2ND ANNUAL TONI ST. PIERRE INVITATIONAL RECAP
We opened our season this past Friday with a 5K at Boulder Ridge Golf Course in St. Cloud, and I’ve listed the results below. Obviously a lot more to look forward to in the season ahead, but this was a great start to our season with many guys running PRs and several freshmen obliterating their high school 5K PR. We were led by senior Eamon Cavanaugh in 15:34, sophomore Vincent Kaluza in 15:36, sophomore Cole Stencel in 15:40, junior Nick St. Peter in 15:43 and senior Dylan Bartness in 15:48. We knew we’d have a big pack up front, but weren’t exactly sure how it’d shake out between the guys. Excited to get on with the rest of the season and give our guys 3,000 more meters to work with!
Wisconsin-Stout is a good team, ranked #25 in the NCAA, and Bethel will have a good 1-2 punch this fall with returner Grant Graber and freshman Hootie Hage, so it was great to get a chance to see how we measured up this early in the season with a lowkey meet. It will be exciting to get the opportunity to race these teams again over 8,000m later this season, including at our next meet — the St. Olaf Invitational on Saturday, September 21st — which will also give us a preview of the course that this year’s MIAC Championship will be run on. Photo highlights below (click to enlarge).
Thanks to all the alums that came out to watch the meet last Friday and enjoy some pizza after the races!
GO JOHNNIES CHALLENGE - THIS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12!!
Our annual Go Johnnies Challenge athletic department fundraiser is coming up tomorrow (Thursday 9/12), and we are always so grateful for the tremendous alumni support we receive for cross country and track & field. You may have read Jeremy’s blog post from last week already but, in short, we literally could not do what we do without your support. In addition to just simply helping us carry one of the largest teams, both in cross country and track & field, in the conference, here is a glimpse of the other things the funds from the Go Johnnies Challenge have gone towards the last couple years that we otherwise would not have been able to do / purchase:
New uniforms and warmups
Travel to out-of-state meets, such as Oregon in the fall of 2021 and Pennsylvania in the fall of 2023, as well as our annual trip to the Bryan Clay Invitational in Los Angeles, CA during the track & field season
Light Speed Lift anti-gravity / body-weight-support treadmill system, becoming one of the only programs in MN to have one
Our annual (from now on) pre-season training camp trip for cross country (our Itasca State Park trip this year)
School record board in the indoor track
Here is the link to donate: 2024 Go Johnnies Challenge · GiveCampus. The big day is not officially until tomorrow (Thursday) but you can donate anytime, and a special shoutout to Chris Lee and Jerome and Laura Colbert who have already committed to very generous matching gifts. Thanks in advance for the support!
And now for an inside look at the watermelon eating contest from our Itasca training camp a couple weeks ago, and another look at the ill-fated start of our canoe relay from last year (which is still quite funny one year later and worth another watch).
Maxwell
