Muskego runner competes with happy feet
If you're planning on talking about Kate Sperka with someone who knows her, you better have some time on your hands.
That's the way it goes when it comes to Sperka, a senior at Muskego, whose excellence as a cross country runner takes a backseat to her jubilant disposition
“I'm talking about her right now,” said Muskego head coach Katrina Beeck. “And it's making me smile.”
On the cross country course, Sperka is about as good as it gets at the high school level. She began by taking second place at the Division 1 state meet as a freshman and then repeated that performance a year later. As a junior, she finished fourth and then weeks later burst onto the national scene with a second-place race at the Nike Cross Country Midwest Regionals.
Sperka has been the top finisher from the southeastern Wisconsin area all three years and is a three-time Journal Sentinel High School Sports Awards girls cross country runner of the year recipient.
For Sperka, though, those around Muskego will tell you the individual accolades pale in comparison to the team success of which she has been a part.
“She couldn't care less about the individual stuff,” said Rich Raney, who coached Sperka at Muskego for three years. “It's amazing. The team is the world to her. She wears that and handles that burden of being the top runner with the same amount of poise that she handles everything.”
The Warriors have fared pretty well with Sperka lacing them up.
They dominated at the 2018 state cross country meet, winning the team championship for the first time in program history. Last fall, they did it again. Sandwiched in between was a Division 1 track and field team title which was aided by Sperka being a part of the first-place 3,200 relay team and placing in both the 1,600 and 3,200.
Also last fall, Muskego also became just the second Wisconsin girls team to qualify for the Nike Cross Nationals, in large part to Sperka's memorable effort.
“I absolutely love the team aspect of cross country more than anything,” Sperka said. “For me, cross country is a heavily team-based sport. As much as it seems all individual, it's funny because you're only as strong as the first and the last person to cross the line.”
What defines Sperka's personality is her constant joy. What defines her as a runner is her constant determination.
When Sperka was a middle-schooler in Muskego, a colleague once told Beeck that they saw Sperka out running on their way into work at 6 a.m. on a weekday.
“She loves the sport,” Beeck said. “It's not just something that someone makes her do. It's what she wants and she's dedicated to it. Running completes her.”
That dedication was tested in an intrasquad race right before sophomore year when she felt “shooting pains” up her IT band (connective tissue that runs on the outside of the leg from hip to knee and shin). The injury kept her out nearly the entirety of the season. When she returned at the end of the regular season for the Classic 8 Conference meet, she had done almost no high-exertion running in months.
“I went out there with a chip on my shoulder,” Sperka said. “I didn't get any of the season. I didn't get to race, didn't get to be with my teammates, had to train with myself. When I got the opportunity I wanted to take every opportunity.”
A fourth-place finish in the conference and second-place run at sectionals set the table for what Raney described as the Sperka race that stood out to him above the rest. At one of the toughest courses in the state (The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids) and against the best of the best, Sperka dropped the hammer in her final mile to take second in the state meet, finishing nearly 80 seconds faster than her first race back.
“She was putting herself on that line not knowing what the results would be,” Raney said. “Seeing her overcome that type of anxiety, for me, seeing how fearlessly she went out, that was my proudest moment for her.”