By far, the Meet of Saints is my favorite track meet of the year. An annual event for many years, it is a men’s team meet between St. Thomas and St. Olaf (this year we added “St.” Concordia) and ourselves. Traditionally, it always has great competition in all events, the weather usually cooperates, and the whole meet is done in about three hours. It is the last opportunity to qualify for the conference meet and has a sense of urgency to the competition.
This year’s Meet of Saints was particularly special as it included the naming ceremony for the track. The meet could not have provided a more perfect setting to honor Tim and his continued service to Saint John’s Cross Country/Track and Field. Well over 350 people showed up for the celebration. Lots of familiar faces of recent graduates and many alumni who I recognized by their names from the Saint John’s All-Time performance lists or from one of Tim’s elaborate stories. While the event was to honor Tim, it was a great reminder of the role coaches play during student-athletes formative years and the strength of the relationships built during that time. Tim is tremendous at forming those relationships and has dedicated himself to his athletes. Even though I personally consider him a mentor, I could not ask for a better “assistant”. I believe he mentioned he plans on sticking around for awhile, and now I have about 350 witnesses to hold him to it!
With the Meet of Saints behind us, we are now onto MIAC Championship week. We qualified forty athletes with someone in every event except for the long jump. We have the top seed in several events: 100 meter dash (Ryan Miller), 200 meter dash (Drew Schoenbauer), triple jump (Collin Trout), shot put (Kai Barber), and the 4x100m relay (Brady Labine, Drew, Jack Young, and Ryan Miller). Beyond those top seeds, we have several #2 and #3 seeds to watch.
Since we are also in finals week, this week always proves especially challenging. Last week, guys were scrambling to complete class assignments. Now they are staying up late to study for finals. My college coach always told us we weren’t going to learn anything after 10:00pm so we should just go to sleep. If you haven’t learned it by now, you probably aren’t going to learn it that late at night. Much like Tim’s joke at the end of the season, “We have two days to get in shape!” If you haven’t studied or trained, it’s a little too late. I find myself constantly reminding the team to rest and the importance of sleep. We have a handful of guys who succumbed to end-of-semester pressure and are sick or just recovering. Otherwise, we are relatively healthy.
We have one last practice before the conference meet so, “One day to get into shape!” Today, Seniors will give farewell speeches to the team and several have already told me they’ve prepared remarks. Perhaps some highlights from those messages will appear in next week’s blog post.
On Friday and Saturday, we are off to compete at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul. Field events start at 2:00 pm each day and the running starts at 2:00 pm on Friday and 3:00 pm on Saturday. Come cheer on the team!