Parkway West Invite

McNair Park

On Saturday, the Cross Country Spartans traveled to McNair park for the Parkway West Invitational. The weather could not seem to make up it's mind. We had rain, shine, and off and on wind. The Spartans were up to the task.

The first race of the day had the Senior and Juniors compete in the Junior Varsity race. Coach Traughber encouraged the boys to take a chance, and the strategy paid off for several runners. Leading the JV and finishing fourth overall with a time of 17:55 was Senior Josh Goetz.

"I saw what my teammates had done the week before and said to myself I can do that too. I trusted myself to go out a little harder than usual and just raced."

Rounding out the top five for the JV were Seamus Hamilton, Adam Morgenthaler, Dan Bowman, and Josh Pribe. Josh ran an amazing race finishing in 19:29.

"I went out a lot harder than I did in prior races so I wasn't spending the whole race catching up to the people I wanted to run with, and I tried to do better speeding back up coming off of steep uphills. It felt great to score for the team after I got over the feeling that I was going to puke coming out of the last turn and into the chute."

The next race was the Varsity. The strategy remained to run in a pack. Finishing first for the Spartans and third overall was Senior Kevin Abernathy. Also scoring was Jacob Seiler, Nick Martini, Matt O'Connor, and John Madey. This was the second race in a row that the entire Varsity team set new PRs. Senior Jacob Seiler knows that doesn't happen on accident.

"It means more than just the plan is working. It means the team has "bought in" to it and continue to do the little things right when Coach isn't watching."

The varsity finished 7th, separated by just a few points from the teams that finished just ahead.


The Parkway West Invite was unique in that there was a sophomore only race. The boys races great. Earning medals were Michael Callahan, Jimmy Reed, Collin Vieth, Mackenzie Smith, Pat Callahan, Glen McGann, Justin Potter, and Matt Beers. The boys went into the race with a different mindset knowing the would not be running with people that could have two years more experience.

"The fact that I was only racing sophomores gave me confidence so we attacked from the get go which is something we normally don't do." -Mike Callahan

"Racing in the Sophomore race made me change my strategy. I knew I wanted to take a chance and I raced out in the first mile with the lead pack. I knew that my place would be important for the success of the team and I didn't want to let my teammates down." Glen McGann

"Well at the beginning of the race I was kinda not feelin well. I got out a little slow and my breathing was all screwed up. I think I just had a little cold but as the race went by I picked off more and more people. Especially the third mile I felt good and was really cruisin at the third mile and felt good at the end about my performance." Pat Callahan

Glen set a huge PR of 53 seconds in the race.

"It was a great feeling to set a big PR. After, about 2 miles I had a pretty good feeling that I was going to PR but, I wasn't sure how big it would be. I turned the final corner and saw my time on the board and was kinda shocked and knew I needed a big kick. I ended up PRing by 53 seconds. I'm really happy that I changed my strategy for the race and took a risk."

The Sophomores finished second by one point! Great job guys!

The final race of the day was the Freshman. Leading the way for the Spartans and finishing 5th overall with a great time of 18:56 was Steve Placht. Also earning a medal and finishing 21st was Blake Waters.

"The race played out pretty well. I'm learning how to pace myself and actually have some left in the end for a sprint. I'm proud of the team for how we did."

Also scoring for the Freshman was Matt Barkofske, Ben Gliedt, and Brett Pawlak.

Great day for the Spartans once again. Next Saturday is the big one, Conference.

From McNair
Alex Potter
MTBL

St. Louis Roadrunners

Ok boys, sorry for the late post, but its been a busy night at the Madey household.

To recap today, most of the guys ran either a Mosley, or the always incredible Mailbox Run. But today, the varsity ran a Graeser, and boy did we have a little bit of business to discuss.

After taking infield practice with Rob before yesterday's practice at McNair Park, we thought of what a baseball team would look like with the players being some of the runners on this year’s cross country team. Here is the lineup we produced, along with coaches and front office executives.

Manager: Coach Traughber- He already possesses the necessary skills to handle a team of 60+ kids. Now with only 15 kids to worry about, the team looks to flourish under his reign.
Pitching Coach: Coach Williams- This was simple. He emailed me the second after news broke about the Stephen Strasburg injury. What more can I say. He is a pitchers guy. He can lead our pitchers to promise.
Hitting Coach: Rob Garwitz- Being the new man on the block, Rob looks the part to be a great hitting coach, so he gets the role. Actually, he was just the last man on the list, so that’s what he got.
3rd Base Coach: Coach Russo- Already a track coach, he should know who can push home on a base hit up the middle, or hold up to let our big hitters get the job done themselves.
1st Base Coach: Mr. Leeman- We want to bring the Milkman back to action here. Coach Leeman always had something on his mind to talk about, and loves sports. So why not get a hit, walk, or hit by pitch, and go have an awesome conversation with Coach Leeman.
Strength and Conditioning Coach: Nick "T-Time" Traughber- Have you seen this guy?? He's freakin huge!!! After we get done working with him, people may just accuse us of being on steroids.
Director of Scouting and Player Development: Coach Boland- Mr. Boland, being a counselor already, knows a lot about character and how one should act in a certain environment. Seeing that he has these skills, he would be a perfect fit in the organization for obtaining players with the will to play, win, and most importantly, have fun.
General Manager: Josh Pribe- He's just that awesome!
Owner: LIZ. She's having the baby, so she gets the ownership of the team. Good Luck Liz, we're all praying for you.

Now for your 2010-2011 St. Louis Road Runners Starting Lineup!!!

• Batting first and playing center field.....MATT....O'CONNOR!!!!!
• Batting second, team captain and shortstop, yours truly.....JC.....MADEY!!!!!
• Batting third, your number one runner turned hot corner stud (third
• base)....KEVIN......ABERNATHY!!!!!
• Batting fourth, the power of the batting lineup, right fielder......DAN.....BOWMEN!!!!!!!
• Batting Fifth....left fielder, well................BRIAN....SCHERPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Batting sixth, with the hands of gold..........................NICK.......MARTINI!!!!!!!!
• Batting seventh, holding down the duties behind the plate......MATT....BEERS!!!!!!!!!
• Batting eighth......THE PITCHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Batting Second leadoff (9th), playing 1st base............do the JOHN.......WALLER!!!!!!!

Now for your pitching staff

Starting Pitcher 1...MIKE POTREBOSKI
Starting Pitcher 2...DAN BARGER
Starting Pitcher 3...GLEN MCGANN
Set-up Man...ALEX POTTER
Closer...JACK HUSMANN
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Ready Alert (The Bench)

• Our pinch runner (since he is uncoordinated with any sport that has to do with balls)....JACOB SEILER!!!!!!
• THE DO IT ALL STUD MUFFIN........STEVE PLACT!!!!!!!

Special shout out to The DeSmet Tennis team (and Dylan Pearson), as well as Caitlin Shukwit, Ali Bennett, and Helena Shea, new viewers (not followers) of the blog.

Good luck tomorrow boys and have some fun out there.

From,
The Bulldog

All Roads Don't Lead to Rome

The Rim Rock squad plus a couple extra guys traveled to McNair Park to preview the course before Saturday's meet. This was much needed as the course can be a little confusing. You run the same part of the course multiple times, there are intersections, and it was slightly modified from last year. On our warm-up we messed up a couple of times, but we got it figured out and will be able to help everyone on race day. Next was 3 miles on the course at tempo+ pace. Everyone ran well and is ready to go for Saturday.

JV Jot:

The fancy new track that only 4 other facilities in the world have was dysfunctional again. So practice today began out in AC land for the JV and Freshmen squads. After a throwback warm-up taking place on the north practice fields, we arrived back in AC land to find Juniors Tim Hunter, Michael McWhorter, and Michael Ahlheim missing. A brief investigation revealed that Hunter's car battery had died when he and McWhorter went somewhere in the time between school ending and practice beginning, and Ahlheim had gone to help them.
-LaFever-

The JV and Freshman team had cruse intervals at Runnymede. It was a great day for tempos especially in the always shady Runnymede; the entire JV/Freshman team had a great run. Afterwards we met in AC land, after taking the long way to and from Runnymede, for stretching and core. Then the team went inside for a well earned chocolate milk.
-Mega Group (Higgens, McGann, & Beers)-

Quote of the Day: "Matt, give me a nickel back!"- Madey when we were hanging out in 204 before practice. He was writing football plays on the board.

Joke of the Day: “If I pet you will you purr.”- McGann to J. Potter

Title: There were many lines in McNair Park and they all didn't go to the same place.

Parkway West Invitational
McNair Park

On Saturday, the Cross Country Spartans will travel to McNair park for the Parkway West Invitational. The team will look to build of the momentum from the meets at Fox and Rim Rock last week.

The team did their second 5k workout on Tuesday. It was tough. The 800 meter loop consisted of multiple hills that the runner conquered several times during the workout. Sophomore Glen McGann knows these workouts make you tough:

"The workout at Conway taught me that I can do awesome if I maintain focus and push myself harder than I think I can. It also taught me that I can push through the 2nd and 3rd mile."

Last week, Senior Seamus Hamilton won Runner of the Week honors by running a PR a Rim Rock. He learned some lessons, and is looking for a repeat performance on Saturday.

"I learned that I can fight a lot longer than I used to. I’ll just have to become better than the man I was a week ago."

The Parkway West Invite is the final meet before Conference, which means we are officially in the home stretch of the season. Glen is trying to put a check mark next to a few more goals.

"This season I have hit my paces well on tempo workouts but, in races, it has been a struggle to reach to the goals that I set at the beginning of the season. I still have quite a few goals to achieve: breaking 20, breaking 19, and being consistently top 7 on JV to name a few. I feel I am on the right track to have a great race and break all the goals I have with the remaining time left in the season."

Seamus is a four year vet, and knows how the team needs to prepare.

"Even though we’re getting close to the end we shouldn't’t be slacking off, we should be fighting even harder so we can earn that week of rest that comes at the end."

Good luck to all the Spartans this Saturday. The course is very fair and everyone will have a great chance to race well. Special thanks to Glen and Seamus for responding on short notice, it's been a busy week.

From McNair
Alex Potter
MTBL

Dear Runners who read the Milk Table,

The Milk Table “is a blog for DeSmet distance runners by DeSmet distance runners.”
The Milk Table is here to “make distance running more fun” for everyone.
The Milk Table is here to “build team spirit.”
The Milk Table becomes what you want it to be.
The Milk Table is what you make it.

From the beginning involvement with the Milk Table has been highly encouraged.

We want you to comment. Comment about something in the post. Comment about something that’s not in the post. Comment about your group’s run. Comment something funny that someone said on the run. Comment about the guy that honked when you were on Ladue. Comment whatever you like. The comments section on the blog is your place to have an impact and say in every post. Every comment becomes an extension of the post.

We want you to contribute to the post. If ever want to write something to go in the post feel free. We have never rejected anything. The first ever contribution was about how some runners got attacked by geese. It was great. Another contribution was a simple thank-you to a teammate for his help in jumping a car. A contribution can be anything you want to be. No contribution has ever been turned away. How do you contribute? Simply, write something up and get it to a Blogmaster. Text, email, facebook; any way you want. The Milk Table even has its own email and facebook page now.

If actually writing about something that happened sounds too difficult then just tell us. Share your experiences. Tell us a good quote or joke. Tell us something about something fun or cool. If we aren’t there, we don’t know what happened. If you tell us, we can put it on the blog.

We say all this because it has come to our attention that some people are having a problem with the non-Varsity coverage (or lack-there-of). It is not that we don’t like the JV and Freshmen. It is not that we want the blog to be Varsity only. It is impossible to write what we don’t know. The Blogmasters are on Varsity so we write about what happens in the Varsity practice. It bothers us that people are upset about what is on the blog they have a say in it.

We just want everyone to be informed. Informed that you are part of the Milk Table and that you get out of it what you put in.

Sincerely,
The Blogmasters:
Kabes
Potterman
Padre

So Much More Room For Activities

Today was a well-deserved, much needed recovery day. Runners of the Week were announced before the run. Steve Placht took freshmen honors. Justin Potter was the Fox JV winner. At Rim Rock it was Seamus in the JV race and Waller in the Varsity.

Coach Traughber made a discovery today. That discovery turned into a secret. That secret did not disappoint. After practice the Varsity guys got official DeSmet Cross Country bags. They’re a little old school, and a lot awesome. You’ll defiantly see them around.

JV Jot: At the beginning of practice today, everyone was informed that our beautiful Nike DeSmet warm-ups would be delayed for a few days/weeks/months/years. Brightening the day, however, was the announcement that today would be a well deserved recovery day. After a relaxing Chasselle/Falaise/to Falaise, the team met in A/C land as per usual. Here Coach Traughber announced that since the warm-ups were delayed, he had procured cheaper, less fancy warm-ups that were already made so we could look like a team this Saturday at McNair. All in all, a successful day.
-LaFever-

The Milk Table is proud to announce that DeSmet has its first runner since Connor Callahan to get mentioned in the Big River Individual Rankings. Senor Kevin Abernathy made the list as an honorable mention.

In other news, the Blogmasters are currently working on the first ever Milk Table T-shirt and we want your input. Check out the poll on the right to cast your vote for the colors. You have to be a follower to vote. The design is in progress and we will put up a sample when we have one. The shirts will be available to all. If you are interested in getting a shirt send us an email with number of shirts and sizes at milktable@gmail.com so we can start getting a count. Our hope is to have the shirts order by early next week so we can get them as soon as possible.

Best Dressed: Husmann. Sometimes just getting in the mix is good enough for a victory. Today was Jack’s first day running since his injury. He only ran a mile, but it is a big step in his recovery. He knew that it was important to look good since he wasn’t in the pool anymore. He wore the classic DeSmet Cross Country shirt with some gray shorts. Keep working hard Jack! We can’t wait to have you back.

Title: The guys were excited about the bags and that line from Stepbrothers was said a couple of times.

Truck!

After a one week delay it was half-marathon day for the Varsity. We opted for CC Lake instead of Spoede. We were down Seiler, who was ellipticizing, but made a great addition with Seamus.

Practice stated off great with a ride to the lake from Soccer Mom Scherping in the Pondering Man Van. Two big loops was the plan and went right joined by T-bone and Rob. T-bone set the pace getting us out at 7:20 and we kept it rolling from there. Waller got stung in the head by a bee, but he pressed on. We coved after from Rim Rock to the death of the Segway guy to the Father-Son Golf Tourney. During the second loop we were running along slide a crew team (rowers) and after shouting some encouragement we streamlined and raced them around the lake. Madey and Martini lead the land to victory over the water.

A lotta laughs and good times along with just about a half-marathon worth of running at a good pace. It was a practice that was as magnificent as the weather we ran in. The complementary chocolate milk that comes with the half tasted extra delicious today.

A shout out to Seamus who was awesome today. He hung with us the whole way on his first varsity run of the year and added a lot of humor and life to the run.

Quote of the Day: “You gotta ROW now!”- Madey as we were racing the girl crew team around the lake.

Joke of the Day:

“Scherping, do you parents still have to get you a babysitting?”
Matt Yells, “Jessica!”

Best Dressed: Glen was able to make an impression in the few minutes the whole team was together. He was breaking in his new Nike Lunar Glide 2 shoes today. He had to go for orange this time because it’s the new edition. But it worked out great as he matched them with an orange Phoenix Suns shirt that made him stand out from the rest of the team. He evened added the now famous Gray-Giant-Pocket shorts. Way to be Glen.

Click here if you haven't read the post on the Bus Ride to and from Rim Rock. It was added today but back-dated to Friday.

And take a look at the pictures added to the Rim Rock Post.

Sunday Conversation

Andrew O'Connor (2010) made a special appearance at Rim Rock Farm yesterday.

AP: How excited were you that you got to come to the race yesterday?
OC: I was really looking forward to being around the team again.

AP: What did you see from the JV guys?
OC: They ran well. They tried to stay together like the coaches had been telling the varsity. Seamus ran the race of his life.

AP: How about the varsity?
OC: They did exactly what they were told. Kevin ran a great race against some of the best runners around. 2-5 stayed together and all finished pretty close. Matt and Martini set big PRs. Waller and Scherping did a great job of holding on as long as they could.

AP: How is Mizzou treating you?
OC: It's great! Everyone that comes should do the running club!

AP: What's that?
OC: It is part of the national running club league, I don't remember the name but it's legit. About 30-40 guys meet as many as twice a day to run and get in race shape.

AP: You have a race Sunday?
OC: There is a race, but I won't be running. I'll be there working it though.

AP: How has the De Smet running program prepare you for college and all that comes with along with college?
OC: I learned many useful lessons, but time management has defiantly been the most useful.

AP: What do you miss the most?
OC: Defiantly the team atmosphere.

AP: Thought on Baby T Bone's name? This might be the last time I ask this question!
OC: I think Steve and Connor will be involved. So if it is a boy it will be Steven Connor T Bone. If it is a girl it will be Stephanie Colleen T Bone.

AP: How is the fantasy team looking?
OC: Big disappointment. Chris Johnson really let me down last week. Knowshon Moreno (GEORGIA BULL DOGS ALUM) has been carrying the team, but this will be a bounce back week for sure.

AP: Kobe or LeBron?
OC: Kobe no doubt.