GO JOHNNIES CHALLENGE FUNDRAISER
TOMORROW!
First off, watch the above video and have a laugh. Tim is sporting a pair of Normatec Recovery boots in the video — which we have been lucky enough to be able to buy for the team due to the money raised in the Go Johnnies Challenge in years past!
Anyways, a brief note about the annual Go Johnnies Challenge fundraiser that takes place tomorrow, September 16th — this fundraiser makes so much of what we do possible. Our cross country and track & field program would look very different without the support we receive from you all each year. We carry a large roster, about 30ish in cross country this fall and 90ish guys during the track & field season. Your generous support each year allows us to make up the difference in what the University provides for a budget so that we can carry such a large roster, bring everyone to every meet and continue to provide the great experience that we all had at SJU to each of our current guys.
With the funds raised the last few years, here are some things we have been able to purchase / do that we otherwise would not have been able to:
2022: LightSpeed Lift anti-gravity treadmill system for injury prevention/recovery and trip to California during the track & field season for the Bryan Clay Invitational
2023: Trip to the Pre-National Cross Country meet in Pennsylvania with 10 athletes and four pairs of Normatec Compression Recovery Boots (the boots that Tim is enjoying in the above video…)
2024: New uniforms and warmups, pre-cross country season training camp trip to Itasca State Park, trip to Drake Relays during track & field season with large group of athletes
2025: Pre-cross country season training camp trip to Lutsen, MN and mid-season travel meet trip to Rock Island, Illinois
This is in addition to the overall budget support this fundraiser provides for things like buses, food, hotels, etc. that come along with carrying such a large roster. Any support you can provide is appreciated more than you know, and our very own Chris and Kathleen Lee have already pledged to match each donation tomorrow dollar for dollar up to $10,000 just for cross country/track & field. Give $100, and Chris and Kathleen will then give $100 — for example — and so on up to $10,000. Thanks Chris and Kathleen, and thank you in advance to everyone for the support tomorrow and every day!
Here is the link to the fundraiser: Cross Country/Track & Field · GiveCampus
MIAC PREVIEW MEET RECAP
We ran our first 8K of the season last Friday at Highland 9 Hole Golf Course in St. Paul, the same course that the conference meet will be on later this fall, and finished 3rd out of nine teams without two of our top five runners. With sickness and injury going through the team, we’re looking forward to getting everyone on the start line later this season.
Our top two runners were again junior Cole Stencel — the reigning MIAC Athlete of the Week — and fifth-year senior Eamon Cavanaugh, who also finished 2nd and 3rd in the whole field. Last year’s NCAA runner-up Mohammed Bati from Augsburg won in 25:19, with Cole following in 26:14 and Eamon coming next in 26:55. It was a very hot and humid day, and the course was a bit soft from some rain earlier that day. Definitely not a PR day, but a good chance to see the other schools in our conference and get a look at the conference course, which everyone on our team except the seniors had never run on before. Full results below.
GOLF WORKOUT
Our annual golf workout, 18x400m @ roughly 5K pace (adjusted for being on grass) with 60 seconds rest, took place last week on the Intramural fields behind the baseball stadium. Shoutout to Tim for mowing a nice 400m loop of short grass into the field before the workout — the guys are spoiled these days with such a nice running surface for our workouts.
We had probably our most competitive golf workout in quite a few years, with three guys being tied at 8 seconds off by the end of the workout: junior Cole Stencel, sophomore Collin Berg and junior Lars Molenkamp. It’s always fun to have a run-off at the end of the golf workout — and a run-off it was. Each guy runs one extra rep by himself, and I take their official split without reading it aloud to the group until all three guys have completed their extra rep. Cheers of “way too fast” or “you gotta go!” rang aloud as the peanut gallery tries to mess with those participating in the run-off to influence the St. Michael’s Games team scores. I don’t think we’ll have a closer run-off than what we had this year anytime soon:
Lars Molenkamp was supposed to run a split of 81 seconds — he ran 78.44. 2.56 seconds off.
Collin Berg was supposed to run a split of 79 seconds — he ran 78.75. Just .25 seconds off.
Cole Stencel was suppose to run a split of 76 seconds — he ran 75.97. Three hundredths of a second off. Our King of Good Pace!
Most run-offs end up with guys being way off their assigned split since they no longer have the entire group running with them, not to mention some extra adrenaline with the title of King of Good Pace on the line. Even more impressive for Cole as he was leading every single rep of the workout due to being our fastest guy currently, so he did not have anyone in front of him setting the pace for all 18, I mean 19, reps.
Team Bigote ended up with the best average score of the four St. Michael’s Games Teams with an average of 12.3 seconds off.
current st. michael’s games team scores
19 points - Team Two Thumbs Up
13 points - Team Bigotes (Whiskers in Spanish… couldn’t tell you why!)
12 points - Team Flynntown
11 points - Team Watab
We have a nice training block here as our next race is not until October 3rd at the UW Eau Claire Blugold Invitational. Talk to you soon, and hope to see a lot of you at Homecoming on campus on September 27th!
Maxwell
