STATEBOUND

In case you live under a rock and didn't hear the news...we made it to state for the 17th straight year. We finished fourth in our district beating Parkway Central at districts by 8 points. Our district then swept the sectional with us finishing fourth again last Saturday. Stellar performances all around. Our super soph Austin "Triple Duty" DelRoso...yes he has a girlfriend now, broke 17 for the first time. I'm so proud of him. After the race we stopped at LaGrand's in South City for some delicious sub sandwiches.

Anyway, the state race is this Saturday at our state capital, Jefferson City at the Oak Hills Golf Center. The boys race at 12:05 so if you have any interest in attending we would love to see you there. There will be a bus leaving from De Smet Saturday morning for all De Smet kids and other aficionados that want to attend. The girls race is at 1:05 and then the awards ceremony will be at 1:30. My friend Claire Minnick is looking to go all-state in the girls race after top 5 finishes at districts and sectionals. She's pretty legit.

Check the facebook page because there is a lot of updated picture albums from conference, districts, and sectionals. Also, expect some pictures in the near future of our shaved heads and I have one from halloween at the Lewis and Clark statue of us in our halloween costumes. Good stuff. We will be breaking in the white jerseys this saturday so that will also be very exciting. That's all for now thanks for reading and G-O-S-P-A-R-T-A-N-S. Gooo Spartans! (*Kevin Abernathy)

FoPo a NoGo?

Hello all, Nick Martini here. Im sure my blogging skills won't compare to greats like Kevin, Potter, or Jacob, but i'm here so you'll just have to push through this subpar post. Yes, this is a very delayed blog post from myself, but I am finally blogging for my first time this season, and what better practice to blog about than our 40 minute adventure run through beautiful Forest Park?

 

 

During the school day, the weather outside was frightening; it almost seemed as if we wouldn't be able to participate in this now-traditional practice we have been waiting the whole season for. When T-Bone announced the possibility of the practice being cancelled during Dynasty Club moans and groan were heard from all ends of the school, quite possibily the first time in recorded history where we actually were sad of a practice cancellation. As the day went on, the weather started to clear up and we were ready to run the best practice ever.

 

 

Upon arriving, we met up with our coaches Tom and Mahood, whipped out our camera, and began the journey. For the runners who aren't familiar with this practice, we run for 40 minutes around Forest Park with a digital camera and find monuments and landmarks to pose next to; a great practice, indeed. We started with a few classics, namely the Jewel Box and the Zoo. We tried replicating the past year's picture poses (a la Muscle Man Matt), but also came up with new ones as well. Reluctantly, Mahood and Tom joined in on a few pictures as well which the experience that much more enjoyable. After a few memorable pictures on turtles, on an old jalopy, and through the infamous tunnel, we went to a new location: the boathouse. The initial idea was to get a picture of all of us on a few of the paddleboats, but Tom declinded with his most used word of the season: "Nope" Instead, we got a picture looking like hobos around a bonfire they had going. We decided to go on a new route to a previously unknown playground. On our way there Mike had a run-in with a squirrel, which is his nickname for the season for reasons I cannot even remember. The squirrel was surrounded by a few of our guys and started spinning in place, desperately looking for a way to escape certain death via trampling. Luckily Mike's bretheren handily escaped just as Mike was having a mini heart attack. After many strange looks, we headed back to the central fields after a disaoppointing discovery that we could not go onto the Muny's stage and seats When we arrived, the freshman were in the thick of their race. Coach Williams hasn't tweeted any official results, but Dolan had broken 19:00 and Jimmy Reed flew past the 18:00 barrier; nice work today boys.

 

 

Quote of the Day: "Nope"-Tom Albes

Darn near every time we suggested a picture idea, the famous words were spoken by our beloved Coach Tom. Although we were upset, we all knew deep down that he was just trying to be a good coach and not a buzzkill.

Joke of the Day: Sullivan's picture poses

If you look on The Milk Table's Facebook page, you may notice that Colin Sullivan's pose in almost every picture is the same: standing as straight and unemotional as humanly possible. I had no idea until the pictures were upload, and proceded to laugh heartily for seconds on end.

 

 

Well, that wraps up my first blog post. Any criticisms are greatly appreciated, especially ones from former bloggers.

 

 

-Nick Martini

MCC

Hello again and welcome back. This week was the conference race so I will do my best to update you on pre and post race information. Friday night I had the varsity guys and the coaches over for a team dinner. It was a lot of fun as we competed in an epic washers tournament in my backyard before dinner while tossing around a football and a frisbee. Our neighbor's fence broke in two places when unnamed people tried to hurtle the fence to retrieve the ball. Luckily, I was able to partially fix it with a bottle of wood glue. Hopefully, they won't notice because they already don't like my family.

After dinner we went down to the basement to play Nintendo 64. We decided to play 2 vs. 2 team battles with cross country style scoring. I started out with Plass as my teammate, but I quickly switched to Glenn as my teammate because Plass wasn't too great at Mario Kart. Glenn and I easily knocked off Patrick and Pribe in the semifinals to move into the finals vs. Nick and Matt. Sully had to take over for Glenn when he left. The final race was Rainbow Road with Matt making a late move to beat me and take first place. Sully fell of the track somehow and finished fourth so Matt and Nick won the tournament.

The next morning the varsity team raced early at 9am. It was great weather and our team ran quite well with a lot of perfect races. Nick finished first team-all conference (6th overall) with an awesome time of 16:49. Sully (2nd team) and Matt (2nd team) finished 9th and 10th. I came in right behind them in 11th with a 17:14. Glenn, Plassmeyer, and Austin (2nd team) also ran quite well and everyone medaled (top 20 finish). We finished 2nd as always but it was nice to beat a couple of SLUH's runners. Alex Potter took pictures with the new team camera. The album along with the other are posted on The Milk Table Facebook page. The new camera is awesome! We have a week off from racing before our big District race two weeks from now at Parkway Central.

Rim Rockin

Hello again and welcome back. This weekend we traveled out to RimRock for the annual race in Lawrence, Kansas. It was a blast as usual and we raced well, while sticking to the usual traditions. We started out Friday morning with a jog before school because we left right after school so that we could arrive to the hotel before nighttime. During school the varsity team got introduced at the fall pep rally as the crowd gave an especially big cheer for our young one, Austin Del Roso.

After school we packed up our things and got on the bus for the long car ride to Kansas. Our bus driver was definitely the best driver of my three RimRock trips. We never got lost once and he was speedy and avoided traffic. While snacking on Matt's ginormous box of fruit snacks along with our own candy and snacks the team got involved in an intense card game of 31. Glenn and Austin managed to make it to the finals as I witnessed them cheat the entire time from the back seat as I battled my Calculus homework. I prevailed and so did the two cheaters as MC became angry when he finally realized what was going on.

At the hotel I roomed with Matt. Nick and Austin decided to come and chill in our room before bedtime for an hour as we frantically searched the channels for a Harry Potter movie (its a tradition). Unfortunately we didn't find one but we settled on The Roast of Charlie Sheen, which was quite hilarious.

In the morning both Matt and my alarms didn't go off for some reason so Coach T had to call us on the land line to wake us up. I left my pillow at the hotel by accident as I rushed to get ready. It was my favorite pillow and I miss it a lot. Anyway, we were met at the race by esteemed alumni Jacob, Alex, Drew, and Matt's older brother Andrew. It was great to see them again because we always enjoy the alumni. During the race Nick finished first with a big PR of 16:55 and I also PRed, finishing 2nd with a 17:10. Matt and Sully were right behind me at 17:15 and Austin came in around 17:23. Good work boys!

After the race we took our picture on the big dirt pile. Its another tradition. We decided to go shirtless and race shorts so that we could look the same. The JV gathered at the bottom of the mound as the alumni took the pictures with Dr. Callahan's camera. Hopefully I can get some of those pictures to show you soon.

Quote of the Day:
"Dear Rim Rock, I win.
Sincerely, 16:55" Nick Martini

A Blast from the Past

I'm proud to announce that we have a special post today from our former Bulldog and enforcer, JC Madey. He is a great a runner and a great friend and I hope you enjoy this post as much as I did.
                                                                                                                                               
Although Im no longer a part of the De Smet Cross Country team anymore, I just wanted to say a few words.  These words come before one of the biggest races of the year…RIM ROCK.  And read all of it, I know its long…you have a lot of time to think in college.

I went on my longest run of my young college career (1 hour, 3 minutes).  Granted it wasn’t very long, I encountered a phrase that really hit home to me; a phrase that I believe I like to live by, and one that I did live by during cross country days

First my background: My nickname was the bulldog.  Who came up with it I don’t know, and honestly I don’t care.  The meaning behind it though is what counts.  I gave everything I had day in and day out.  Whether it was grueling tempos, a Bender 40 when it was nearly 95 degrees, or out there on race day, I gave it my all.  That’s what being a Bulldog was about for me.  I knew I wasn’t a talented runner based on my background (baseball….yeah I know I was the TEAM TOOL). When I started I was also out of shape, having never run more than 3 miles in my life at one point.  Even based on the sheer company of teammates I had (Abernathy, Seiler, Potter, Scherping, Matt O’Connor, Waller, Martini) and even those who came before me (Connor Callahan, Gibson, Lawder, Bender, Boyle) I knew it would be hard for me to compete, yet alone make a splash as a top 7 runner.

Going back to my run today, I found a war memorial, for all of those who have fought for this country, in both foreign and domestic wars. In the middle of this memorial lies a quote from Winston Churchill; a quote I believe I lived out“If you’re going through hell, keep going”.

I can’t count you all the times I wanted to stop doing the tempos, take a break on a 141 and back, or just quit running overall (in the beginning  of course).  The point being, I didn’t give up.  Not only this, but I pushed harder.  I knew I would never run a 16:00 5k, I knew I’d never run a 5:00 mile.  What I did know is that if I worked my butt off day in and day out, I could not only make a splash in the top 7, but I could be a top 5 runner.  That I did.  Granted I was only the 5th place runner most of the time, I knew I succeeded.  Saying that, I knew while holding this spot on the team, I had to work even harder.  Many people say that your team is only as good as its weakest link.  I was that last link many times.  It didn’t matter if I had to gruel out an extra mile, an extra set of strides, or my favorite, an extra workout session, I had to get “my moneys worth”

Now where does this tie into you runners currently on the team.  Well for some of you, it Rim Rock Weekend.  I remember last year’s race, and how John Waller went as hard as he could for as long as he could to push the pack and keeping us together (this earned him ROW honors).  This race marks a good test of where you are.  Are you good enough to compete in MCC, Districts, Sectionals, and State.  How far are you willing to push yourself through this race and the rest of the season to make sure your team get to Jefferson City? This is where you can experience that hell, and come through  with flying colors (cough cough…a Bulldog).

As for the rest of you, how far are you willing go to get to a varsity position.  As far as I know, Austin is a literal definition of a Bulldog….Soccer and Cross Country, IN THE SAME SEASON.  He goes through hell every day. But are you willing to take your tempos seriously to get better? Are you willing to take you long runs and recovery days as days to get better?

This is the point where you guys have to make this decision.  Are you all willing to put it on the line for each other for the betterment of the team?  Are you willing to put in that extra ounce of energy you didn’t think you had to get better as a runner?  I promise if you decide to work hard for the rest of the season, this team will achieve great things, from the freshmen to the seniors.  Strive to get better each day, one second at a time, and before you know it, you’ll have your opportunity to shine.  Push as hard as you can, and you’ll get much more right back.

Gentle, I challenge you to go through hell and back.  You don’t win a 110% award for taking it easy.  Challenge yourself, and great things will come.

Good luck at Rim Rock this weekend.  And good luck the rest of the way.

Sincerely

John C. Madey
Class of 2011
Bulldog

Our First 5K

Hello again and welcome back. I again have a lot to cover in a limited amount of time so I will try to touch on the finer points of the last two weeks. First of all I promised Tom that I would describe the dead deer so this will be explained once and then never mentioned again because it gives me the creepers just thinking about it. About a week and a half ago during our first Bender 40 of the year we came across a dead deer in the ditch on the side of Ladue Road. I smelled the deer from a good 200 yards away which was possibly one of the worst smells imaginable. Anyway, the head of the deer was stuffed up the sewer drain hole and the deer was laying on its back with all four of its legs hanging straight up in the air. There was a large hole in the stomach of the deer with a swarm of flies were going inside and out of the animal. It was quite disturbing.

On happier news Monday was our last tempo workout of the year with our workouts from now on switching to 5k pace. During a 6:20 morning practice Austin, Nick, Matt and I finished a 5 continuous mile workout in 29:30. It was pretty awesome as Coach Tom led us to a record pace for all of us. Hopefully that workout will pay dividends in the future as we were able to stay together for the entire workout. Nice work boys!

Thursday was our first 5k race of the year at our home course, Parkway Central. Without Austin, Nick led the back finishing first for De Smet with a 17:25. Collin Sullivan ran an impressive 17:31 beating Matt O'Connor and myself. I came in at 17:39 right in front of MC. Our spread between our number 1 through our number 5 runners was extremely small and hopefully that will help us as we move forward. The pack of Nick, Matt, and I were in good position for two miles, but then we ran out of gas during the final mile as I dropped from 15th to 30th. Don't worry we'll figure it out next week at RimRock. Hopefully Jacob and Potter (whom we saw at the football game) we be at the RimRock race next Saturday and I am very excited to see them again.  That's all for this week, thanks for reading and I'll make sure to try my best to update this weekly from now until the end of the season!

Labor Day

A lot happened this week so I will again make sure to touch again on the more important details. Wednesday was our first race of the season and we did not run very well in the 102 degree heat. Our new sophomore, Austin Del Rosso, was the exception, finishing 9th with a 10:32. Matt and I were able to crack the top 20 with finishes of 15th and 19th. I got dizzy halfway through and had trouble keeping my pace.  We ran well for one mile with Matt, Nick, Austin, and myself in the top 12 , but then our pack broke. We finished fourth to Marquette, Eureka, and Mehlville. That's all I'm going to say about this meet because we definitely didn't live up to our potential. Like I said, we lost to Mehlville.

However, we were able to respond on Friday morning's continuous tempo workout. Our pack of Nick, Matt, Austin, and myself  were able to stay together for five miles of continuous tempos, with a three minute break in between the third and fourth miles. We ran all five miles under 6 minutes and coach told us that we ran 17:32 pace for the first three miles. This showed myself that running is almost all mental concentration, so I hope that our good results in the tempo workout will continue over into our first 5k September 15th at Parkway Central. After school on Friday our practice was canceled because of an excessive heat warning. Our varsity team lifted weights and then Coach sent us home for a three day break over the Labor Day Weekend.

Final Notes:
1.)Nick, Matt, and myself were honored by receiving recruitment letters from Fontbonne University to run for them.

2.) My friend/log run partner/co-worker Claire Minnick finished an impressive 2nd in the girls varsity race.

3.) Today is Kevin Abernathy (Kabes) birthday. Happy birthday Kevin!

4.) Pictures were provided by Alex Potter.

Ready to Rock

Hey guys, welcome back! Its been a long and busy week for me so this is my first opportunity to blog this week. Our biggest new this week is that Austin Del Roso has decided to play soccer and run cross country. He's one of our best runners, if not our best runner so we are all very excited about his decision. Tuesday was the two mile time trial to decide which ten guys get to run varsity in our first meet next Wednesday. Austin won the race with an outstanding time of 10:34. Austin was followed by Matt (10:38), myself (10:39), and Nick (10:42.) Other varsity qualifiers include Sully, MC, Trunko, Husmann, Glenn, and possibly Potter. Anyway, it was about 96 degrees when we ran so I thought it was impressive performance for us.

Last Saturday was the annual pancake breakfast at Coach's house. Liz made some great pancakes including numbers with our individual places on the team, how clever! The lightning that day forced us to run sprints down the sidewalk covered strip mall in front of the Big River Running Store. It was quite an interesting run, and was my first practice ever in four years that was affected by lightning.

Today we headed over to the dreaded Conway Park for four miles of continuous tempos, with a 30 second break in between the second and third miles. Our group of Nick, Matt, Austin, and myself ran amazingly. I'm so proud of those guys. We worked really well together motivating each other through the hard workout. In the last mile, when Matt started to slow down, we showered him with encouragement to stay with us all the way to the finish. We ran 11:55 for  the first two miles and 11:40 for the second two. MC and Sully weren't far behind at 12:12 and 12:09. With that said, I'm pumped for our first meet this Wednesday at 4:45 at Fenton Park in the Nike Kickoff Two Mile Classic. I think we're going to kick some butt.

Before leaving for college, Jacob, Kevin, and Potter (HOF class of 2011) met with myself, Glenn, and Nick about blogging for the upcoming year. Although unfortunately I will not be posting everyday, I assure you readers that the blog is in capable hands and that we will continue through the cross country season. Stay tuned for posts from Glenn and Nick possibly. The alumni and my former teammates parted for college with firm handshakes and they gave us a digital camera for our blog this year. They will be missed for all their hard work on and off the cross country course!

Stay tuned for post meet updates and thanks for reading.

The Tour de Creve Coeur

Hello there Milk Table followers. I would first like to apologize for the lapse in recent blog posts. School has started this week and I've been very busy. Today was our weekly long run of 10 miles. Although Coach Tom had to work today, we were joined by T-Bone who ran the entire 10 miles with us. He's pretty legit now. Anyway, the heat today was almost unbearable today at 96 degrees with little to no wind. We were able to survive with the four water breaks in the shade that refreshed both the mind and the body.

We started today's run by playing a game where we acted like we were riding in the Tour de France. We split the run into different stages and awarded the classic jerseys to the runners in our group. After breaking away from the Pelaton (JV and freshmen) the lead pack of myself, Nick Martini, Sully, and MC opened with in a torrid pace of 7:30 that we maintained for most of the run. Matt took stage one and quickly earned the green jersey for being the best sprinter on the team. I battled back to take the hilly stage two to grab the jersey of the Mountain King (white with red polka dots). Sully with his consistent effort was able to take the yellow jersey for the overall best time, and we awarded MC the young rider's jersey (white) for hanging in their tough. As you can tell, we have a lot of free time to try and entertain ourselves during these long runs that help make the time pass quickly.

Tonight is the Back to School Bash at De Smet so I will be signing off now to go and help set up. Stay tuned this week for final posts from Kabes and Padre and an update on tomorrow's pancake breakfeast at coach's house. Thanks for reading. Stay Classy!

 Matt O'Connor

 MC and Sully

Me

One Super Run

Today we returned to practice after the Alumni Run on Saturday for a nice aerobic endurance (A.E.) run. Coach Tom joined Nick, Matt, MC, Sully, and I for a Super Spoede. We were also accompanied by Coach Traughber's magic watch that makes sure we stay exactly on pace for our run. Alumni two-mile champion, Connor Callahan, ran with us for the first mile of the run before he broke off from the pack and sped into the distance. Shortly after Connor disappeared, Nick found an old rusty knife that he carried with him for the remainder of the run. I began to tease Nick about how we look like a group of thugs, because we were running around without our shirts on and carrying a knife.

Shortly after passing Villa School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Nick also found a hubcap. We decided to take turns carrying it for the four miles remaining in the run by switching carriers each mile when Coach's watch beeped. The sytem worked out quite well, with Nick carrying the first mile, myself the second, Matt the third, and Coach Traughber bring it home in the final strecth. We left the knife and the hubcap at Nick's stash of treasure that is located near the school. Coach Traughber joined us for the reaminder of the run after our waterstop at Villa. Coach is training for the Boston Marthon, and has greatly improved his endurance with a lot of hard work. Good luck Coach! ...the boys are cheering for you.

One of the more entertaing parts of the run occured when we stopped for water at our usual spot on Olive Road. We were met as usual by Coach Williams, but we were suprised by his grand eterance in a rental moving truck. The truck looked exactly like the moving van from Toy Story 1, and we joked about placing a sofa and plasma t.v. in the back of the van and turning it into a De Smet Cross Country lounge on wheels. All kidding aside, we wish Coach Williams the best of luck as his family makes the transition into their new home. While on the topic of coaches, Coach Russo brought his two kids to practice today. We all laughed as we watched them play tag on the football field, while Coach Russo tried to keep them from getting trampeled by the soccer team.

After practice we were joined by Kevin Abernathy, and we began to discuss the summer training shirt for this year. We threw out many ideas including Donkey Kong, Harry Potter, and Batman. We have decided to go with a batman shirt that is yellow with black lettering. This shirt will be in memory of former De Smet runner Jacob Seiler, who love Batman and justice. Here is my design for the shirt, but it is by no means the final copy. Designs will be shown to Jacob tommorrow, who will ultimately get the final say on the shirt.

Quote of the Day: "Nick put that knife away the children are watching" by Coach Tom as we passed a schoolbus full of children on the way to their first day of school.

All About the Alumni

Today was the third annual alumni run. The alumni continued to dominate the event with Connor Callahan (2009) defending his title in the two mile by finishing under 10 minutes. Connor was followed by Kevin Abernathy (2010), Coach Tom (2007), and Zach Boyle (2010). I finished sixth coming in 10:49, and finishing first on my team. The varsity athletes were decked out in the retro jerseys from the glory days. The jerseys were extremely uncomfortable and we complained as they stuck to our skin in the hot sun. I was followed closely by my teammates Nick Martini and Matt O'Connor. Junior Michael Callahan battled the heat to run a great time of 11:03.





Andrew O'Connor (2010) took home the gold in the mile. Andrew ran a 5:30 while battling through an injury, and was followed closely by senior Tim Pickle, who is trying to make the jump from running intermediate races during track to the 5000 meter cross country race. After the two races, the alumni     and the athletes gathered under the new alumni pavilion above the football stadium to enjoy a great barbecue lunch of hamburgers, hot dogs, and cookies. I really enjoyed catching up with my former teammates including Joe Gibson, Alex Potter, Zach Boyle, Henry Cleaver, and John Madey (Bulldog). Classmate Durron Neal helped catch Madey, Potter, and myself up on the upcoming football season where D plans to lead the Spartans to a state championship after losing in the semi-finals the previous two years.                                                                                                           

One Long Run

Today we returned from our time trial with our first long run of the season. Our top group consisted of Nick, Matt, Sully, and myself. We did an 80 run east on Ladue. Sully was a champ and left most of the complaining to Matt, who made sure we all knew how tired he was. Coach Tom paced us perfectly getting us to Reed School, our desired location, at exactly 40 minutes. We were joined on our run today by alumni and blogmaster Kabes, who was the only person besides Tom that had ever run as far as Reed School. Tom gloated about being able to push us farther and harder than Coach Rob was ever able to last year. Hopefully all these practices running with Coach Tom will pay off when we get to the races later this month.

 

Matt survived the run in case you were wondering and we ended up putting in 11 1/2 miles today. Good work boys! The new meet schedule has been published on the De Smet Cross Country website for all former alumni and De Smet supporters who want to come and cheer us on this season. Your attendance is greatly supported by the team. Speaking of alumni...the alumni run is this Saturday August 13th at 9:00 at De Smet. There will be both a 1 mile race and a 2 mile race. I'm sure the alumni will be out in full force and I'll make sure to update the blog about all the excitement of the day. After practice today, Coach met with the varsity to talk about our practice schedule for the season. Seeing how much time and effort Coach Traughber puts into maximizing the performance of his runner is always impressive and motivating for us.

 

Moving on to much more important matters, today was the annual pool party at Coach Boland's house!! It's hard to put into words how much fun we have each year so I'll try to just touch on the finner aspects of the afternoon. I arrived late after taking an ice bath and I almost missed the classic pool relay races of varsity vs. jv. Kevin, Matt, Nick Trunko (our secret recruit) and myself faced off against Patrick Callahan, Potter, Morris, and Tim Pickel. After winning the freestyle relay the j.v. took the breast stroke relay. This set up a great final with myself just beating out Patrick to take the medley relay. Wow, what a great race! After the swim races Kevin and I faced off against Sully and Michael Callahan in an epic game of washers. After being down 5-1 Kevin and I surged back to win 8-6. We celebrated with running cannonballs into the pool.

 

Finally, we decided to start a new game this year of water football. Hebda, myself, Beers, and Glenn faced off against MC, Sully, and Husmann. We got whipped 5-1...Ouch! After the game we decided to switch up the teams with a draft. MC and myself were captains and I ended up with Husmann, Hebda, and Beers, while MC took Glenn, Sully, and Nick Trunko. Wow, what a game! Tied 4-4 MC threw a touchdown pass to Sully to win the game just as time expired. M.V.Ps of the game were Glenn with 2 picks and a couple of nice catches at wide receiver and tight end Sully who was dangerous in the red zone with a couple of touchdown grabs. Overall, it was a great day and we had lots of fun.

A Test of Strength

Today was the classic mile time trial that usually kicks of the start of the cross county season. Coach pushed the date back to today because of absences from seniors Nick Martini and Matt O'Connor who were helping out with the freshmen Odyssey Retreat (how nice of them!). I'm sure the other runners were as excited as me to finally put all of our hard work this summer to practice, and to allow us to measure how much we had improved from last season. After the warmup, stretching, and two laps of ins-and-outs the JV runners laced up their spikes to compete on the track, while myself and the other varsity runners ran to our lockers and cars to retrieve our spikes.

The JV runners took advantage of the cooler weather to turn in great performances. Among the notables were sophomore Nick Trunko, Josh Pribe (boy-genius), and Nick Martini's Oakville buddy Eric Paitchek, or something like that. Anyway, what the JV lacks in sheer numbers this year is made up for by their better than normal performances. Moving onto the Varsity....

Coach Albes helped pace us for our mile today by trying to lead the pack to four 75 second laps, (5:00) pace. However true, I decided to be my usual stubborn self and push the pace for the first two laps so that I could open a lead over my varsity teammates. My early pushed ended up paying off and I finished first at 4 minutes and 50 seconds. Coach Albes realized that he would have to increase his pace to keep up with me. He made a wonderful move at the homestretch of lap two to blow by me and help pace me for my final two laps. I tried my best to keep up with Coach, but I lost him on the final 200 and he finished with an impressive 4:45. Enough about myself...I'm starting to sound like Kevin.

My comprade Nick Martini also broke 5 and finished with a 4:57, while wearing Matt's shoes. Matt finished close behind him at 5:01. Most importantly the Junior wolfpack (Sullivan, Callahan, Potter, Husmann) finished right behind us in thr 5:10 range. Excellent job boys! After practice I realized that we have 12-15 runners all in the 5:15 or lower range. This means that even though we don't have a dynamic top runner this year, we are a much deeper team than usual so watch out!

After practice we celebrated with a breakfeast at our favorite restauraunt, Firstwatch. We were joined by alumni Kevin Abernathy and Alex Potter. It's always a pleasure to hang out with them and talk about running, Cardinals baseball, and other fun topics. In closing, alumni Brian Scherping was also spotted in the vacinity running laps in the outer lanes and chatting it up with track standout Austin del Roso, who showed up early for his soccer tryout to watch us run. He's a good kid that we all hope gets cut from soccer so that he can run with us. Senior and track star Tim Pickel impressed me today with a 5:30 time trial on virtually no traning. I feel like he could contribute to our Varsity team by the end of the season if he can get into 5k shape. Finally, I'm excited to announce that Glenn McGann has been nominated as our N.B.A. insider and will help keep fans updated during the lockout. Stay tuned more new posts and thanks for reading!

A New Beginning

Welcome Back! I am excited to announce that Kabes has added I, John Waller, as a new Blogmaster to help you readers stay updated on current events for the 2011 Cross Country Season. This season is sure to be an exciting one as we began our journey today towards helping the Varsity team return to the State Championship for the 17th straight year.

The team returns three varsity runners including Matt O'Connor, Nick Martini, and myself. We unfortunately will have to say goodbye to four teammates (Kevin Abernathy, Jacob Seiler, John Madey, and Brian Scherping) who will be moving on to college this fall. Kevin will continue his running career this fall at Drury University and Brian will run for Missouri S&T, where he will join former high school running legend Bill Gabler. All four will be dearly missed along with former Blogmaster and track star Alex Potter. We wish them the best of luck as they begin their college years.

Moving on...We are excited to announce two new additions to our coach staff this year. They are Tom Albes and Jordan Mahood who are both De Smet alumni from the class of 2007. Both were excellent runners and their running skills and knowledge will greatly benefit our team this year.

Today at practice we were joined at practice by Kevin and Brian. Brian was just finishing his six miles of continuous tempos as we started practice and Kevin joined us for a classic double Mosely. Coach Tom and Kevin spent most of the running arguing about who had a more prestigous grade school sports career, as Nick and I timed how long Kevin would talk without taking a breather. Kevin reminded Tom of his three CYC volleyball championship, while Tom chimed back with his CYC soccer championship and his 4x800 school record at the track state championship.

All in all, it was a great run to start the season and I hope you'll enjoy this post after taking the summer off. Stay tuned for lots of good posts coming your way this week including goodbye posts from the class of 2011 and inductions into the 2011 Milktable Hall of Fame.

Long Live

Yes, this is very long. But hey, this is a blog, so I blogged. I think Kevin’s record of the Great Cross Country speech of ’10 is safe.

This week 4 years ago, I was preparing myself for soccer tryouts. I thought I would spend the next four years representing De Smet on the soccer field. After one successful year, under the guidance of Coach Poelker, I needed to find an edge over my competition. I did the math, and found that the 80 people that tried out for freshman soccer and the 40+ that made a team were not all going to continue playing at De Smet once tryouts rolled along again. I figured running track and hopefully building speed would be my edge. I remember emailing Coach Russo saying, I’m sure this is out of the question, but I want to run track, but it cannot be my first priority. He said no problem. Thank God, he said no problem.

After a freshman track season that I pretty much just went through the motions, and a disappointing soccer season, I was more than ready to get back to track. I remember when Coach Traughber told me I should have the lead after the first leg of the 4x800 at All Catholic; I thought he was crazy. That was the first time I realized he’s a pretty smart guy.

At this point, I was still doubling as a soccer player. I remember the Sunday practice when we we doing a shooting drill. If we shot the ball over the net, we had to run a lap around the field.

I kicked the ball as high as I could every time, so I could go run. I told my parents that night I was finished with soccer and that I wanted to run. When I told Coach Traughber that week that I was almost positive I was in for cross country in the fall as we were walking down the hall, I swear he jumped a foot off the ground. After Zach Boyle shaved my head, I got my first taste of State running in the 4x800.We got 11th, and I did not appreciate it as I should. I was too young to appreciate where I was.

I did not understand how hard it is to get to State. I did not love running yet.

Junior trak and senior cross country were very disappointing. I was not able to train as I would have liked in the winter so there was only so much I could do in the spring. Brian’s freak accident only made the season harder. The distance squad was shutout of State, and that was tough.

The summer before senior year I feared the worse, and it came true. I was not able to run. The coaches and guys did a great job of keeping me as involved as possible: going to Rim Rock, team dinners, running with T Bone here and there, sitting in meetings, skipping class to go to First Watch, having a room for State, and even racing in a JV race. I could not be more thankful for all these things.Coach Williams and Traughber worked their magic one more time in finding me Dr. Murphy. I was able to compete in the spring. All though I was not able to double or repeat my best time of junior year, I was able to run my best time of the season at State to help the 4x800 earn an All State medal.

Aside from becoming an All State runner, I was a member of a Metro Catholic Champion team. That means more to me than anything I accomplished over the last four years. Countless great runners at De Smet never achieved this honor. I told the team the day before that to date, my favorite moment at De Smet was the hockey team winning State. I said winning Conference would easily overtake that, and I was right on. There were many memorable moments from that day. Everything between Brian’s trot around the track thanks to some excellent lineup management, and Tim running the final leg of the 4x400 to seal the deal.

I will never forget what it felt like gathering in the middle of SLUH's field and holding up the trophy. Thanks to everyone who coached and or ran with a D on their chest in 2011.



And now some thanks are in order:


Zach Boyle: The fro and flow. Zach and I became friends when he would drive me to all the meets and practice sophomore year when I could not drive and De Smet did not have a track. That friendship only grew as we raced together my junior year and he attempted to be an 800 runner. He explained to me how every repeat was like a quarter I store away and then cash they in for All State medals. Zach taught me how to work extremely hard, and still be like a boss doing it. Thanks bro.

Blake Bender: The State Champ. For those that have not the pleasure of getting to know Blake Bender, I am sorry. Blake is one of the best and funniest guys I know. He is the only guy T Bone will admit was funny on the 2009 team. Blake brought fun to cross country practice and got me through more than one race. Thank you Blake.

Coach Russo and Williams: These are some of the best men I know. These coaches were always there for me, through success, and injury. Coach Russo always made sure I was involved with the cross country team as much as I could be, without actually racing. Weather it was driving me to practice spots, showing me how to use the camera, or giving me directions to spots on the course or roads that I should defiantly know how to find at 18 years old. Then Coach Russo made a group of individuals come together that could win Conference in the spring. To this point, that was the best day of my life. Coach Williams spent way too much of his free time and anatomy time trying to figure out how to make me fit to run. Everything from making personal workout plans, to researching other coaches’ plans, to staying late or going to De Smet early to work on my back, even missing the Alumni Run to come talk to my therapist. I can not thank you enough for everything. You guys are the best. (Follow Coach Williams on Twitter for up to the minute team updates; DeSmetTrack)


Ethan Stack: Ethan wants nothing else then to be good at whatever he does. Ethan is great example of how hard work pays off. He will be taking his talents to Lindenwood in the fall, and when he stays healthy, he will be a force to be reckoned with. Ethan is a great friend, who always has a great story. Thanks Ethan.

Coach Nick Traughber, Leeman, Garwitz, Likos, Bergman, Boland, and any other coach that I got to work with, thank you for caring about everyone that is willing to learn and get better, and not just those who are the most talented.

To Andrew O'C and the John "The Bulldog" Madey, see you soon.

Andy McWorter, Eugene Morgenthaler, Nate Kulla, Tim Pickel, and Johnel Williams thank you for carrying me to State twice. I was not always able to hold up my end of the bargain, but thanks to these guys for making sure I got there.

Malcolm Agnew: Something I am most thankful about my time running track is that I got to become friends with Malcolm Agnew. There are a lot of people out there that do the right thing or are nice to people because they feel like they have to, because it looks good. Malcolm lives this way because that is how he was raised and what he believes in. A lot of star athletes win De Smet’s Man of the Year Award because it is name that the seniors know and are likely to vote for. Malcolm deserved the award more than anybody, and was one of the best teammates I had. Can’t wait to watch you score touchdowns on TV.

To Glen, Michael, Collin, Austin, Pat, Jack, Justin and all the young guys, keep working hard. These guys work harder than anybody out there. It will come together. Enjoy it, it will go by fast.Matt, John, and Nick: 17

Kevin Abernathy: It is not easy to go from freshman soccer, to average cross country runner, to 3 time all state performer and school mile record holder. But enough about the running. Kevin is an extraordinary leader. Kevin continually put the team before himself to make sure everyone was having fun and to make sure he was not the only runner going to Jeff City. Kevin and I “get” running which often lead to long phone calls or sitting at Vetta until 12:30 in the morning just talking about running. Another Man of the Year, Kevin has big things ahead of him at the next level and beyond because he knows what he wants and how to get there, and is a great friend. Looking forward to fantasy cross country.

Jacob Seiler: Where would I be without Jacob?Jacob heard me say “Wait, what?” at least a thousand times in the classroom after a teacher said something and I had no idea what he just said. He would quickly come up with a witty comment to make fun of me, and then gladly help. As a runner, Jacob is a steady as they come. He rarely ever has a bad day, and understands why we were doing what we did. Jacob is truly someone I love being around. His humor is one of a kind, and has a great head on his shoulders.
“I Luh you man”

Brian…Brian….Brian: Oh Brian. Where do I begin? I will start by saying I consider myself very lucky that I am one of the few guys at De Smet that know the Brian Scherping. Not just the Brian that does not say much in class. From the very beginning we were somewhat joined at the hip. We ran countless workouts together, ate lunch together hundreds of times, and I have answered enough questions to write a book. He could probably have a standup routine of all the random and hilarious stuff he has said through the years. I would not change any of that, just don’t make us share a room. The only thing I would change is I wish we could have hit our peak at the same time. Brian was robbed of his junior season, and I could not get enough training in senior year to improve. This more than anything makes me wish we could have one more shot. None the less, we have an All State medal, and an MCC Trophy. Thanks bud. You know how to get a hold of me; I can answer your questions.

Last but not least, T Bone: Coach Traughber has been the third parent to me for the last four years. Coach is one of the hardest working people I know. He does it all: He has a great wife and daughter, he puts a ton of time and effort into cross country and track, and even teaches three different history classes on the side. Coach is in charge of the most athletes of any coach at De Smet. He chooses to have one large team instead of freshman, jv, and all the other names some other sports throw on teams. Of course Coach has a special bond with the Varsity guys, but he truly cares for everyone that comes every day with a good attitude. Probably the best thing Coach did for me was telling me it was not worth my health to run cross country. As a returning Varsity runner, this impacted the team, but my health was more important to him. Even though I knew it was the right decision, I was not happy, but he made it alright. I hope to meet more people like Coach Traughber in the years to come. But if I don’t I will still be extremely thankful for what he has done for me in the last four years, and I know he is a phone call away. Thanks Coach.


Title comes from my good friend Taylor’s song Long Live. I would put the entire song on here, but my time is up. My favorite line is this:

“Singing, long live all the mountains we moved I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you."

Thank you for four years I will never forget. Sorry for getting a little sappy.


See you later
Alex Potter '11

One Final Touch

Yesterday Coach informed Brian and I that practice was moved up from 11:30 to 10:30. I arrived right at 10:30. Coach took a couple minutes to get ready so that he could run with us today. It was now 10:45, still no Brian. So we went outside and sat at the table to wait. We talked with Coach Williams and after about 10 minutes Brian walked out the door. He had forgotten his watch and wanted to go back inside and get it. I said, “Finally you’re here Brian; let’s go.” Brian responded, “What do you mean? I’m 10 minutes early.” To no one’s surprise Brian failed to retain this information having received it just after completing the hard workout. Not only that but he believed practice started at 11 which was never the case.

After the warm-up we decided to run the Runnymede loop since Mother Nature had spoiled our attempt on Monday. It was an absolutely beautiful day for a run. Brian was going for an easy 25 minutes and I had 35 minutes. Coach joined us for what was a very nice run. We jogged the shady route and talked about a little of this and a little of that including race strategy. Brian and I both made sure to touch the sign as this was our final practice at DeSmet.

After the run, Brian and I had core for the last time. We made it fun by rolling around of the turf. It was nice to see some guys (including 20 Lap Jack) out running. Here’s to a great summer of training which will lead to a great cross country season.

Tomorrow, I have an easy pre-race day run and Brian has the day off. The two of us along with the other Spartans competing at the State Meet depart for Jefferson City at 1:30 (Scherping!). It is going to be a great trip. We are all so excited. Can’t wait to tell you all about it right here on the Milk Table.
The Schedule goes:

• 1600m – Friday 2:40 (Abernathy)
• 400m Prelims – Friday 3:40 (Pickel & Johnel)
• 200m Prelims – Friday 5:20 (Durron)


• High Jump – Saturday 11:00 (Pace)
• 4x800m Relay – Saturday 12:10
  (Scherping-Potter-Johnel-Pickel)
• 400m Finals – Saturday 2:20
• 200m Finals – Saturday 3:20

Quote of the Day: “You guys can make any practice three hours long.”- Coach Traughber to Brian and I as we were getting ready to leave DeSmet. That has definitely become a habit of ours this year. No matter how long or short we run, our practice always seems to go three hours. I guess time really does fly when you’re having fun.

Tuesday Tune-up

With the State Meet only 3 days away it was time for the final workout of the season. And it was a dreamy one: another Dream 800 for Potter & Scherping and a Dream Mile for Abernathy.

The stormy, hurricane-like weather of Monday was nowhere to found. It was very sunny and hot. But that didn’t slow us down or convince Abernathy to not wear sleeves for the warm-up. He gained a lot of attention for his not-so-practical look. We skipped and did drills in the shade up by the school. It was way cooler up there. If only the whole track was shaded like that.

For the workout, it was, like last week, over in a hurry. Potter and Scherping the 4x200 with one minute rest. Abernathy 4x400 with two minutes rest. After a few fast repeats the entire workout was complete. Potter’s splits added up at 1:57 and Scherping was at 1:50. Abernathy’s dream mile came out to be 4:09. All three were sharp and definitely ready to run fast this weekend. They should be a part of a couple exciting races. It’s time to put all the hard work into one final race on the big stage and bring home with a well deserved medal.

After the cool down and stretching, it was to the trainer’s room as always for a nice post-workout ice bath. The thing that made this ice bath different from the others was we watched some race videos. On the laptop we watched the Sectional 1600m race and talked strategy for this Friday. The best part of the video was that it had a great shot of Abernathy telling Coach Traughber to get away from him when he came to congratulate him.

Quote of the Day: “Hotter Potter?!?!”- Scherping to Coach after he said “this hot or hotter.”

Wet & Wind

One of the many good things about qualifying for State is we get another week of practice. And today was quite the practice.

Brian and Kevin got started at noon with the standard warm-up. It was the long run of the week so 55 or 40 minutes. The original plan was to run a Greaser, but it switched to Runnymede because we weren’t sure what the weather was going to do. It was dark and cloudy, but didn’t seem out of the ordinary with all the other rainy weather we’ve had this season.

Just because, we decided to make today long shirt, shirt shorts day—a long awaited, highly controversial theme day. You know it was good when as you walk past Pastoral before practice even starts and someone says: “I get it. It’s like you’re not wearing pants.” We looked hilariously awesome in our matching Rawlings Baseball shirts (which Coach Vitello commented on) and nearly not visible shorts.

So after skips we headed for the exit in hopes of getting the run done while having to deal with the least rain possible. Oh boy, did Mother Nature have other ideas. We made it the Jewish and had only felt a few drops of rain. Then all of a sudden it started pouring, absolutely pouring. And the winds whipped up and were raging. The flag pole sounded like it was going to fall over and the trees by the pavilion were leaning in directions that shouldn’t be possible.

At this point, we decided we better head back. The rain and wind were so intense when we first turned around that we temporally hid behind a truck. We charged out into the driving rain and wind. The droplets were slamming into us like little daggers and it was as if we were running up the massive secret hill behind Conway Park. We battled our way back to DeSmet and reentered campus behind the chapel. Just as we got to the circle, Coach was driving down the parking lot to go out and find us. Kevin takes off after him, sprinting down the hill tiring to get his attention. In the process he loses a shoe because of how soaked it has become. As Coach is turning onto Ballas he saw Abernathy in the review mirror.

That whole thing took less than ten minutes. We went back in at the main office, all three of us drenched. This meant a wet squeaky walk down the hallway. We got some really good looks; it probably helped that the wet shirts did cover our shorts completely.

The remainder of the run was completed on the treadmill. But after we changed shirts and wrung out our socks. The most exciting thing that happened while on the treadmills was that they both stopped when the power flickered 3 minutes in. Thought we’d never get this run in, but they cooperated the rest of the way.

Keep it here for complete coverage of State Week.

Quote of the Day: “I don’t think you boys should be running. I just came from Chesterfield and it was pouring.”- Random lady in the parking lot as we were leaving.

At Home & Abroad

Coach was jealous of our hard workout yesterday so he had one for himself today. He ran 3 by 2 miles at sub 7 minute pace. He went negative splits every mile. It was a little reversal of roles with Brian and I watching coach workout.

For us, it was 30 or 40 minutes easy. The original plan was to go to Runnymede just like the good old days of winter training. But, we decided to run a mailbox in hopes of seeing coach during his cool down. Well, coach never left DeSmet. To meet the time quota, we did end up going through Runnymede. I extended my lead in Spotter over Brian for the week with a couple Slugbugs on Ladue.

I finished the 10 minutes on my own by running the classic EtoE Rocky Road. Had a bunch of kids that were leaving DeSmet honking and yelling at me as I was coming up Emerson. It was fun. Practice finished up like it always does: stretch, chocolate milk, and ice bath. Woo!

Another solid run to get ready for Sectionals. Brian’s off tomorrow. I have 35 minutes plus 200s. The schedule for this Saturday at Lafayette is a follows:

• 4x800 – 12:00 (Scherping-Potter-Johnel-Pickel)
• 1600m – 1:30 (Abernathy)
• 400m – 2:10 (Pickel & Johnel)
• 800m – 3:10 (Scherping)
• 200m – 3:30 (Durron)
• 4x400 – 4:20 (Scherping-Durron-Johnel-Pickel)

You can find more information here. We hope to see lots of you there. It should be an awesome, very exciting meet.

On a total side note, Jacob Seiler is traveling to Rome. We wish him safe, fun travels. I blogged from Spain last summer and now Jacob is taking the Milk Table Shirt international. Can’t wait to hear about the trip when he gets back. “Milk Table going global, Italian edition.”

Quote of the Day: “Put some clothes on!!!”- Nick Martini screamed while diving by on Emerson Road.

Joke of the Day: “Squirrel! Come back. I want to ask you some questions. And I want to ask your friends questions.”- Scherping talking to the squirrels in Runnymede. He spent a good 3 minutes talking out loud to the different critters in the neighborhood.

2 Fast 2 Furious

No, we were not racing cars or watching an awesome movie for practice today. Coach simply had two fast and furious workouts to get us ready for this Saturday. There might not be two better words to describe these Phase IV workouts. Or Phase 4.5 as Scherping calls it since there are only a few guys left. All three of us brought out our brand new, just in winter training “Snowpocalypse” shits. Yes, they might have came in, kinda late, but they turned out really good. Time to ride all that hard work in the winter to the State Meet. The 800 guys, Scherping and Potter, had the Dream 800 workout. It’s about as short and sweet as it gets: 4x200 with 1 minute rest in between each. They’re goal was to go 28 or faster on all 4. Scherping closed it with a 25 showing his great speed that made him district champ in the 800. His splits added up to a 1:48 dream 800. Potter’s was 1:55 and more importantly he did not throw up. So point Potter!!

Abernathy’s workout was a surprise – coach revealed it as he progressed. It started with a 200 at race pace followed by a 200 jog. Then came a challenging 800 at race pace which he ran two ticks slow with 2:14. Next, another 200 a little faster than the first. After that came the biggest surprise of the workout, 8 minutes standing rest. He’d never had that long of rest for anything ever. But it would be necessary as the 2nd half was tough. It was a 3x400 at between 65 and 66 with 2 minutes rest. The rest must have got Kevin a little too excited though as the first one was a blazing 60.8. He found the pace on the second running a 65.3. For the last 400, he ran a 61.5 showing that speed he loves to unleash on the final lap of a race.

This workout meant it was time for double chocolate milks and an extra cold ice bath. It was a hard yet fun workout. We’re pumped up and excited for the race on Saturday. Let’s Go!!

Quote of the Day: “There are going to be 8 good guys out there. You have to beat them.”- Coach Traughber shouting motivation to Abernathy as he was running his final 400 of the workout.

Joke of the Day: “Brian it’s going to take you longer to put on that bandana than how long your entire workout will last.”- Abernathy as we waited for Brian to get ready when he was already late. It probably ended up being true because he took forever to get it own.

We’re Not Done Yet

Sunday night the seniors graduated. Immediately following graduation was the Final Fling lock-in. After hanging out and having a blast all night, we parted ways at about 4:30 in the morning. It was then time to go home and sleep all the way till practice.

So a mere 11 or so hours later we were up at DeSmet for practice. The work to get through Districts was complete. It is now time to put in the work to get to State.

Today’s work was an easy 60 minute run (Kevin) or 45 minute run (Brian). Of course Brian nearly overslept and missed practice. I called him as I was leaving and he had just woken up. He was late. But it worked out as I did my extra 15 minutes while waiting for him. As for the run, we went south on Ballas. Before turning around at Visitation Academy, we explored campus for a little bit. We pretended to be cars in the parking lot, found an open field with a broken bench, and ran by the defending State Champ’s soccer practice. But, the highlight was definitely the spiral slide. It was awesome!

On the way back we ran on the path in the park at Ballas and Conway (next to the Ronald McDonald House). This path had nice benches that were not broken. Brian concluded that it was because Ronald McDonald sat on all of the benches every day. We also made a stop at the hospitals’ parking garage. As a new DeSmet Alumni, Brian showed his Men for Others spirit when he threw the football back over the fence at the day care.

After practice, it was time for the Track Banquet. It was a great night of food, ice cream, good words, and awards. On the distance side of things the awards went as follows. Michael Callahan took the Most Improved award. To no one’s surprise, Austin Del Rosso won Rookie of the Year. Jacob Seiler received the 110% award. Kevin Abernathy and Alex Potter both got the Leadership Award. And Brian Scherping earned the Most Valuable Runner award.

Jacob who was also gets the unofficial T-bone All 8 Award as he ran for coach Traughber all eight seasons. This was the last Banquet for the Seiler family after a very long run with the DeSmet Cross Country and Track teams. We thank all five of them for everything they’ve brought to the program over all these years.

At the end the seniors took a few minutes to say some thank yous to the people that have made an impact on their time on the track team and at DeSmet as a whole. None of us could have done any of this without our families, friends, and coaches. You are all awesome! Also noteworthy was that senior Kevin Abernathy only talked for less than 4 minutes and 30 seconds (new PR!) much to the approval of the sophomore table in the back.

Title: Despite having the “Final Fling” the seniors are not done with their time at DeSmet. We will proudly wear our DeSmet jerseys this weekend at Lafayette with the goal of representing DeSmet at the State Meet. It was also a bit of the theme of the banquet—great season so far, but it’s far from over.

Click Clank

Today’s practice started with a medal meeting in the cafeteria with the whole team. There was lots of hardware given out—medals from Vianney, Clayton, and MCCs. Scherping picked up a total of 5 and Abernathy had 4. O’Connor, Waller, Martini, Potter, and McGann were among the other distance guys that picked up a medal.


It was time for practice and it was hot. Everyone that was not Scherping and Abernathy had a workout today. They were running 200s and 400s at “really freaking fast.” It was a good workout to get everyone prepped for their final races. I ran 20 plus laps on the track watching the workout for the first part of my 70 minute run. Then Scherping came out after finishing AP Physics and we ran for another 40 minutes or so. A nice run over to the shady Malcolm Terrace Park.

After practice while icing our legs we talked about the importance of getting enough sleep: 8-10 hours. This is especially important for us seniors who are now on a different routine with being out of school.

Don’t forget to bring your uniform for pictures tomorrow. And be on the lookout for our MCC Champions t-shirt.

Quote of the Day: “Coach, will you miss me when I’m gone? And me saying ‘hi coach’ very peppy everyday?”- Scherping to Coach Traughber after practice.

Joke of the Day: “He probably forgot to switch his clock to daylight savings time.”- Seiler on why he thought Scherping was late to practice.

Title: You could hear that noise before and after practice with so many guys carrying lots of medals.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

In order to be in the best possible situation for a great workout, the famous Prom Legs Workout was pushed to Sunday. Abernathy, Potter, and Scherping were joined by freshmen sprinting star, Tristan. With T-bone also in attendance there were only the five of us around.

After a pleasant mile warm-up, skips, and drills, it was time for the fun to begin—hard, butt-kicking workouts. Abernathy had a full Sean Nun Specialty. Scherping and the gang had a really fast 800 race simulator. The seniors brought out the flag shorts for this monumental day (first Sunday practice & Prom Legs+1). Potter and Scherping represented Canada and Abernathy had Ireland.

The Sean Nun Specialty was first created by Coach Traughber and another Missouri coach, Sean Nun. A few years ago, Connor Callahan was the first guy to it. I ran an abbreviated version of it last year. This year I got the whole thing which includes: a couple tempo miles, 800s, and 400s to finish it up. A challenging workout, but a fun one. I was able to nail my paces and then really hammer the 400s. After 3.75 miles of work, I was able to close in 61.5. That topped off a great workout.

Potter and Tristan ran the first set of the workout and then helped Scherping get through the second rep. It involved running a 400 on pace then resting before running a 400 all out. Scherping battled and looks like he is ready to break two this weekend.

This was Tristan’s first day with the distance squad. He ran a record setting 800 (MCC Freshmen, 2:07) on Thursday. That was while also running at 100, 200, and 400. Tristan had a good workout and we hope to see him around more often in the future.

Looking around after the workout, you could tell it was Sunday—everyone was lying around. But unlike at home it wasn’t because it was a lazy Sunday morning, but because all of us were worn out from the tough workout. Then we had a nice barefoot mile cool down. Coach got us some chocolate milk while we were stretching.

Potter vs. Food. Food won again today. We are no longer sure how many points each have. But we are confident in saying that Potter is getting crushed.

Happy Mother’s Day to all our moms out there! Especially the ones that let their sons go to practice on their day. Liz that includes you too.

Quote of the Day: “No matter what happens the rest of the way I want you guys to have fun and know that I have really enjoyed coaching you over the last couple years.”- Coach Traughber to the three senior while they were stretching.

P.S. It’s been a busy week, and there is a lot of good stuff that will be putting up soon. Stay tuned.

Jump!

After returning the MCC Track Trophy to DeSmet on their on their final day of classes, the seniors had graduation practice today and then ran on their own.We got our shield! Way to go guys!
The sprinters had a short practice and then shaved Coach Williams head afterwards. Brian, Jacob, and I had 45, 60, and 75 minute runs respectively.

We at a big breakfast this morning so we decided to kill some time by sitting in on Coach’s freshmen World History class. Jacob and I got 3 out of 5 on and quiz and Brian was too afraid to take it. We helped answer some other questions and then Coach had a powerpoint on the Roman Empire. In case you didn’t know, their greatest legacy is their Law (that will be on the test!). It was Austin’s class and the freshmen enjoyed having us in there and we had a lot of fun learning with them.

For the run we decided to go west on Olive. This meant we got to go over the highway and get in a sweet super weave and some parkour. We eventually made it to Millennium Park, where we decided to turn around. But before we left Brian insisted on us running around the baseball field and going down a slide. On the way back, we realized that we were going to be early. So, we made a stop at the parking garage next to the building with the indoor track. There was nobody around and we all the way up to the top and looked out over the surrounding area.

On the way back down, we did imaginary baton passes on all the turns. We didn’t want to go back to the entrance of the parking garage because it was farther from Olive. That meant that we needed to “break out.” We hopped a wall, balanced on the ledge, jumped the bushes, and ran up the hill to Olive. This was no problem for Jacob and I, but Brian was a different story. He couldn’t quite get the escape thing figured out. It was hilarious when Brian was standing on the ledge looking around all confused about what to do while Jacob and I were yelling at him to jump.

It was a great day for the three seniors. We had an awesome run together and then meet back up that night for prom and had even more fun.
Quote of the Day: (see baseball field at Millennium Park) “Let’s go roll in the dirt. It’s baseball season.”- Scherping.

Joke of the Day: “Scherping, how about you take this question. The answer starts with T.”- Coach Traughber while we were sitting in on his class. It was a True or False question.

AP Workout

Most the team was competing at SLUH today. More complete coverage will probably be up tomorrow.

As for the rest of us, it was time for the big pre-conference workout. I was running miles and 400s. Seiler, Martini, and Austin had 1200s and 400s. The 800 guys (Scherping, Waller, and O’Connor) had 600s and 300s. All of us looked really strong today and hit our paces in the gloomy May weather. With coach at the meet, Potter and I helped will Scherping through the 2nd half of his workout. After the mile cooldown it was time for core. As part of it, Scherping and I added the Boyle Fist Pump workout to prep us for the uncoming Prom.

We had some more good times hanging out and drinking chocolate milk in the AD office. Martini might have made a breakthrough discovery about why we drink chocolate milk instead of white milk. He proposed: Chocolate milk has a kid on a bike on the carton. Extreme. White milk probably has a kid reading a book. Boring.

Now it’s time to rest up and get focused for MCCs on Thursday.

Quote of the Day: “Darn it! Looks like I missed a great workout.”- Coach Traughber when he got back to DeSmet after the meet and was checking out the times from the workout.

Joke of the Day: “Kevin! You should call me tonight and then call coach and link the calls so I can surprise him and say ‘Hi coach!’ and tell him all about the workout.”- Scherping during core. Unfortunately for Brian, T-bone made it back to DeSmet before we left so we just told him about the workout in person.

Best Dressed: kabes & Matt OC. They both brought out some throwback jerseys for the workout. Matt had the mesh 80s jersey; Kevin had the nearly see-though jersey of the 90s. No better way to get ready for the conference meet than to go back to DeSmet roots for extra inspiration.

Title: Both Seiler and Scherping came to practice straight from the AP Psychology test. Even after working their brains for around 3 hours, they had the focus to have a great workout. Big test, big workout. We know one went well. The other we won’t hear about for awhile.

PS- Sorry about the long layover with posts. Bear with us. It’s crunch time at DeSmet right now for the seniors so we’ve been pretty busy. But! We’re working on some sweet posts from last week that should be up soon.

Happy Reading & Running!