Welcome Back

Today was the 2nd Annual Alumni Run. As part of this event last year, the new track was officially opened. With the track now being a year old (and full of bubbles), there was a greater focus on the alumni this year. We welcomed guys back from as far as the Class of 1979.

It was a fairly pleasant morning at least compared to the rest of the week. Things got started off with a prayer and blessing by DeSmet President, Fr. Sydney. After this, the alums were introduced to the current team and the alums to the seniors.

Then, former coach, Mr. Sothers, started the 3200m race. The race was Alumni dominated. Their top 5: Connor Callahan (’09, Marquette) who won the race for the second straight year running 9:55; Ethan Stack (’10, SLU) finish 2nd in 9:59; Zach Boyle (’10, Maryville) a Milk Table Hall of Famer; Rob Garwitz (‘05) the new coach, finished 5th; Jordan Mahood (‘07) a close 6th, one second behind Rob. This gave them a score of 17. The current runners had a score of 44. Abernathy finished 4th in 10:15, 40 seconds faster than last year. Next came Hussmann in 10:55 for 8th, followed by Matt OC in 11:01. Waller and Seiler rounded out the top 5. Coach Traughber (‘97) finished in 30th place.

The Callahan Brothers and The O'Connor Brothers

T-Bone and his runners & A runited Wolf-Pack

New this year was the 1600m meter race. Some the Alumni, mostly recent grads, chose this option, and raced against the newcomers and freshmen. Stack took the gold in 5:01. Yes, he did run in the mile race right after the 2 mile. Silver went to Jeff Harvath of the Class of 1998. Running his first mile race since last cross country season because he became a 400/800 specialist, Gibby (‘10) got the bronze in 5:16. Other notables were: the enforcer, Blake Bender (‘10), who was in full Race-Day Black; the dynamic duo of KD & Lang (‘08) finishing right behind each other; and Mike Jezewak who never on the team, but was a volleyball State Champ with Bender.

Gibby and the Enforcer

There was a BBQ afterwards for everyone to hangout and chat, a great chance to meet the former runners and hear the stories of the past. There were stat books that dated way back for everyone to check out and relive past seasons. I had the opportunity to go on a short cool down with a group of alums before this, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s just really cool realizing that we are a part of something greater.

Again, this was an awesome event and I’m already looking forward to next year’s when I’m going to be on the other side.

Quote of the Day: “And now Connor is about to lap his other brother on the far turn”- Coach Russo. There were three Callahans in this year’s race and that will increase in the coming years as the youngest Callahans were there watching.

Best Dressed: If you happened to walk by or for that matter be within eyesight of the DeSmet track Saturday morning you saw one of the most dedicated efforts for the best dressed award. Kevin Abernathy with the Barcelona salmon colored shirts, socks, shorts, AND matching headband. Won the attention of all the participants and the spectators of the DeSmet 2nd annual 2 mile race. This bold dress choice will set a tough standard that will be tough to match throughout the season.
-Best Dressed written by Boyle-

Plus Two

Another hot day for practice, but things were slightly different. Today, we got rewarded. Rewarded with a pool party. But to go to the party, one had to make it through practice first.

For most guys, this meant one of a couple different routes to Conway Park and then a couple tempo miles. We did the plus two tempo miles to get a little bit of speed work in before the highly anticipated Alumni Race this weekend. Everyone battled and took care of business on the tempos. I had Rob with me which made it way better.

After a stop at the picket we headed back to DeSmet. Rob, our new coach and 4 year member of the team in the early 2000s, gave Jacob and I a history lesson on some of the teams of the past. It is always cool to hear about the guys that have come before us in the program. There are so many stories, all of them unique. During the stretching, we realized it was Potter’s birthday, so we sang to him. Then, he got the water dump, fortunately for him there wasn’t much water left.


For the 2nd year in a row the team pool party was at Coach Boland’s house. And again it was a blast. Thank you very much for having us Coach. There was a bunch of stuff to do: basketball, washers, ladder golf, trampoline, and of course the pool. After defeating Matt OC in both ladder golf and washers, we teamed up to become team washers champions with our victory over Waller-Martini. During this time all sorts of craziness was happening in the pool. Splash bombs were going everywhere hitting anyone that they pleased. Patrick was being launched and did a flip. The grand finale was the races: Team Callahan (Michael, Patrick, Morris, and Sullivan) vs. Team Abernathy (Kevin, Matt, Potrzeboski, and LaBarge). It started with two freestyle relay races. With excellent performances from OC, Team Abernathy took both races. Next was the medley. Again Team Abernathy won as Potrzeboski beat out Sullivan on the final leg. Matt and I put our undefeated record on the line in one final race: 2v2 first half breaststroke second half freestyle. Patrick and I were dead even through the first leg. It came down to Michael and Matt. Mike took the lead on the breast, but Matt kicked him down in the free securing the victory by the slightest of margins.

This great day was capped off with another practice. This time it was a 1 or 2 mile run, weights, and core. The top guys saw the return of speed skating as the 2 miler was broken into two races. Again it was Abernathy and O’Connor on top, as each finished with a Gold and a Silver.

Quote of the Day: “Tell Coach Traughber that I said you could have the day off.”- Coach Vitello as we ran by on the warm-up.

Joke of the Day: “At least it wasn’t a jellyfish”- Matt O’Connor in response to someone saying they were stung by a bee. As most of us know, Matt was stung in the face by a jellyfish while vacationing in North Carolina.

Best Dressed: Matt OC. Having an all-around solid day will enhance anyone’s appearance. He was rocking the Jamers today. Yes, the half tights of swimming. After wearing them under his shorts during the first practice, he finally showed them off when it was race time in the pool.

New Season, New Routine

There a few things like the glorious first day of cross country season. As Coach Traughber and some others pointed out, one of those things is Christmas. And the day did not disappoint, as it was full of lots of presents.

The first being the all-new, completely revised practice routine. The biggest change being the revamping of the warm-up. To some people’s distress, the new routine still includes running. Sorry, but I don’t think there was much hope that that aspect of it was going to go the way-side like static stretching. The guys that came to the 2nd Camp this summer were familiar with it, and other guys caught on quickly. The warm-up is now either 3 or 4 laps, dynamic stretching, loosening skips, and sometimes drills (depends on the workout). All of the static stretching is now done after the run.

Now on to the big present: The Mile Time Trial. There was an impressive performance in the first heat by Patrick Callahan. All of his summer miles, paid off big time as he went tape-to-tape for the victory. Coming in after him was newcomer Potrzeboski and big-time summer runner Pribe. In the second heat, I, like Patrick, went tape-to-tape and finished in 4:45 two seconds better than last year. Next was the very impressive sophomore, Husmann who made a really big move and came in 4:57. Scherping was good in his XC debut finishing third.

Then came the business side of things. After I had the honored privilege to read the Program Philosophy, T-Bone introduced everyone and went over all the typical rules and lifestyle issues. Jack and I cooled down together. We tied in slug-bugs, but there is a long road ahead of that. As everyone knows, it was crazy hot. Because of this Jack decided to run through some sprinklers. What he didn’t know was that the sprinklers were in a lawn that is a finalist for some Creve Couer Beautiful lawn contest or something like that.

Quote of the Day: “It’s not hard to drink water”- Coach Traughber while talking about the importance of hydrating.

Best Dressed: Seiler. There just anything out there that can compete with Jacob’s Time Trial uniform. Mostly because it’s a legit uniform that’s totally awesome. On top of that, he ran well shaving 5 seconds off his time from last year. He had to other things going for him to help in earning this. The first is that no one has really seen him all summer because he’s been working, but that didn’t stop him from bringing his A game the first day back. The second is tradition, as he was the first winner last track season as well.