Lake Party

Those of us who ran at Webster yesterday headed to Creve Coeur Lake for this week’s long run. There were six us (Abernathy, Martini, O’Connor, Scherping, Seiler, and Waller) and it was no T-bone, no rules.

This was a great practice right off the bat. Before we had even left DeSmet, Matt locked his keys in the trunk of his car. So he joined everyone not called Padre in the Pondering Man Van to carpool to CC Lake. We started off going left from the café. We meet up with Seiler who was getting a teeth check up at the soccer fields.

There was no one on the Ruggerfest fields so we decided to run right through the middle of them chasing all the birds that were just hanging out. It was pretty sweet. As we got out to the lake side, Matt and Kevin had a little routine they for every time we passed a girl. It involved talking loudly about Kevin’s lack of a prom date and wishing there was someone nearby that could be asked. We tried our best, but it didn’t work out.

For a good majority of the run, we just said MCC stereotypes. “I am [CBC, Vianney, Chaminade, SLUH, or DeSmet] and I [insert funny generalization typically related to running].” It was hilarious! We came up with some really good one for every school. The best one was from Martini and it made Joke of the Day.

When the 70 minute run finally came to an end, it was time for core. Jacob then found an orange in the field that became Coach. Whoever was holding Coach got to talk for coach. He encouraged us throughout core. We really like Orange Coach. We had a blast with him. Nick had a great line after Waller said something about how he couldn’t do anything. “Coach isn’t a vegetable; he’s a fruit!”

Because our run stopped at Jacob’s car at the soccer field, we loaded up and drove back to the café to get the milk and the Van. It was rave. Coach was hanging out the window. After drinking our delicious chocolate milk, we played the first ever milk cartoon bball national championship. Team Kabes- Lil OC got out to an early 2 point lead over Scherp-Wall who battled back to even the game at 2. Defense tightened up and it took several positions before O’Connor hit a hook shoot win the game. In celebration of the National Championship Abernathy got an ice dump from Martini.

The epic practice which Jacob called the “best of the season” ended with a sweet picture to commemorate the awesome day. Lucky a friend of Jacob had showed up to take it.
Quote of the Day: “Kevin, do you have a date for Prom?”- Matt O’Connor

Joke of the Day: “I AM DESMET. I SEND OUT ALL CAPS EMAILS.”- Nick Martini

Best Dressed: Scherping. All of us ran with our shirts tucked in to show off the classic flags shorts. Brian took the victory because of his now trademark bandana matched the Canadian Maple Leaf.

Grazing on a Cloudy Day

In preparation for the coming meets and time trial this week the Spartans set out for some easy miles to start off the week. For the top few groups this meant an ever classic Graeser loop during which the #1 Rule: No Fun, is typically broken into hundreds of pieces. With such a large group of guys some team members became reminiscent, of the infamous "Mega Group" which rose to power during the 2010 XC season.

Not letting the dreary weather dampen their spirits the runners pulled out all the stops for this run including an intense game of spotter in which Matt OC took home the Gold, GTTG ended poorly with unclear results due to lacking communication throughout the entire group, but the real highlight of the day's work was some quality practice time of the racing formations straight out of the play book and serving as training for young Austin. Also worth of acknowledgement was the potential addition to Martini's car construction collection in the form of an old nasty boom box stereo which he carried for the stretch down Ballas. All around it was a fun day.

Make sure to stay tuned for upcoming information from the meets this week with the Webster Groves Invitational tomorrow and the Freshman/Sophomore Northwest House Springs Relay meet on Wednesday! Also, the link for the entire season's meet schedule can be found at the bottom of the info bar on the right side of the page for those interested.

Joke of the Day: (Coach telling Brian about the sick workout he has planned for him this week) Kevin Chimes in, "Coach I wanna be an 800 runner! I never get cool workouts like Brian!" (Background noise comments, "My Name's Kevin, wah wah wah!") "Yeah! I wanna be a thrower!" - Nick Martini

Quote of the Day: "You can just fill one of these with hot water and put your foot in it. *Strange look from Kevin* Oh! i mean warm water. Gah! Cold Water!" - Coach trying to offer Kevin another way to ice his foot instead of full out ice bath

Best Dressed today goes to Mr. Brian Scherping With his "All Condition ready" Under Armor attire with the Nice DeSmet dri-fit T-Shirt but most notably complimented by his recent hair shortening surgery leaving him super fly for his 800m race tomorrow. Knucks Scherp.

-Padre

Breakfast Anyone?

The Spartans hit the track nice and early on this fine April morning for a tempo workout. The plan was to get some quality work in before a rest day on Sunday and a race on Tuesday or Wednesday. That’s exactly what happened.

Each group had a number of laps and a pace per lap to hit. Lots of encouragement could be heard from T-bone as guys called out splits as they passed. Lucky for him, Husmann came to practice and helped write down splits. Jack learned a valuable lesson – writing numbers on a clipboard is far more difficult than it appears. Back on the distance squad was Potter who had an 800 specific workout with Scherping. Aided by the early practice time, Potter picked up his first point in Potter vs. Food. It’s now 2-1. Everyone finished the workout with 4-6 200s at mile pace. The guys looked smooth today and coach was happy with the performance.

After practice, the guys who put in the miles in the off-season were invited over to the Traughber’s for a pancake breakfast. For starters we had the 2nd Annual DeSmet Distance Team Smoothie Contest. The competition expanded from 3 to 4 competitors – Potter (the only returner), Abernathy, Seiler, Callahan-Sullivan. Jacob’s speed was impressive, his “smoothie” (it was totally a milkshake but we let it go) was made the fastest. Abernathy added watermelon to his smoothie to try to set it apart from the others. Callahan-Sullivan struggled blending their thick and sweet smoothie, but it turned out alright. Potter forgot the lid for his blender which would have eliminated him from the competition had Coach Traughber (who said he did not “think” he wanted strawberries all over his walls) not let him borrow his.
After everyone there had plenty of samples of each smoothie, the voting took place. Abernathy, Potter, and Callahan-Sullivan were all tied with 4 votes apiece. There was still one vote not cast. Liz was torn and wanted to vote for two, but this contest needed a winner. After a final taste of Alex and Kevin’s smoothies, Liz chose Alex. After his disappointing showing last year, Potter is the Smoothie Champ.

With the excitement over, it was time to eat. And oh boy was it delicious. Pancakes, pancakes, and more pancakes, not to mention, eggs, sausage, and fruit. We ate and hung out and had a blast. Scherping, not to anyone’s amazement, ate the most. Justin Potter had the weirdest meal-chocolate chip pancakes covered in chocolate syrup. It induced what Liz called a “chocolate coma.” There’s just nothing like getting together as a team to celebrate lots of hard work.

Traughbers, thank you so much for your hospitality and wonderful food, we once again had a great time! Remember if want to be a part of the food and fun next year, get your miles in and you will get your invite.

Quote of the Day: “If I wasn’t mean to kids, I’d still be a DeSmet selling chocolate milk.”- Coach Traughber. We were telling Liz about how coach gives kids trouble when he’s selling milk.

Joke of the Day: “My favorite part of breakfast was the muffins. They were right next to the stove. What do you mean you didn’t see them?”- Seiler to Abernathy. Kevin went inside to find that there were never any muffins.