St. Croix Central's Stephen Brunshidle places 87th at state cross country meet

• Stephen Brunshidle

St. Croix Central senior Stephen Brunshidle (center) is shown competing in the 2011 WIAA Division 2 state cross country championship race.

Talk about it

Success is all in how you view things.

St. Croix Central senior Stephen Brunshidle placed 87th in the 2011 WIAA Division 2 Boys Cross Country State Championships, held Saturday at The Ridges Golf Club in Wisconsin Rapids.

St. Croix Central coach Bill Emery said Brunshidle wasn’t happy with his performance at state. Brunshidle had hoped to crack the top 50 in his second chance at running in the WIAA state meet. He also ran at state as a freshman, when he placed 95th. His time of 17:40 this year was 13 seconds better than his time in 2008.

Emery had a different view of Brunshidle’s performance at state. Brunshidle underwent an appendectomy in September and missed nearly a full month of the season. Emery viewed the fact that Brunshidle was able to qualify for state at all as miraculous.

“I don’t think he’s 100 percent, not even close,” Emery said. “I’d guess he’s 85 or 90 percent, which is pretty good, cosidering.”

Brunshidle ran the first mile at state just as he’d hoped, nailing his target time. The gap in his conditioning caught up with him in the second mile of the race.

“His first mile was awesome,” Emery said. “He did exactly what we had planned.”

Tags: cross country, sports, panthers, prep