If you want to be a head cross country coach in Lincoln, there's patience involved. Those jobs do not open up very often.
At Lincoln Northeast, John Snoozy is in his 27th year, David Nebel has 23 years at Southeast and Ryan Salem 17 years at Lincoln Southwest. George O鈥橞oyle did 54 years at Pius X and then stayed on as an assistant coach.
But if you wait your turn, you may get to take over a really strong program, and that鈥檚 where Brian Wandzilak is as the new head coach at Lincoln North Star.
In his first season after being promoted to head coach, the North Star boys won the Lincoln Public Schools championship on Friday. The Navigators are ranked No. 2 in Class A, behind Fremont. Cross country has been one of the school鈥檚 most successful sports.
North Star won the LPS meet with 32 points. Lincoln East finished second with 53 and Lincoln Southwest was third.
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North Star was remarkable 鈥 it had four of the top five finishers in the race.
鈥淎 lot of teams have done three in the top five,鈥 Wandzilak said. 鈥淪ome of the old Southeast teams, and some of the recent Southwest and East girls teams have done three. But four is really special."
It is the seventh boys team championship for North Star at the city meet.
North Star junior Josiah Bitker won in 15 minutes, 46 seconds on the 3.1-mile course at Pioneers Park. That鈥檚 the second time he鈥檚 gone under 16 minutes in two weeks on the challenging course. He moved up to No. 2 in school history on the course, passing Mohamed Hamden (15:54) and trailing only Liem Chot (15:41).
In second place was North Star sophomore J鈥橲hawn Afuh in 15:59. What鈥檚 impressive about that is it鈥檚 his first year running cross country.
Last spring in track, he ran middle distance and did the high jump and he was encouraged to try cross country. But Afuh did not run as much as some of his teammates this summer because he played summer basketball.
鈥淗e鈥檚 just kind of figuring things out and he broke 16 minutes. That鈥檚 remarkable,鈥 Wandzilak said.
North Star鈥檚 Easton Zastrow was third, and the Gators鈥 Tyler Smith was fifth.
Only Lincoln East鈥檚 Ben Schlegelmilch in fourth place could break up North Star鈥檚 top group.
Wandzilak was promoted after previous head coach Matt Musiel left after 21 years to be a college coach at Bellevue University. Wandzilak ran cross country at Lincoln Southeast and had been an assistant at North Star for about 20 years.
Wandzilak was hired in the spring.
鈥淧eople will say I should have expected it, but you just don鈥檛 know until you get it,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 really wanted it. I wanted to continue on what Matt and I had been doing for two decades.鈥
North Star also won the LPS meet last year and finished fifth at state. They are even better this year.
鈥淚鈥檓 trying to enjoy it. You don鈥檛 get teams like this terribly often,鈥 Wandzilak said.
SOUTHWEST GIRLS TAKE OVER
There is a new top girls team in the city.
Lincoln Southwest won the championship, ending Lincoln East's run of nine straight LPS championships.
Southwest won with 25 points and Lincoln East was second with 61. Lincoln High finished third. Southwest won the city title for the eighth time.
Southwest won even without one of its top runners, Silvy Munn, due to illness.
鈥(Munn being out) makes me nervous until my coaches bring me back to earth where they鈥檙e saying we have a strong core, and they鈥檙e fit,鈥 Southwest coach Ryan Salem said. 鈥淲e had a really good summer.鈥
Southwest had six of the top 10 finishers in the eight-team race: Meredith Marsh (first), Hannah Soucie (second), Victoria Sinitsky (sixth), Mya Kafka (seventh), Olivia Linderman (ninth) and Izzy Gilbertson (10th).
The Silver Hawks are ranked No. 2 in Class A, behind Millard West.
Marsh is a sophomore who won her first race of the season and first city title.
鈥淪he and I had a conversation Thursday night that this was her time,鈥 Salem said. 鈥淪he obviously had to pay huge respect to Hope Riedel from North Star (who finished third). Meredith just decided to dream big today.鈥