll. Jack is now the track coach at Oostburg. He compiled the girls honor roll from 1984 through 1993 and the boys honor roll from 1984 until Mark Rongstad began compiling the lists for the boys honor roll in 2002.

Coach Rauwerdink accepted phone calls and faxes up to 9:00 PM Sunday night. However, by that time, the majority of the results were in. Luckily the coach [ who will remain nameless ] who used to phone results to Bill Cross at 11:00 PM on Sunday night had retired by the time Jack took over the Honor Roll. Jack spent probably close to 3-4 hours on the computer each Saturday and Sunday. Then he would make final adjustments to that week’s honor roll, print it up, and fax it out to 6 different newspapers. If everything was working well, he could get done by about 11:00 PM on Sunday night. Then he would bring the Honor Roll to school Monday morning, have it copied, and stuff envelopes during his lunch time. Jack mailed out between 100-150 honor rolls each week. A fax machine, telephone, typewriter, word processor, and Macintosh computer were tools that Coach Rauwerdink used to produce the Honor Roll

Mark Rongstad ran track in high school (he won the WIAA Class B 330 state low hurdles title in 1978 while at Ladysmith HS) and was always very interested in the statistical side of track. As a high school student, Mark anxiously waited each week for the new track honor roll to be published. When Mark's oldest daughter Lindsey began competing in track at Eau Claire North high school he began helping submit results to the honor rolls. When Jack Rauwerdink put out a notice that he was no longer going to publish the boys honor roll Mark decided to jump in as it combined his love of track and the Internet

In 1993 Dave Lehmann talked to Jack Rauwerdink at a track-coaching clinic and offered to help with the Girls Honor Roll. Dave Lehmann, girls track coach at Janesville Parker and Parker teacher Dave Figi began compiling the girls honor roll in 1994 . Inspired by former Madison West track coach Don Loker who wrote computer programs in the 1980’s that organized data for athletic events both Parker staff members wrote programs in Apple Basic that organized and scored gymnastic and track meets. Dave Figi submitted results to the Janesville Gazette that featured a ‘local area honor roll.’ Also Don Lindstrom, former Wisconsin State Journal sports writer, provided a model of track and field lists when he compiled statistics of high school results in the state meets held in the Midwest.

On a Sunday night in early April of 1994 Lehmann and Figi got a call from the Milwaukee Journal sports department asking for Honor Roll results. The two newcomers to compiling the Honor Roll had no results to report. At that instant Lehmann and Figi realized what they had gotten into. From that event a great appreciation for the efforts of Bill Cross, Loren Seagrave, Lois Wolf, Barb Reisner, and Jack Rauwerdink made its mark with the current compilers of the Wisconsin High School Track and Field Girls Honor Roll. After a one week delay and help from many coaches around the state the Girls Honor Roll was again up and running. In the mid 1990’s as the popularity of web sites increased the Honor Roll evolved into an online download instead of mailed results.

In February of 2008, Mark Rongstad's website wisconstrackandfield and Dave Figi's website wisconsintrackonline joined the Wisconsin Sports Network. This association was for the 2008 track season only. For the 2009 and 2010 seasons the Girl's Honor Roll will be published on the Wisconsin Track Online website.

It is difficult to imagine how Bill Cross, Lois Wolf, Barb Reisner, Jack Rauwerdink and Loren Seagrave had the time to compile the lists. Present day track coaches, athletes, fans and the media are indebted to these pioneers who gave the time and effort needed to promote a great sport. The objectives today remain the same as the objectives of those who started and maintained the Honor Roll. The Honor Roll strives to give recognition to those students who work hard to make the athletic component of education a positive experience. And, like Bill Cross, athletes, coaches, fans and the media do not want to wait until the WIAA State Track and Field Meet in June to find out which athletes are performing well.

Bill Cross: Bill Cross passed away on July 1, 2008, at the age of 84. However his legacy in track and field lives on. One of his grandsons is Josh Herrell who is an assistant track coach at East Troy High School. Another grandson is Joe Thomas who won the 2003 Wisconsin D1 state title in the shot put and discus. Thomas now plays professional football with the Cleveland Browns.

Lois Wolf: Lois is retired and lives in Whitefish Bay where she still volunteers in the high jump events at Whitefish Bay track meets.

Barb Reisner: Conducts training conferences for Leaders For Tomorrow. She founded RRR Training and Publishing.

Loren Seagrave: Loren was the developer of the Velocity Sports Performance Training System and serves as Chief Performance Officer. Coach Seagrave developed his system while winning four NCAA Track and Field national championships at Louisiana State University. He has worked with over fifty Olympic and World Championship medalists, National and World record holders, and Collegiate All-Americans.

Jack Rauwerdink: Jack teaches Literature and Social Studies at Oostburg middle school and is an assistant track coach at Oostburg high school.

Mark Rongstad: In real life, Mark is Vice President, Corporate Customers, Member of the Management Board of T - Systems of North America, Inc.

Dave Figi

Retired from teaching [ 2 years in Sierra Leone, 37 years in Janesville ] June 11, 2004. Taught mathematics and computers at Janesville Parker High School. Dave keeps busy by being a member of two teams. He coaches sophomore football at Janesville Parker and is a member of the Operation Classroom team that presents workshops in mathematics for secondary teachers and assists in school construction in the West African country of Sierra Leone. He also coached ninth grade basketball at Janesville Craig from 1987 until 2001. His son John and daughter Alison participated in track at Janesville Craig High School. John was a member of the UW-Whitewater cross country and track teams. He publishes a web site that features an Honor Roll for girls in Track and Field in Wisconsin. His goal is to promote track and field in Wisconsin.

Dave Lehmann

Teacher (mathematics) at Janesville Parker High School. Is the head coach of varsity volleyball and varsity girls track and field at Parker. Dave's wife, Cathy, also helps coach track at Parker. He helps with an Honor Roll for girls in Track and Field in Wisconsin. His goal is to promote girls track by publishing results to other coaches and the media.

Our purpose is to promote high school track and field by giving recognition to athletes who excel. We send results to high school coaches, parents and the media. As coaches we expect the most from our athletes. We should reciprocate and give publicity to those student-athletes who make coaching such a rewarding profession. Coaches can give recognition to their athletes by sending results to the addresses listed below. To meet the media deadline please send results by 9:00 AM on Sunday. The Sunday version of the Honor Roll is used by the media to give recognition to the top five athletes in each event. Please make sure that your media people know about www.wisconsintrackonline.com. This will be our 17th year of compiling results and we want to include as many athletes as possible. Please include: Athletes name, event, grade, school, meet, date and performance.

Dave Figi

* Janesville, WI
* Phone: 608 754-0125
* Send results: WisconsinTrack Online
* e-mail contact to Dave Figi: info@wisconsintrackonline.com


Dave Lehmann:

* Parker High School, 3125 Mineral Point, Janesville, WI 53548.
* Phone: 608 743-5756
* e-mail:dlehmann@janesville.k12.wi.us