This might be a little bit longer of a post, but a lot has happened since Austin's last blog. So, let's get down to business.
Last year, as many of you know, we did not make it out of our District. It was a tough loss and a very tough district. Fortunately, Tyler Blechle (SR) and Micheal Ruiz Del Arbol (Smith Cotton Wilson) (SO), both made it to the Sectional meet and competed amazingly, but did not make it to State on their own.
Despite these setbacks during the Cross Country season, our sophomore-dominated team matured (just a little) and kicked some major butt in Track, led by then Senior, Nick Dolan. Our 4x800 team (Reed, Dolan, Ratz, Sherping) took 12th in a season best 8:13. Then sophomore stud, Joe Reed, ran both the 1600 and the 800, making him the first Spartan to compete in three distance events at State in over 15 years. Reed finished the 1600 in 15th place and 11th in the 800 with a time of 1:57. His 800 time was the fasted for De Smet since 2006.
We also had two other sophomores, Michael Ruiz Del Arbol (Smith Cotton Wilson) and Tyler O'Connor (SO), qualify for the sectional meet on their own as well. Ruiz qualified for both the 1600 and the 3200, while Tyler qualified for the 3200.
Now we get to the juicy stuff. All those sophomores who were doing some pretty amazing things are now Juniors, and, for once, had an outstanding summer of training. Not to mention, we have a soon-to-be-stud sophomore class led by Collin Donovan.
Both time trials were amazing compared to the last seasons, and the guys ran the alumni run like they never got out of racing shape from track. Reed and Donovan both ran PRs, and Ruiz and O'Connor almost matched theirs.
The top 10 for De Smet's opener meet (Fleet Feet at Parkway Central) are listed below, as well as their times from the 1.4 mile time trial.
Reed (JR) 7:31
Ruiz (JR) 7:31
O'Connor (JR) 7:31
Donovan (SO) 7:35
Woodford (JR) 7:43
McNiel (JR) 7:45
Winter (JR) 7:47
Plassmeyer (JR) 7:50
Linhares (SR) 8:09
Riordan (SO) 8:13
Honorable Mention - Up to the 14th man
K. Callahan (SO) 8:21
T Weissaar (FR) 8:24
Sanchez (JR) 8:34
Abbenhaus (SO) 8:36
Not only were the times pretty fast, but the Juniors led the way. These next two years are going to be fun, so buckle up.
**Alumni, please, please, please show up to meets and practices when you can. If you do show up and want to write a blog post, let me know. The goal of this blog is twofold: to get the guys excited about how amazing their team can be, and to connect them to the tradition that YOU helped create.
-Adam Boehm
