Maxwell here -- It’s been a whirlwind last few weeks for obvious reasons, but a great first two weeks of practice. The guys are excited to be back on campus, and have had a great summer of training. Before going too much further, I just want to address the elephant in the room and say how excited and thankful I am to be in this position. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the tradition and history of this program, and am sincerely honored to be able to work towards it’s continued success. I said this in my quote in the original press release too, but I mean it... In my eyes, and I know in all of yours, there could not be a bigger act to follow. Luckily for me and the current team members, Tim will be sticking around to continue to provide his wisdom (and humor) to the team on a daily basis – all while being able to enjoy his morning at Subway in peace without being rushed to campus for any department staff meetings! In all seriousness, as you all know, Saint John’s has been beyond lucky to have Tim all these years, and we are still considering ourselves the “luckiest of the lucky” that he will continue to be involved with the team. Quite the volunteer assistant coach.
Tim talks about this more in his statement below, but we have our first meet next Friday in St. Cloud, the CSB+SJU Toni St. Pierre Invitational 5k at Boulder Ridge Golf Course, and would love to see as many alumni there as possible. A bit of a late notice, we know, but we are hoping to have a great team of alumni, of all ages, run in the race with our current team. Spectating alumni are more than welcome as well. TBA on some sort of alumni gathering after the races — either at the golf course’s restaurant or maybe somewhere in St. Joe. More info on that soon.
Here is our 2023 racing schedule, for those who are curious:
September 8th - Toni St. Pierre Invitational 5k (St. Cloud, Minn.)
September 16th - Running of the Cows 8k (Northfield, Minn.)
September 29th - UW Eau Claire Blugold Invite (Colfax, Wis.)
October 7th - Pre-National Meet (Carlisle, Penn.)
October 14th - UW La Crosse Jim Drews Invite (West Salem, Wis.)
October 28th - MIAC Championships (Northfield, Minn.)
November 3rd - Fall Finale (Collegeville, Minn.)
November 11th - NCAA North Regional (Colfax, Wis.)
November 18th - NCAA DIII Championships (Carlisle, Penn.)
Watch your inbox next week for a St. Michael’s Games competition update as well as more info about the upcoming season. With four of our top five from last year’s regional team returning this year and a great group of young up-and-comers, as well as a good-sized freshmen class, we are really looking forward to October and November.
And now for Tim’s portion of the message:
At age 69, I don’t think I need to explain my retirement. I am enjoying my free time while still getting to be a volunteer assistant coach. But with Maxwell eminently ready to go, this was absolutely the right time.
Maxwell has already breathed new life into our Saint Michael’s Games (intrasquad competition) with two new events: the watermelon eating contest and the canoe race. And our first race will be new, too, with the CSB/SJU Toni St. Pierre 5K Invitational at Boulder Ridge Golf Course on Friday, September 8th in the evening. 6 PM for the women, 6:45 PM for the men. This will be a joint Alumnae/Alumni Meet, and if ever there was a person and runner who could be celebrated by both teams, it would be Toni.
Toni attended Hopkins Eisenhower High School where she ran 2:18 and 5:02 before graduating in 1973. She was also an exceptional Nordic skier. Eisenhower had no girls teams at that time. The boys coach, Pat Lanin, told her she could run with the boys team, but the Minnesota State High School League said she could not. In a landmark case, Toni successfully sued the High School League for the right to do so.
When Toni enrolled at Saint Ben’s in 1973, there was not yet a cross country or track and field team, so she trained and, on at least one occasion, raced with the Saint John’s team. She was our teammate and, in every way, she was wonderful. Toni was competing at a very high level in triathlons well into her 50s before we lost her to cancer in 2013.
Let this first Toni St. Pierre Invitational be a celebration of Toni, and let it be a celebration of all the friendships we made during our college cross country years.
We hope to see you next Friday at the Toni St. Pierre Invitational and alumni meet, and hope you all had a great summer!
- Maxwell & Tim
