“The Lord brought about a great victory that day”

The Sweepers and the 1st Place Trophy

What a day! Today was the All-Catholic Meet at Chaminade. The DeSmet Track Team showed up looking to defend the title. That title was defended in force in large part to great performances from the distance squad. The team finished with 169 points, 67 more than 2nd place CBC and 43 more than our winning score from last year.

In a schedule change, the 3200 race was first. Stack and Seiler represented the Spartans in this contest. Running a smart, controlled race Stack took the lead on about the 6th lap and finished with a PR of 10:14 and the gold medal. Seiler also PRed coming in at 10:48.

Next up was the 4x800. Matt OC led off with a 2:12, a 13 second PR. In a reversal of earlier this year he handed off to his brother. The baton moved to Husmann and then Waller who brought it home for 5th place. After the race, as typical brothers, the OCs argued over who ran their leg faster. Big OC, whose time was a couple ticks slower than lil OC’s claimed it was because he received the baton before the line and that if he would have received it at the line then the times would have been even. Who was actually faster? It will always depend on who you ask.

A little later on, Boyle and I lined up for the 1600. The field got out a little slow, and I had trouble adjusting. I moved to the front on the 3rd lap and took the bell. I ran a solid final lap to earn my second straight gold in a time of 4:35, two seconds over my PR. Boyle was dealing with prom-legs, but still ran well, a solid 4:45. This is not the last you will hear of the milers.

The 800. The pressure was on Potter in this race. He’s the defending champion and trying to complete the DeSmet distance sweep. Like any great runner, he delivered. And on top of that, it was also PR fashion, 2:02.2. Scherping bounced back from last race with a 2:09. This race was a good learning experience for him because it showed that he has to get out faster if he wants to bring his time down.

In the final event of the day, the 4x400 Relay, Boyle filled in and joined me to give the distance team control of half of the relay team. We both cranked out the one lap like it was nothing. Seriously, who runs one lap? We finished in third to close out a great day.

Quote of the Day: “Time out! Calm down!”- the Archivist to Boyle, Potter, and I. Now you ask, who is the Archivist? He’s better known as Fr. Wally Sidney’s evil twin, and he stopped and chatted with pretty much the whole team today. He interrupted Seiler and Stack’s warm-up for like 10 minutes after they stopped to look at a creepy statue. Later he got the rest of us and asked if we were from “DJ.” Remember to be on the lookout for evil Wally at all times.

Joke of the Day: Gibby took some shots at me before the 4x4.

Kabes: This will be the first time in a while that I might have to hold somebody off.
Gibby: What about when you had to hold off like 130 guys? Does that not count?
Kabes: Hey! Don’t bring State into this.
Gibby: Oh, still don’t talk about it?
Kabes: It’s okay. We’re on the track now.
Gibby: So you have no hills to crawl up?

The title is a Bible quote (2 Samuel 23:10). It was inspired by Gibby.