Celebrating Success

With the track season nearly upon us, there was a last recognition of the past cross country season. Saturday marked the Annual St. Louis Track Club Banquet. For the 18th year, the Track Club honored the All-Metro High School Cross Country Teams. I attended the banquet with my parents and Coach Traughber.

Banquet consisted of a good dinner followed by awards and a guest speaker. SLTC gave out its Volunteer of the Year (Jackie Corn) and Lifetime Achievement Awards (Jerry Kokesh). Jerry was part of the beginning of the St. Louis Track Club and then spent six years as the President of the Road Runners Club of America. He now balances his running with biathlons (yes, the sport that combines cross country skiing and rifle shooting) and is a manager of the US Biathlon Association. Jerry could not make the banquet because he was in some European country. He seems like a cool guy that really loves running.

Next Ben from Big River talked about each of the high school runners that made the All-Metro team as we came up to receive our awards. In a typical fashion, I was first; this time not for my last name but because I was the only Honorable Mention boy. Also there, were rivals Cushing, Mazar, Lambert, and Holmes. My SLUH counterpart, Tim Rackers, was not there to receive his top runner award because he was skiing. The rest of the boys All-Metro team was up of guys from Class 3 and Illinois.

The girls’ side was headlined by FSU bound Nerix Hall standout, Colleen Quigley. Also on the Girls First Team was friend of the Milk Table, Krista Menghini. For those of you who don’t remember, Krista is the cross country/ volleyball star from St. Joseph’s Academy. It was her second time on the All-Metro team, but the first time she was able to attend the banquet in full. She is headed to SIU to play volleyball and hopefully run track. Elise Vioxx, Cor Jesu’s top runner and a friend from Big River’s Winter Distance Camp, made the 2nd team despite getting injured during the season.Krista & Kabes
Rae Morhmann was the guest speaker. She’s ran a marathon in all 50 states. That’s probably the only thing that can top collecting all 50 state quarters while selling chocolate milk. Her story and speech were great. The part I remember the best is that when she was going through a hard time see started to run. She said, “It was empowering!” That’s what running does.

I had chance to talk with different people when the night ended. The runners mentioned above as well as Ben and Coach Porter from SLUH. The whole night was a really cool event and a lot. A nice opportunity to hang out with other top runners and get honored for our hard work.

Here comes Track!