A senior runner at Valders High School that’s been part of 3 State championship Cross Country Teams AND a three-time State Champion in Track, will be attending UW-Milwaukee in the Fall.
Nate Griepentrog signed his national letter of intent to run cross country & track for the Panthers. Griepentrog on his new opportunity, “It’s extremely humbling that I can get such a great opportunity to run at such a high level and I’m really looking forward to my next four years at UW Milwaukee. It’s going to be a really great experience and I can’t wait.”
Nate earned a sizeable sports scholarship to go along with his academic GPA of 3.952. He’ll be running with former Valders teammate, Trevor Wenzel, at Milwaukee. Coach Bill Dietrich says Nate possesses the ‘drive’ to succeed. “Even in middle school when he would run the 800, I believe he was always after the middle school record that was held by Robert Linsmier.”
Griepentrog says he made a decision to give up football after middle school, and it ‘changed his life forever. “It’s given me so many more opportunities, I can’t really imagine myself not running anymore. It’s just who I’ve become as a person. I’ve made so many memories and good friends as a runner.”
Coach Dietrich says Nate signed his letter of intent Friday afternoon in the gym in front of a high school assembly. “It’s a proud moment. I don’t know what the statistics are, I think it’s like less than 1% of all high school ever go on to play at a Division one or even a Collegiate level.”
Griepentrog had to be pleasantly surprised at the assembly because his former and ‘future’ teammate at Milwaukee, Trevor Wenzel made a surprise appearance. Nate plans to pursue his major in Bio-medical Engineering with hopes to later attend medical school to become an orthopedic surgeon.
