The Go Johnnies Fundraising challenge was a huge success. The Cross County/Track & Field team pulled in 129 donors and raised over $21,000; well beyond our goals for the event. Thank you to all the alumni, family, and friends who helped make the day successful. The money raised helps us continue to travel for meets like we did this past weekend.
Last weekend we split the team among three meets. Tim made his annual trip to La Crosse with some of the distance runners. Joe was a one-man show and took a majority of the team to Carleton. I was the lucky one and flew ten athletes to Los Angeles for the Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific University.
We arrived late on Wednesday night to Los Angeles and on Thursday practiced at Azusa’s track. In the evening on Thursday, we had just barely enough time for a photo at the Santa Monica Pier before meeting several SJU alumni for dinner. Tom Roth hosted the team at the Jonathan Beach Club on Santa Monica Beach. Several of the guys mentioned that it might have been the best dinner they’ve had (after their own mothers’ home cooking, of course). People often talk about the “Johnnie Connection” and it was in full force at dinner. Current students and the alumni bonded over their many shared experiences and alumni offered to help in any way after graduation. Overall, it was an outstanding experience for our athletes and one they truly relished.
Friday’s meet was the warmest weather we’ve seen in a long time, upper 80’s and not a cloud in the sky. They guys were ready for it and performed well. The meet started rough with a dropped baton in the 4x100 meter relay. That race is always the most nerve-racking for me. We haven’t had a lot of time to work on the handoffs with the cold weather, but we will get them smoothed out in the next couple weeks.
The sprinters bounced back and had a great meet in the 100 through 400. Ryan Miller ran 10.62 and is ranked 8th in the country. Drew Schoenbauer followed it up with a personal record of 10.72 and is ranked 16th. Drew had more left as he dropped his 200 personal record by .4 seconds and just missed the school record with 21.55. A bigger surprise was Omavi Collison’s 400. He dominated the slow heat to improve his personal best by nearly 1.5 seconds and won his heat by over three seconds. His time of 49.00 broke the SJU freshman record of 49.4 set in 1970 by Dave Arnold.
While the sprinters were busy running nationally-ranked times, Kai Barber was was holding his own against the throwers. He threw his PR on his second throw with a 16.30m (53’5”). Kai made some adjustments and improved on his third throw with a put of 16.49m. After he warmed up for discus with a few throws into the cage net, I learned Kai unexpectedly made finals for shot put. He quickly got back to the shot ring and began with two lackluster throws in finals. I’m not sure if he was nervous to follow Sweden’s Wictor Petersson (one of the top young throwers in the world), but Kai put it together on his last throw (did I say Kai is Clutch?) for 17.05m (55’11”) and is currently ranked 4th in the country.
After such great performances at the meet, it was easy to agree to a night walk along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On our long, slog of a drive back to the hotel (everything they say about L.A. traffic is true) we even saw the lights of the Goodyear blimp.
Overall, the trip was a good experience for our athletes who really performed well. I hope the athletes had as much fun as I did. While it is still “work”, I enjoyed traveling with this tremendous group of student-athletes. I appreciate all the alumni support to make trips like this possible. We have two more weeks to qualify for the MIAC Championships and will be at Macalester for the Bolstorff Twilight Meet on Thursday. Hope you can make it.