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.