Go Johnnies Challenge and Season Update

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SEPTEMBER 3 GO JOHNNIES CHALLENGE

The Go Johnnies Challenge is tomorrow, Wednesday, September 3. Jeremy did a great job of laying out the opportunities to contribute to the track and field and cross country teams in the blog he sent earlier today. I will include those opportunities, too, and the end of this report. He wrote a great blog, and I guarantee you will want to read it. Here’s a video describing The 2020 Jeremey vs. Joe Decathlon Challenge they came up with.

OUR CROSS COUNTRY FALL

Thirty-eight souls have reported for the start of our cross country season. With the conference meet scheduled on April 10 at St. Olaf, it will be a long season. And that’s more than okay. It’s great to be back together again, and we hope we can keep it that way. Safe when running or in their dorm rooms or apartments, everybody is masked up.

I am attaching our training and intra-squad racing plan for the fall. It will be a little different. We all missed the outdoor season, so we are going to have a bit of a hybrid approach which gives the mid-distance runners a chance to find a bit of their sweet spot this fall. We kicked things off this afternoon with a three mile time trial on the Wobegon Trail. We sized up the wind and put it at our backs.

Unless we have five or more intercollegiate cross country competitions next March and April (and we won’t), this cross country season will not count against anybody’s eligibility. So any person who happens to be back for a fifth fall will be good to go.

Saint Ben’s coach Robin Balder-Lanoue texted me this morning about a virtual 5K with Concordia on October 3 if we are interested. To keep things fair, I presume that would be on our respective tracks. This might work. You can see we had planned on a 5K or 8K intra-squad on Wildcat (by the Maple Sugar Shack) that day. And our Saint John’s track is more sheltered from big winds than is the Concordia track, so this might be more than fair.

I like our team a lot and in every way. Top returners from a year ago include:

Noah Webb (Sr., St. Cloud Tech): Noah has been in our top seven the past two falls and ran 25:58.3 on the Wartburg course at Regions as a sophomore.

Dillon Diekmann (Jr., Cretin-Derham Hall): Dillon was our third finisher at Regions a year ago.

Andy Goldsmith (Jr., Cascia Hall, Tulsa, Okla.): Andy emerged as our fourth finisher in 26:32.5 at last fall’s MIAC Championship.

Mitchell Grand (So., Hutchinson): Mitchell ran in our top seven as a freshman and finished 5th in last spring’s MIAC indoor mile in 4:19.66.

Tom Nemanich (So., Red Wing): Tom was All-Conference Honorable Mention with his 25th place finish in 26:14.2 last fall as a freshman.

Lloyd Young (Fr., Bloomington Kennedy): After a summer and fall of National Guard service, Lloyd enrolled last spring and ran indoor bests of 4:24.87 and 8:55.19 in the mile and 3K, respectively.

Support for this lead cast will come from a lot of others, including a bevy of strong middle-distance runners who had good summers and have an affinity for the 8K distance, too. You can find the complete college racing record of any collegiate athlete at tfrrs.com

A BUSY SPRING

Looking on the bright side, we are a young team, so a cross country championship on April 10 may be a good thing. This fall will be a big stepping stone. Next winter and spring will be, hopefully, busy. A MIAC indoor championship the last weekend in February. Weather allowing, a cross country race in mid-March. (Those who raced in the 1991 MIAC “Halloween Blizzard 28 inches of snow let’s move the meet to St. Olaf on Wednesday and plow a one mile loop and run it five times in a ten below zero windchill” Championship will be asking themselves, “Weather allowing?”) And then an outdoor season. Wonderful!

This all requires good science and good health. Godspeed to us all. Here we go!

Tim

MAKING A GIFT

There are a number of ways you can help:

1. Support the TF/CC programs through a simple donation. Make sure to set TF/CC as the designation. DONATE

2. Become an advocate and encourage and promote the event on any social media outlets. ADVOCATE

3. If so inclined, set up a matching gift that will encourage others to donate. Make sure to set TF/CC as the matching designation. MATCHING GIFT

a. Enter dollar amount and decide if you will make the full gift regardless If the match is not complete met (check box)

b. Select “Other” and enter a dollar amount to give and check the “Per donor” box

c. Select the Match a designation box and select the designation you want to match

d. Fill out the rest of the form