Hopefully you paid attention last weekend and have seen the videos of our races (all are on SJU Johnnies Twitter) from the NCAA National Championships. I don’t know if I have sufficiently processed the Johnnies’ week in Geneva, Ohio. It seems rather surreal yet, but I will give you the coach’s account of the weekend.
We flew to Ohio on Tuesday to allow practice time on Wednesday and attend the awards banquet on Wednesday night. The banquet was a great event to kickoff the week as fellow Johnnie JIm Gathje ‘86 was inducted into the Coaches Association Division III Hall of Fame. Gathje still holds the steeplechase Division III Championship record at 8:43.93. Non-track highlight: literally a table with hundreds of donuts at the NCAA banquet from Madsen Donuts.
Thursday was the prelims of the 4x100m relay. I have commented in previous posts about my feelings before and during that relay. Those emotions are always amplified when there are high expectations. Thanks to their performance at the Last Chance meet (Last Chance Blog) the week prior, we were ranked second overall. For prelims, we made some adjustments to account for the strong, swirling wind and the team performed great. Despite my coaching worries, they won their heat and had the second fastest qualifying time. However, UW-LaCrosse had qualified as the fourth seed without running their fastest team members. They are the biggest competition.
Prelims of the 100m dash and shot put were on Friday. Kai Barber had a very good series of throws to finish 9th, one place from earning All-American status. He was consistent in his throws, but lacked the big throw that would have moved him higher. Drew Schoenbauer and Ryan Miller ran well in the 100m dash. Drew ran his second fastest time of his career to finish in 14th place. Ryan qualified for finals with a 10.46s and set the stadium record in the process.
Saturday was the big day. It was hot & humid “sprinter weather” and their performances showed it. I typically don’t spend a lot of time with the athletes at meets. I am usually moving between events and am available if athletes need help. Hopefully I have done my job in practices throughout the year and the athletes are prepared. At the National Championships however, there aren’t as many athletes to coach. I’m not sure if I was looking nervous during their warm-ups (I usually try to play it pretty cool) as Nick Gannon simply looked at me and said “We got this, Coach.” I took that as a sign to get out of their way and find a good place to watch the race.
The teams that made it to finals for the 4x100m relay had extremely close seed times. With such a competitive field, the race really came down to handoffs. Nick had a great start and I quickly noticed LaCrosse struggle on their first handoff. The race stayed close as Drew gave the baton cleanly to Brady Labine. A couple other teams slowed down on that exchange and Brady sprinted past. He got the baton to Ryan Miller and we were in 3rd or 4th place. There was no panic as Ryan smoothly accelerated and blew past the other competitors including the athlete who, earlier in the/week, delivered the furthest long jump in DIII Championship history.
Disbelief, relief, restrained excitement were emotions I allowed myself to feel momentarily. Then I quickly moved on to Ryan needing to cool down and get ready for the 100 meter finals. I wondered, if Ryan’s focus would be compromised after winning a National Championship race. How would his body respond after standing on the hot turf waiting for the awards ceremony? Despite my apprehensions, Ryan wasn’t phased. After spotting his competitors a sizable lead, Ryan hit top speed and nearly took everyone down but simply ran out of room and came in second. I was beyond proud of that performance. And then the time appeared on the scoreboard: 10.22 seconds! (Remember, Ryan’s prelim finish of 10.46s was itself an incredible time and set a stadium record!) I still can’t comprehend that time and is the 5th fastest all-conditions time in Division III history.
On top of all that, the Johnnies scored 18 points and placed 11th as a team. What a tremendous weekend! I am so thankful to be able to work with these great student-athletes.
Special thanks to all the families that made the trip to Ohio. We had a great cheering section and it was greatly appreciated. We even got a couple shout-outs over the PA system on our flights- the guys found that particularly enjoyable, so thank you to whomever made that happen. To all the alumni, family, and friends who have reached out to congratulate us after the weekend, I am extremely humbled that you all pay attention to Johnnie Track and Field. Thank you for all the support!
Now that the season is over, I am focused on preparing for next year. I am finishing up recruiting and will be attending some Section Championship meets and the Minnesota State High School to see some of the new athletes who will be attending Saint John’s next year. I also spend considerable time to provide summer training and review last year’s training. Hopefully I will write a couple more blog posts this summer about those areas of recruiting and training.