NORTH SHORE TRAINING CAMP
The guys moved back to campus on August 15th before we kicked off our season in Lutsen from August 17th-20th for our pre-season training camp. We had a fantastic time on the north shore and enjoyed some great training together. Endless dirt roads and beautiful scenery. The guys loved it. Here are some more pictures, including our run to Pincushion Mountain, the annual watermelon eating contest, a canoe relay race on Sawbill Lake on the edge of the Boundary Waters, and a north shore themed St. Michael’s Games event — a rock skipping contest on Lake Superior.
THE TRAINING
THE FUN
first meet - toni st. pierre invitational
tomorrow, friday, september 5th
We have our first meet of the season tomorrow — our 3rd Annual Toni St. Pierre Invitational home meet — with the women racing at 6:00pm and the men at 6:45pm. Unfortunately, we have a few injuries right now and will be missing a couple of our top returners, but we are optimistic about their return later this season and are looking forward to seeing the rest of the guys get a race in after a great summer of training.
We had to move the location of the meet to River Oaks Golf Course in Cold Spring as our previous location, Boulder Ridge Golf Course in St. Cloud, didn’t want us on their golf course before September 15th. We have a great course at River Oaks and are looking forward to starting our season with a low key 5K against UW Stout, UW Superior and Northwestern (Minn.). The St. Cloud State women and St. Kate’s women will also be there to compete against the Bennies. To me, having the meet in Cold Spring feels a little bit more like a home meet for us than hosting in St. Cloud, and CSB+SJU did host a meet here previously in the early 2000s. If all goes well, we will look to host an 8K here next year and maybe even put a bid in to host the MIAC Championships on this course in the future.
Any alums in the area are welcome to join us at the meet and enjoy free pizza with our current teams after the races conclude. Would love to see you there!
OTHER IMPORTANT DATES THIS FALL
SEPTEMBER 16TH - GO JOHNNIES CHALLENGE
Our annual team fundraiser, and we are eternally grateful for all of the support our alumni continue to provide year after year. This fundraiser has been instrumental in helping us provide a great experience for our current athletes by giving us the resources to invest in injury prevention/treatment tools such as a LightSpeed Lift treadmill system, Normatec boots and more, along with helping us fund things like our preseason training camp in Lutsen this year, the track & field team’s annual trip to California, and other travel meets that we would otherwise not be able to afford. Every little bit helps, and thank you in advance again for your support. If you aren’t in a position to donate, join us at an alumni meet or regular season meet instead. We’d love to see you there and have your support in other ways, too!
SEPTEMBER 27TH - HOMECOMING PRACTICE WITH THE TEAM
We did this last year for Tim and Chuck Ceronsky’s Hall of Honor induction and I thought it would be a great Homecoming weekend tradition to continue. 9:00AM in the indoor track. Any alumni back for Homecoming weekend are welcome to join us for our current team’s practice to go for a run with the guys. Our current guys will have done a workout the day before, so will just be going for an easy run this day.
SEPTEMBER 27TH - BRIAN SMITH’S HALL OF HONOR INDUCTION
Saint John’s Athletics’ annual event to celebrate the next group of Hall of Honor inductees, which this year includes our very own Brian Smith ‘83. The event takes place in Guild Hall at 5:15pm and is a great evening full of socializing and storytelling.
Brian graduated from St. John’s in 1983 and became our program’s first-ever national champion by winning the outdoor 5K at the 1983 national meet. Brian also finished 3rd at the national cross country meet the following fall, and is still our outdoor 5K school record holder with a time of 14:19.70 from his national title winning race. You can read more about Brian and register for the event here: 2025 J-Club Hall of Honor Class: Brian Smith '83 - Saint John's University Athletics.
NOVEMBER 1ST - MIAC CHAMPIONSHIPS IN ST. PAUL
The MIAC Cross Country Championships return to the Twin Cities this fall and will be on November 1st at Highland 9 Hole Golf Course in St. Paul, just as they were in 2022. We’d love to see a big crowd of fans and alumni there!
Until next time,
Maxwell
