SAINT MICHAEL’S GAME UPDATE
The first two weeks of the season have been warm and busy, but that hasn’t prevented us from kicking off the 2023 St. Michael’s Games with two new events: a watermelon eating contest and a canoe relay race to the chapel and back on Lake Sag. This year’s roster was split into five St. Michael’s Games teams of seven guys each – three from each team were delegated as “eaters” and participated in the watermelon eating contest, and the other four were designated as their team’s paddlers for the canoe relay.
The watermelon eating contest proved to be a slam dunk event for some teams, and a real challenge for others. Each team drew a number out of a hat to determine which of the five watermelons they got as well as which of the five knife options from my wife and I’s house they got to use. Team Coffey Beans, with their three eaters of Joe Coffey (Kimberly, WI), Vincent Kaluza (Rocori) and Aidan Thomas (Totino-Grace) ran away with the inaugural title, finishing their watermelon in a blistering time of 5 minutes and 27 seconds. The Flying Clutchmen – Mason Allen (Park) Aaron Freier (Red Wing) and Lars Molenkamp (Almere, Netherlands) – were not far behind in 2nd with a time of 6:01. Then it got ugly. The 3rd and 4th place teams scratched and clawed, or should I say chewed, their way to finishing times of 11:58 and 16:14, with our 5th place team of Dylan Bartness (Robbinsdale Armstrong.), Danny Kloeppner (Champlin Park) and Peyton Martinek (Coon Rapids) registering as a DNF as they were unable to finish their watermelon. Tim and I applauded their effort but were disappointed in their result after so much smack talk. Here are a few highlight pictures:
The canoe relay took place this past Saturday at Lake Sag, with freshmen Peyton Martinek, fresh off his team’s DNF in the watermelon eating contest, serving as our official lifeguard for the competition to boost his student employment hours as a beach and pool lifeguard. Utilizing the campus’ free canoe rental system at Lake Sag, the four members of each St. Michael’s Game team who did not participate in the watermelon eating contest served as their team’s paddlers, with a few exceptions due to sickness. Each team’s first two paddlers started at the beach at Lake Sag and paddled out to the chapel where their other two teammates were waiting to switch places with them before paddling back to the beach. The race started off in pure disaster, as all five teams collided together while trying to get in and launch their canoes, sending several teams into a panic. Los Comodores’ first two paddlers in particular – Nate Courchane (Park) and Max McCoy (Mount Michael, NE) – had a very tough time as they instantly flipped their canoe, causing a large amount of water to get inside. After attempting to bail the water out by hand and flipping the canoe a second time, they decided to swim their canoe over to the floating raft in the lake and try to pull their canoe up before pouring all the water out… needless to say, Nate and Max got off to a poor start and really hampered their teams chances, leaving their relay teammates Eamon Cavanaugh (Oak Park-River Forest, IL) and Lloyd Young (Bloomington Kennedy), who were out at the chapel waiting for their time to shine, wondering what was going on. Meanwhile, Tommy Allen (St. Paul Academy) and James Leon (Bishop Amat, CA) of Team James Leon – Tim and I questioned this team name choice – were the first ones to reach the chapel and quickly swapped places with their teammates Joe Gathje (Bloomington Jefferson) and Gavin Swift (Bishop Garrigan, IA). Vincent Kaluza and Jacob Malecha (New Prague) came into the relay exchange at the chapel in 2nd place and passed off their canoe to AJ Karn (Wayzata) and Joe Coffey. Karn and Coffey had Joe Gathje and Swift in their sights the whole way back to the beach, eventually passing them to take over 1st place and establish our course record with a finishing time of 13:10.22. Highlights, including a video of the start line chaos:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gv09DQtJSMs2nMSkmENYcy0MuUDZN93S/view?usp=sharing
ALUMNI MEET – TONI ST. PIERRE INVITATIONAL THIS FRIDAY
Another reminder that our Toni St. Pierre Alumni Invitational is this Friday at Boulder Ridge Golf Course in St. Cloud. Race week is here, and the guys are excited to see where they are at after a long summer of training. The women race at 6:00pm and men at 6:45pm. Alumni are welcome to race or spectate, and we are planning for a post-race gathering in the Boulder Ridge Golf Course clubhouse/restaurant with pizza, drinks, etc. Thanks to those of you who have already reached out about racing! Here is the link to register for the race for anyone else interested in running: https://www.directathletics.com/meets/xc/22411.html.
GO JOHNNIES CHALLENGE – THIS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7TH
Lastly, the Go Johnnies Challenge is this Thursday, September 7th as well. This is the Saint John’s athletic department’s annual fundraiser where every dollar you give and designate for cross country/track & field goes directly to us. This event is extremely important for our program, and in the past it has allowed us to provide opportunities and experiences that otherwise would not be possible. Examples include our 2021 trip to Oregon, our upcoming trip this season to race at the Pre-National meet in Pennsylvania, as well as the trip the track & field team takes to California almost every year. These trips, in cross country at least, put us in a better position to qualify for the national meet as a team by racing against teams from other regions, and they are also great team bonding trips for the guys that give them a chance to race against some higher competition. As Jeremy mentioned last week, your support also allows us to carry a larger roster and make sure everyone is provided with the same experience while on our team. Recently we have also purchased a Lightspeed Lift treadmill system, which is an anti-gravity training system that will aid in injury rehabilitation and prevention. It will help our guys get back to running quicker when coming back from an injury, and also serve the team in a preventative fashion for guys who have proven to be more injury prone in the past by allowing them to run with only about 60% of their body weight while on the treadmill – putting less impact and stress on their legs while running. Anyways, this is another great addition to our program that would likely not be possible without your support.
How to help:
Support the Cross Country/Track & Field Teams through a simple donation. Make sure to set Cross Country/Track & Field as the designation.
Become an advocate and encourage and promote the event on any social media outlets. We can use all the social media help we can get!
If so inclined, set up a matching gift that will encourage others to donate. Make sure to set Cross Country/Track & Field as the matching designation.
Enter dollar amount and decide if you will make the full gift regardless If the match is not complete met (check box)
Select “Other” and enter a dollar amount to give and check the “Per donor” box
Select the Match a designation box and select the designation you want to match
Fill out the rest of the form
Thank you so much for your support in years past, and Tim and I hope to see you on Friday in St. Cloud!
- Maxwell & Tim
