Cross country season will be here before we know it. The guys are getting after it now in summer training, and with five of our top seven from last year coming back plus the return of 15:10 5000m man Eamon Cavanaugh, who missed most of cross country last year with a stress fracture, we are looking forward to a great fall. Last year’s graduating seniors will be hard to replace, but I am excited to get into the season and wanted to reach out to you all with some upcoming dates to add to your calendar. There may even be some bonus highlight pictures from last year’s cross country banquet at the end of this post since I never posted those last year. Hope to see you on September 6th and on October 5th, and I will be in touch again in a week or two with another blog post that will likely contain an apparel order form if you are interested in purchasing any SJU cross country apparel. Hope you are having a great summer!

-Maxwell

Friday, September 6th

The 2nd Annual Toni St. Pierre Invitational

This is both ours and the CSB team's season opening race at Boulder Ridge Golf Course in St. Cloud, named after a CSB cross country/track alum who was instrumental in women’s sports and Title IX and actually practiced with the SJU team during Tim’s years at SJU before CSB officially had a cross country/track & field team. There will be food for alumni and the current team members after the races. It was great to get a good showing of alumni spectators last year. Would be great to have an alumni team running in the race this year, too! Women's race is at 6:00pm and the men's race is at 6:45pm, and we are both racing 5K. Bethel, Wisconsin-Stout, Wisconsin-Superior, Augsburg and Northwestern (Minn.) are also scheduled to join us thus far.

Saturday, October 5th

Saint John's Hall of Honor Induction Dinner for TIM Miles & CHUCK Ceronsky and Homecoming Weekend

Our very own Chuck Ceronsky ’70 and Tim Miles ‘76 will be getting inducted into the J-Club Hall of Honor (the SJU athletic department's hall of fame) on October 5th at the annual induction dinner in Guild Hall during Homecoming weekend on campus. The time of the dinner is 5:15pm and registration for that should be announced later this summer. Anybody is welcome to come to the dinner, and it would be great to get a good showing of support for Chuck and Tim. I have already spoken with many alumni who plan to be there.

If you will be coming up for the ceremony that day, I would also like to invite each of you to join us at our cross country practice that morning at 9:00am with our current team to gather and listen to stories from Chuck and Tim, as well as have alumni and the current team "interview" the both of them. There is an SJU football game as well as many other Homecoming festivities during the day to fill up your time between our practice time and the induction dinner, too.

Chuck Ceronsky

SJU Class of 1970
SJU’S FIRST CC All-American
Hall of Honor Class of 2024

After being a primary contributor to SJU’s MIAC Cross Country titles in 1968 and 1969 as well as SJU’s MIAC Track & Field title in 1970, Chuck stayed in Collegeville to serve as Assistant Coach to Jim Smith for both cross country and track & field for a period of time, including while a young Tim Miles was in school. While an athlete at SJU, Chuck was a two-time All-American in the steeplechase as well as SJU’s first ever cross country All-American in 1968 when he finished 19th at the national cross country meet. Chuck, while also being a top notch human being, was really a key player in the group that kicked off SJU’s success in cross country / track & field along with teammates John Cragg, Joe Skaja, Jeff Brain and more.

Tim with his MIAC Distinguished Service Award that he received in the spring of 2024

Tim Miles

SJU Class of 1976
Hall of Honor Class of 2024

The man who needs no introduction…

2023 CC Banquet Highlights

A new addition to the banquet festivities to add in some Christmas flare…. Serran wrap balls with bonus St. Michael’s Games points wrapped inside them. Must be unwrapped as fast as you can while wearing oven mitts and a Santa hat before the person next to you rolls doubles with dice, signifying the end of your turn.

Jacob Gathje with his (and the winning) show and tell item. Jacob had an elaborate (and made-up) story detailing where he got this polar bear from, but the real joke of it all was that it was the grand door prize that Tim gave away at a cross country banquet from a couple of years ago that the team apparently still has in their possession.

A live look at one of the St. Michael’s Games teams’ one act play – a reenactment of the Miles wedding from October, with sophomore Jack Giitter (left) playing Sue Miles, senior Carter Grove (right) playing Tim and freshman Jack Johnston (center) serving as the Officiant. Quite funny.

An action shot of our Christmas Cookie Decorating Contest for the St. Michael’s Games along with a look at all of the teams’ final products. Note the cookie on the top left that is a depiction of our very own Nick St. Peter after he was bit by a dog while on a run on the backside of campus during this past cross country season.

Our freshmen class sporting the new tradition of freshmen gifts – funky SJU CC ties (from Savers of course). Because we are “all business” here in Collegeville. Bonus points went to their St. Michael’s Games team if they could correctly tie their tie within 30 seconds. Only two freshmen were successful despite some raucous cheering from the crowd.

Our seniors with their traditional senior ash trays as well as, in what is a new addition to the senior gifts, embroidered bath towels and soap to aid them in the next step of their running journey – inevitably becoming “washed up”.