No T-bone, No Rules

Warning: The title was just a saying. It is not actually true.

Well, after being on high baby alert for awhile Coach Traughber got the a call and had to leave school early today. We wish the Traughbers: Coach, Liz, and Baby-T the best. You’re in our prayers.

Even without our fearless leader we pressed on. At the 210 goals meeting, Coach Williams took the helm and I took over writing the info on the whiteboard.

For practice it was the Greaser, Mosley, Mailbox routine. Abernathy, Seiler, little OC, and Martini were the Greaser guys. On our way there Jacob and I spontaneously created a new game that we then played for the entire rest of the run, stretching and even strides. We named it "See-Ya" and it was a ton of fun. They might be hard to understand, but here are the rules explained in words as best the can:

It is a game of naming things in the same category. One person stats by saying something, apple for instance. Then the next person says something else in that category, banana. So on and so forth. When a person repeats, misses the category, or takes too long they get a point. The goal is to have the least amount of points at the end. When someone gets it wrong everyone else yells, “See-ya!” The category is not said aloud, it gets established by the first 3 and then it’s up to whoever started the category to say if people miss. Easiest way to learn is to play with guys who know.

Quote of the Day: “SEE-YA!”- Abernathy and then everyone else when we were playing our new game that bears this name.
--kabes--

And now prerace coverage from Potter:

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Forest Park

On Saturday, the Cross Country Spartans will participate in the annual MCC Conference Race. Normally, this race is at Chaminade, but this year SLUH will host the meet at Forest Park.

The big story heading into Saturday, is after four years of hard work, Senior Josh Goetz will be racing in the top 7 for the first time. He is excited to say the least.

"Getting to run in the top seven on Saturday is a reminder to me that hard work and “buying in” pays off."

Something has clicked in the last few weeks for Josh, that has helped him to make the jump.

"This year the big difference was the mental game. I had a hard time convincing myself that I was in control of the hard workouts my sophomore and junior year and as I result I wasn’t performing any better when race time came around."

Unfortunately, the IR squad will have a new member this week in John Madey. John has had some hamstring pain, and should be good to go for districts. Senior Brian Scherping will remain on Varsity in the 7 spot.

Another runner that has made a huge impact on the team recently is Freshman Ben Gleidt. Ben came out a little late, so it took him slightly longer to get adjusted.

"I decided to come out for cross country for a few reasons. I was told by several friends that they were having a lot of fun with it, and that I should join. Also, I was feeling out of shape and thought that it would be a good way to get fit again. With other sports that I am doing later on, I thought I should build my endurance to be better prepared for those sports. Finally it just sounded like fun to me."

Junior Michael Ahlheim has been a JV team leader for years now. Conference is an awesome meet, but it is possible to get a little too worked up about it.

"I try to keep the same mindset for every race. If you get too pumped up for a race you can lose your composure and you lose focus on the goals of running with your pack. It does however give me a little more reason to give a bigger push at the end if I can beat a couple SLUH runners in the last mile or so."

Sophmore Justin Potter will continue to set new PRs and hopefully score for the JV. He talked about how his season has progressed up to this point.

"My season has progressed pretty good. I started out a little behind last year's PR, but now I feel great about where I am. My goal for the year is to break 19 minutes."

The four runners also talked about what the Conference meet means to them.

"Conference definitely has some bragging rights involved that you won’t find in other meets, but it also crucial to use as preparation for the other 'post-season' meets." Josh Goetz

"To me, Conference is really just another race. I try not to get too worked up for one individual meet. I think that I do best when I just focus on my race and doing the best I can." Michael Ahlheim

"The conference is different because only some schools can run in it and people take it very seriously" Justin Potter

"I am not sure what to expect of conference because I have never been to one, but I expect it to be a fun and competitive race." Ben Gleidt

Good luck to all the runners running tomorrow. Represent De Smet well! Say a prayer for the Traughbers!

From Forest Park
Alex Potter
M.T.B.L.