Each September we call on the generosity of our alumni and friends to support the cross country and track and field teams. You have surpassed our goals every year which has allowed us to make program updates and fund our operating expenses. With your donations, we have made facility upgrades, installed record boards to document our successful history, outfitted the team with new uniforms, and recently bought equipment to aid in athlete recovery. More commonly, your donations help fund our operating expenses such as bus transportation, post-meet meals, and hotels. Without these donations, we would not be able to attend our minimum required meets due to the increased cost of transportation and food. Don’t worry, we still frequent the Super 8 or Motel 6 on those overnight trips.
Most importantly, your donations allow us to have a large roster. Having more people on the team is expensive, but it is also vital to the athlete experience. This experience is cultivated by providing everyone an opportunity to develop and compete. We provide this opportunity to everyone from the state champion to the walk-on athlete who is not given a chance elsewhere. All of these athletes contribute to the success of the team whether it is scoring points at the conference meet, taking on a leadership role, or telling a great story between reps.
My goal is to continue this high level of athlete support, where every athlete is allowed to improve and contribute. Your donations are vital to this athlete experience and the team’s success. Once again, thank you for your support.
Jeremy KG
How to donate and support Johnnie Cross Country and Track and Field.
1. Simply donate to the Challenge at www.gojohnnies.com/gjc24
2. Become an Advocate for the Cross Country and Track and Field teams. Encourage others to donate by pushing the campaign out on your social media accounts or contact classmates and teammates to encourage them to donate. You can start this process through the link below.
3. Consider making a matching gift to the campaign. These are used to encourage others to donate by matching their gift with an additional amount. You can set this up through the link below.
4. Share the www.gojohnnies.com/gjc24 link on your personal social media pages and invite others to support Johnnie Track and Field
Summer has officially ended. I tried to extend it as long as possible, but I couldn’t stop classes from starting this year. However, I feel satisfied that I was able to pack in as much as I could this summer. I coached a group of high school athletes in Australia, spent two weeks in Hawaii on the return trip with my family, hiked my annual 14’er in Colorado with alumni and friends, and just finished a 21 mile day-hike in Sleeping Giant Provincial Park in Canada with a high school teammate. I am thankful to have such great people in my life to go on all these adventures.
We started our season with the first practice on Monday. It is a large team this year with 32 freshmen (11 who competed at the state meet). The freshmen will add some depth in needed areas and complement a strong group of returning athletes. I will provide a more detailed preview later this fall.
Along with the beginning of the season, is the annual Go Johnnies Challenge on Thursday, September 12. We always rely on your support to provide a positive experience for our athletes. It becomes harder each season as our expenses have increased dramatically over the last several years. Buses alone will cost us $22,000 for the year and will eat into our budget of $26,000. That doesn’t leave much left for juice.
Your past support has been greatly appreciated and made a tremendous impact on the team experience. The donations have allowed us to have a large roster which provides a strong team atmosphere, purchase necessary equipment, and cover yearly food/travel expenses.
The Go Johnnies website is active and we have generous matching and challenge gifts to encourage your participation. A big thank you to Chris Lee and Jerry and Laura Colbert for getting us started!
It’s easy for you to help us have a successful campaign once again.
1. Simply donate to the Challenge at www.gojohnnies.com/gjc24
2. Become and Advocate for the <<Sport>> program. You can help to encourage others to donate by pushing the campaign out on your social media accounts or contact classmates and teammates to encourage them to donate. You can start this process through the link below.
3. Consider making a matching gift to the campaign. These are used to encourage others to donate by matching their gift with an additional amount. You can set this up through the link below.
4. Share the www.gojohnnies.com/gjc24 link on your personal social media pages and invite others to support Johnnie <<Sport>>
Last week's last chance meet was a little underwhelming. It was a long trip down to Rock Island, IL for a two-day meet that lacked any last chance magic for us. The 4x100 relay didn't improve on their time and finished the season ranked 18th in the country (top 16 relay teams qualify for the National Championship). Our other athletes who were close to qualifying didn't improve their performances either. However, Max Lelwica (JR, Brainer) stayed in Minnesota for a last chance decathlon at St. Olaf. Max had the big performance of the weekend for us and scored a new pr of 6526 and moved to 12th in the nation.
In the end, we have three athletes competing at this year’s National Championships. Max will compete in the decathlon on Thursday and Friday. Jackson McDowell (FY, Centennial, CO) high jumps on Friday. Kevin Arthur (JR, Champlin Park) will run both the 100 and 200. This year’s National Championships are down in Myrtle Beach, SC. I am currently sitting on our balcony overlooking the ocean. An AirBnB condo is much cheaper and more comfortable than hotel rooms.
I’m excited to be traveling with these guys and Coach Joe and Brady Labine (who has been helping coach the sprinters all season). We started the trip with the coaches going for a moonlit run on the beach on Wednesday night. Max, Kevin, and Jackson have been great to work with this year. They have been positive leaders on the team and I am excited to see what they can accomplish this weekend.
Here are the details for the weekend. Follow along if you can!
Jeremy
Time Schedule (all times CT)
Thursday:
Decathlon: 100-meter dash (11 a.m.), long jump (~11:45 a.m.), shot put (~12:55 p.m.), high jump (~1:45 p.m.) and 400-meter dash (3:40 p.m.)
200 Prelims: 5:55pm
Friday:
Decathlon: 110-meter hurdles (11 a.m.), discus (11:45 a.m.), pole vault (~1 p.m.), javelin (3:45 p.m.) and 1,500 meters (~5:30 p.m.)
High Jump: 3:00pm
100m Prelims: 4:45pm
Saturday:
100 Finals: 4:40pm
200 Finals: 5:50pm
I am currently down at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL for a last chance meet. We are a bit scattered since UW-LaCrosse is no longer hosting their usual last chance meet. I came down on Tuesday with some field event guys and Coaches Maxwell and Brady are bringing the rest of the guys later. Coach Joe is at a decathlon last chance meet at St. Olaf.
While I'm sitting in our hotel, I wanted to give a quick recap of the MIAC Championship. Despite the second place team finish, I am really happy with how our team performed. The guys characteristically perform well at championship meets and this performance was no exception. Based on everyone's predictions, Bethel was expected to win the meet by over 50 points. They are the #4 ranked team in the country and have a great team this year. Behind some outstanding performances, they guys managed to get within 11 points and at least make Bethel nervous.
The big performance came from Kevin Arthur (JR, Champlin Park). He has been consistent all year, but was ranked 2nd in the 100 and 3rd in the 200 behind Bethel sprinters. In the 100 prelims, Kevin set the conference championship record with a time of 10.31. In the finals, he gave the Bethel runner a generous lead after a subpar start. However, he blew by him in the last 30 meters and ran 10.32 seconds. In the 200, I will argue that Kevin's race in finals is the best I have seen him run. He ran a great turn from the gun and held his lead over the Bethel runners. Kevin's time of 20.68 is the best time in Division 3 this year. It also set a new school record, the conference championship record, the All-Time MIAC record, and is fifth All-Time in Division 3.
Coach Joe's jumpers didn't want to miss out on the fun as we saw a new school record in high jump. Jackson McDowell (FR, Centennial, CO) jumped 6-10.75. Not bad for his first year in track!
A group of seniors who technically have eligibility left performed well. Joe Charbonneau (New Richmond, WI) won his fifth conference championship in pole vault. Jaeden Frost (Omro, WI) has been all-conference many times, and won his first conference championship. He upset some good hammer throws for the title. Maybe I can convince these guys to use their last season of eligibility!
Across the team, we had strong performances and I am proud of how well they have trained and competed this year. I will provide another update after our last chance meets and hopefully have several qualifiers for the national championships.
Jeremy
Johnnie track and field athletes are exceptional at welcoming everyone to the team. Our athletes help coaches create a supportive atmosphere where everyone can pursue their goals and find success. They celebrate their teammates’ improvements whether it is breaking a school record, qualifying for the conference meet, or setting a personal best.
Sometimes those personal achievements are highlighted by absurd coincidences that truly showcase the moment. Enter “Yakety Sax.” If you are not familiar with this song, I suggest you check it out. For me, it conjures up the memory of watching the Johnny Carson show with my grandmother. Immediately following Johnny Carson was the Benny Hill show with the theme song “Yakety Sax.” I don’t know how to describe it other than a comedy show revolving around an absurd old man and containing lots of double entendre that made little kid Jeremy (and probably current age Jeremy) very uncomfortable. And Yakety Sax was the show’s soundtrack.
What does this have to do with track? We had two meets last week to provide opportunities to qualify for this week’s MIAC Championships. Wednesday’s meet at St. Thomas had some very good performances and set the team up well. We traveled to St. Olaf on Saturday with a smaller group of guys who either needed an additional competition to prepare or still needed to qualify. One of those athletes needing to qualify was freshman Conor Brynteson (Robbinsdale Cooper). He was not on the radar to qualify in the hammer throw and even asked last week “How realistic is it to PR by 5 meters to qualify?” Going into Saturday’s meet Conor’s PR was 33 meters.
Conor’s first throw on Saturday was a foul into the cage. After some adjustments, he had a small improvement and was feeling good. His next throw was over 34 meters and there might have been a little celebratory hoot afterwards. He threw over 35 meters on his next throw and joyously jogged down the sector line to retrieve the hammer from the official. Then Conor let loose a throw over 37 meters. As it landed, an even louder yell was released from Conor while he was still in the circle and then he ran down the sector line. Coincidentally, the song Yakety Sax was playing at the track and was perfectly timed to his run. I’m not sure if anyone else witnessed this, but it was a fantastic moment to see an athlete excited for their improvement and brought a bit of levity to what can sometimes be a long day. In the end, it was also enough to qualify Conor for the MIAC conference meet- congratulations Conor!
The MIAC Outdoor Championship meet started last week at Carleton College with the decathlon competition. Our decathletes kicked it off with great performances. Max Lelwica (JR, Brainerd) finished second with 6,432 points and Anthony Thurk (JR, Waconia) scored 6,269 points for sixth. Max and Anthony have been fun to watch develop for the last three years. Those scores raised them up in the national rankings (13th and 24th respectively) and could mean a trip to NCAA championships in two weeks.
The rest of the conference meet is this Friday and Saturday at Hamline University. Field events start at 2pm on Friday and running events begin at 2:30pm. Saturday’s field events commence at noon and running events start at 1:30pm. We hope to see some alumni there.
Follow along with the MIAC Outdoor Championships this weekend:
This is the time of the season when it feels like I’m either at a meet or preparing for a meet everyday. I took a crew of athletes to the meet in California, hosted a home meet on Saturday, had a long day at University of Minnesota on Wednesday and now preparing to travel to Gustavus on Saturday. I even squeezed in an additional one on Thursday to watch my kids compete in their first track and field meet. While it is exciting to see the payoff of all the athletes' hard work, I miss the relaxed atmosphere of the early season and the focus on training.
I don’t have much to report about the trip to California to compete at the Brian Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific University. Unfortunately, the weather was cold, rainy, and overcast. In fact, the rest of the team enjoyed considerably better weather when they competed at Mankato the same weekend. Highlights were taking Jaeden Frost (JR, Omro, WI) to see the ocean for the first time and we ate well. Also noteworthy The trip was definitely fun, but the weather hindered performances.
Our home meet was the first outdoor home meet we have hosted in three years. Meets in the previous years were canceled due to snow, including one earlier this April I named the Optimistic Invitational. Last weekend we were free of snow, it was barely in the 40’s with a cool wind.
Wednesday at the University of Minnesota was a beautiful day with sunshine and relatively calm winds. We had many good performances as a result of the ideal conditions. Sophomore Mitch Degen (Brainerd) won the javelin with a throw of 172ft-11in. Mitch has been steadily improving all year and is really starting to figure out the event. Kevin Arthur (JR, Champlin Park) continues to run well. He tied his PR in 100m dash prelims with 10.38 and came back to win the 4x100m relay in 41.20 with Emanual Popoca (JR, Bloomington Kennedy), Zach Schaffer (SO, Chaska), Kieran Murnan (FR, Holy Angels). Nick St. Peter (SO, Maple Grove) seemed to enjoy running on this calm evening after having to suffer through the worst conditions in California as he ran his 1500 in 50 degrees and a hard rain. Nick ran an evenly split 800m run for a new PR of 1:54.84. One more notable performance was Vincent Kaluza (FR, Rocori) in the steeplechase. His time of 9:46.63 is one of the faster freshmen we have had in awhile and he will continue to improve on that this year.
National Ranking Updates
Kevin Aurther: ranked 4th in the 100m dash with 10.38 (has run the time twice)
Jackson McDowell: 12th in High Jump with 6-8.75
4x100m relay: 12th with 41.20 (Emanuel Popoca, Kevin Arthur, Zach Schaffer, Kieran Murnan)
Zach Schaffer: 20th in Long Jump with 23ft-5.25in
Kevin Aurther: 21st in the 200m dash with 21.46 (on a cold day in California)
Cooper Smith: 37th in the 400 hurdles with 54.57 (cracks the top five for freshmen)
Jaeden Frost: 38th in Hammer with 179ft-10in (2nd All-Time at SJU)
As mentioned, we are off to Gustavus this Saturday, April 27th. We will be at St. Thomas next Wednesday, May 1st. Stop by if you’re in the area.
Jeremy
BTW: For all the 4x100 fans: We have been running multiple 4x100m relays most meets, often running three teams. Our “B” team on Wednesday ran a respectable 42.68. The team is composed of four guys who did not compete in track in high school. This has been a fun group to train: Brennan Blake (FR, Totino-Grace) joined at spring break from baseball, Joey Moberg (FR, St. Paul Johnson) came from the SJU football team, Matt Hansen (FR, Niwot, CO) is the SJU football kicker, and Aidan Morey (SO, Creighton Prep, NE) from SJU soccer.
Recruiting is an interesting endeavor in track and field. We can spend a significant amount of time recruiting outstanding high school track athletes only to have them show up on campus and decide they don’t want to compete anymore. To balance out those heartbreaks, we sometimes are gifted a talented athlete who has no prior experience in track. We have several of those guys and they are coming from basketball, soccer, and baseball. This year, we have picked up a couple guys from the Johnnie baseball team. I briefly mentioned Jackson McDowell from Colorado during the indoor season. We picked up Jackson before the trade deadline and probably owe the baseball team a “player to be named later” and a jar of Saint John’s maple syrup. Hopefully the price doesn’t increase as he continues to improve each week. At our meet last weekend at Hamline, Jackson won a jump-off for first place in the high jump and cleared 2.0 meters (6-6.75) and is ranked 18th in the country.
A couple other guys inserted themselves in the early national rankings with good performances at the Hamline meet as well. Kevin Arthur (JR, Champlin Park) ran a new personal record in the 100 with a 10.38 which is good enough for third in the country. Jumper Zach Schaffer hit a big pr in the triple jump with a distance of 13.81and is ranked in the top 30 for both long and triple jumps. Both of those guys were joined by Aidan Morey (SO, Omaha) and Kieran Murnan (FY, Lakeville) on the 4x100. We had a last minute substitution for our lead-off leg and they combined for a 41.68 which is currently ranked 25th.
The distance guys started the outdoor season with strong performances in the 5k. Freshman Vincent Kaluza (Cold Spring) debuted in the race with one of the fastest freshmen times in a long time. He confidently ran 15:13 and he will be one to watch improve throughout the year.
Overall, I am impressed with the start of the season. Some of the performances were very good despite the cool and windy day. This week, the team splits between two meets. I am taking five guys to California and the rest of the team is headed down at Mankato. In California, we will be competing in the Bryan Clay meet again. This may be one of the biggest meets ever. Over 800 men are competing in just the 1500! Hopefully we have some good performances to report next week.
Speaking of next week, we are back home for our only home outdoor meet of the year. We have made some schedule adjustments and will be hosting the first day of the women’s heptathlon and 10k’s on Friday night. The rest of the meet is Saturday. We’d love to have you return to cheer on the team or compete. Email me if you are interested in competing: jeremykg@csbsju.edu.
In the meantime, I’ll be scouring the baseball rosters for the next big trade. I’ll have to pull Tim out of retirement to work some Moneyball magic.
Jeremy
As a proud Minnesotan and someone who enjoys all seasons, this winter storm has pushed me to the edge. I can handle the lack of snow impacting my skiing as long as it means we have an early start to outdoor track meets.
With the winter storm last week, I told my Coaching Methods class to make informed decisions if you decide to coach after college. Don’t simply choose the sport you love or the one you saw the most success. My advice was to choose a sport with a short season (track has the longest competitive season of any sport) and to choose based on weather. Ideally, choose a fall sport as weather disruptions happen less often. Better yet, choose an indoor sport in the fall: you rarely need to change travel plans due to weather and never have to worry about rain or snow during the matches. As a result, I will be transitioning to volleyball very soon!
Our first home meet of the year, named the Optimistic Invitational, was scheduled for March 28th. The meet was officially canceled after the snow. Over the last three years, we have canceled four of the last five outdoor meets we planned to host. I guess this is simply averaging out our home meets from 2021 when we needed to host nearly every weekend due to covid restrictions. That year, we hosted four indoor meets and four outdoor meets.
Hopefully our next home meet will be safe. We are hosting on April 20th and are encouraging alumni to attend that meet. As always, any alumni are welcome to compete.
Jeremy
BTW: I didn’t have a chance to write an update after the National Division III Championships. Kevin finished 15th in the 60 meter dash and earned 2nd Team All-American status. While Kevin was disappointed with his Nationals performance, he had a great indoor season with tremendous improvement to qualify for the Championship meet.
Kevin Arthur (Sr, Champlin Park) and I had an uneventful day of travel on Wednesday to Virginia Beach, VA. Kevin has qualified for the NCAA Indoor National Championships in the 60-meter dash. He is the Johnnies lone qualifier after last week’s last chance meet at UW- La Crosse.
Despite a lack of last chance meet magic, we still had some good performances. Zach Schaffer (SO, Chaska) joined the seven meter/ 23 foot club in long jump with a jump of 7.03 (23-0.5). He has been flirting with that for awhile and it was a relief to finally break the barrier. Our guys in the 800 also performed well. Tommy Allen (Jr, St. Paul Academy) tied his outdoor PR with a time of 1:54.56. Sophomore Nick St. Peter (Maple Grove) ran his first 800 of the year in 1:56.83. I’m excited to see what they can run outdoors.
As we wrap up the indoor season this week, follow along with the live results and video links below. Kevin will run the 60 meter prelims on Friday at 1:15 Central time. Hopefully he will be back on Saturday for the finals at 2:35 Central time.
BTW: Mark your calendars for our outdoor home meets: Thursday, March 28th and Saturday, April 20th.
The MIAC indoor conference meet last week started with the Johnnies down two coaches. We anticipated Coach Maxwell would be staying home with a new baby (Marais Annette arrived on the 16th), but wasn’t expecting Coach Joe to be sick. After some quick adjustments, I took Joe’s heptathletes down on Thursday (after a rough first few days, Joe recovered quickly and was able to join when the full team came to Northfield. Those last minute changes are easier when we have people like Tim and Brady Labine helping to make sure things run smoothly- so grateful for their continued support!
Overall, I am proud of how well the guys competed at the MIAC Indoor Championships this year. Many a coach likes to “score the meet” to determine team scores based on qualifying entries. Based on that preliminary data, it appeared Bethel would win big and several schools would be tight to come in second, specifically St. Olaf, St. Scholastica, and SJU. I personally don’t make a practice of scoring the meet ahead of time, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get nervous about how everything will shake out in the days leading up to it. In the end, Bethel came out on top. They have an outstanding team this season and are currently fifth in the DIII National rankings. SJU was a clear second and can boast five individual conference champions: Tommy Allen (JR, St. Paul Academy) was a double champion in the 800 and 1,000 meter runs, Kevin Arthur (SR, Champlin Park) won the 60 meter dash, Joe Charbonneau (JR, New Richmond, WI) came out on top in pole vault, and Zach Schaffer (SO, Chaska) was long jump champion.
A meet like this reinforces how well the Johnnies have historically performed at conference meets (okay, maybe not always for Indoor!). Guys are hitting PR’s consistently at the big meets and this year is no exception. From the guys scoring points to the guys just qualifying to compete, many are performing well. Seeing an athlete's hard work pay off at the right time is very rewarding as a coach.
A great example is Tommy Allen this weekend. He competed in the 800m and the 1k. The 800m was on day one and another competitor ran a fast time in the second heat. To have a chance to win, Tommy needed to make sure to keep a brisk pace in the final heat. He decided to take the lead early and went the distance for the win in 1:55.33. On day two for the 1,000 meter run, the game plan going in was to not lead the early part of the race and feel out the competition. Some of the top guys had run several races and might not have much left. It was a thrilling and well-executed race and you should watch it here:
BTW: I created a youtube channel for videos throughout the season. I also created a few playlists of videos that we use on our videoboard. Many of the videos are notable performances and school records. You can check out the videos here: Jeremy KG SJU TF youtube
If you have any video that might be fun to add, send it my way.
Jeremy
Up next: we are taking a few guys to the last chance meet at UW-La Crosse on Saturday. So far, Kevin Arthur is qualified for nationals and is ranked 5th in the country. He will run the 200 this weekend and is currently ranked 22nd in that event. Tommy Allen and Nick St. Peter (SO, Maple Grove) will run the 800m dash this weekend. Joe Charbonneau and Kole Guth (SO, St. Peter) will vault. Jaeden Frost (SR, Omro, WI), is coming off of two big third place finishes in the shot put and weight throw at the conference championship and will throw both. Zach Schaffer will be competing in the long jump. These guys decided to delay the start of their spring break to fit in one more indoor competition- wish them luck!
We competed last Saturday at Mankato (Minnesota State University Mankato) and had some great performances as we prepare for the MIAC Indoor Conference Championships this weekend. Kevin Arthur (Sr, Champlin Park) continues to lead the team as he broke two school records. He had already set the record for 60 meter dash earlier in the season and broke it again with a time of 6.78 seconds. He has been eyeing the 200 meter dash record as well. Despite his good 200 meter times outdoors, Kevin has struggled running the turns indoors. He had his lightbulb moment in practice last week. Even though we had talked about where to look going into the turns, it hadn’t clicked until we walked through “when” to start preparing for the turn. The difference was immediate and I knew he would overtake Drew Schoenbauer’s record of 22.19.
Check out the video of Kevin’s record breaking 200 meter race: SJU 200 Indoor School Record: Kevin Arthur 22.08
The distance guys had some good performances last weekend as well. Nick St. Peter (SO, Maple Grove) opted for a meet at the University of Minnesota for a quick 4:18.74 mile, while Tommy Allen (JR, St. Paul Academy) ran his first 800 meter dash of the season in a controlled 1:56.36.
Here are a few other stand out SJU performers who positioned themselves well for the conference meet: Zach Schaffer (SO, Chaska) continues to do well in long jump and leads the conference. Fellow jumper Jackson McDowell (FR, Centennial, CO) keeps improving in high jump with a clearance of 6-3.5 feet. This is Jackson’s first year ever in track after transitioning from baseball. I’m not sure if we need to trade someone to the baseball team in return!
This week’s MIAC Indoor Championship is at St. Olaf. Our four heptathletes will start on Thursday and we have forty-two athletes qualified overall. I would like to feel more confident going into the meet, but injuries and sickness will keep a few key guys out of the meet. Bethel and St. Olaf both have good teams and it will be a tough competition.
Come cheer us on!
Jeremy
Conference Meet Info and Livestream can be found here:
2024 MIAC Indoor Track & Field Championships - Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
A couple of meets, a new school record, and a first in my coaching career. So far, it is a good start to the season.
Thank you to everyone who attended the alumni meet in January. I was impressed with the turnout as 30 alumni competed and many more were in the stands. The alumni held their own and came away with event wins in the weight throw (Gavin Rupp, 2022) and the triple jump (Collin Trout, 2020). Both have some Covid eligibility remaining so we may need to find them a uniform.
Since the meet, we have finished some upgrades of the indoor facility. The giant video board is up and running, the school record boards are installed, and we just added additional record boards with the top-twenty all-time lists for each indoor and outdoor event. They all look great, except that one of the school's records already needs updating.
For the last two years, Kevin Arthur (SR, Champlin Park) has been chasing former teammate Ryan Miller’s (2022) school record of 6.90 seconds in the 60 meter dash. Over the last two seasons, Kevin has run eight races with times between 6.91-6.94; including having run 6.91 seconds twice!
Last weekend at the University of Minnesota, Kevin ran a smooth 6.93 in the prelims and had the third fastest qualifying time behind two Gophers. A strong start in the finals and great competition helped Kevin run a new school record of 6.79. He ran a smart race by staying relaxed and focused on his race. It was a big improvement that Kevin earned with meticulous dedication to training and making smart decisions outside of practice. One of the first guys to congratulate him after the race was Ryan Miller who came down to support the team. After that, Kevin celebrated by jumping into my arms! That was a first for me and I was not prepared for it. Hugs, the rare high five, or the even rarer “Pretty Good!” have been the norm. Regardless, it was a pretty great moment to share.
Check out the video below.
Notes for this week: we have another home meet on Saturday at 11:00am. Come check out the record boards and all-time lists. Find your name before it disappears! We will have some good races this weekend. Most of the distance guys will battle in the 1,000 meters to get qualifying times for the conference meet. We have put together three 4x200m relay teams to do the same.
I look forward to seeing some of you this weekend.
Jeremy
SJU 60 school record: Kevin Arthur: 6.79
I began the holiday break by climbing a 14,000 foot peak in Colorado with Coach Maxwell and Pole Vault John. If that wasn’t challenging enough, I decided to end the break with the St. Croix 40 mile Ultra. The St. Croix race is designed as a winter survival race and requires gear for self-rescue: cold weather sleeping equipment, stove, water, and food. My goal was to nordic ski the 40 mile race. The lack of snow removed that option and I needed to travel by foot instead. Thankfully, it was only the coldest day of the winter so far with sub-zero temps and windchill between -20 and -30 degrees. For an extra level of difficulty, the race started at 6:00pm and went through the night.
In my experience, the race went moderately well for my first attempt at something this long. Remember, at heart I’m a sprinter, my furthest race distance prior to this was a 5k road race. Since only 60% of this year’s participants finished the race, I’ll take my finishing as a success. There were some struggles: early blisters that I couldn’t fix in the cold, trying to eat while moving and staying warm, and controlling negative thoughts that creep up on you when you’re in the dark and walking with no one in sight for hours.
Forty miles in the dark and virtually alone (I saw no one during the 2nd half), leaves a lot of time with your thoughts. Some thoughts centered on logistics and paying attention to fueling and pace, some thoughts about the suckiness of the situation, and actively trying to get a terrible repetitive song out of my head. But mostly my thoughts kept returning to “Why?”
Why climb a mountain? Why train all year for a 0.1 second improvement in the 100 meter dash or an extra couple of centimeters in a field event? Or worse, why train only to have something go wrong? Maybe you get injured, maybe you don’t see an improvement, or maybe you don’t accomplish your goal. Why do hard things?
The answer that I settled on: What else are we going to do?
If I truly believe that sport is a valuable pursuit, then it should continue to be important at all stages of life. By embarking on these wild challenges, I hope I’m showing athletes, students, and my own children that physical challenges should be a lifelong pursuit.
Having these internal debates throughout long hikes is common for me (maybe you, too?) and it gets brought up every season with the track team or in my coaching class. Why should you continue with sports? Why not simply play video games all day?
A person doesn’t have to learn that you can cover 40 miles during a cold Minnesota night, but it is valuable to learn that you can set a goal, and do some hard work to achieve it. And whether you meet the goal or not, you should be able to make adjustments towards future attempts, set new goals, and overcome a perceived failure. At least that’s my perspective, and I think some of you maintain that ideology, too.
Speaking of challenging yourself, our annual Alumni Meet is coming up on Saturday, January 27th. Come and compete! Or just come for the camaraderie and to watch the old guys take on the next generation (or several generations younger). We have a new video board that will play
some highlights. If you have any SJU T&F trivia or pictures that we could put up there, don’t hesitate to pass them along.
Meet details and event sign-up: https://connect.csbsju.edu/register/2024AlumTrackandFieldMeet
See you in Collegeville,
Jeremy
The annual national coaching convention was held in Denver last week. This is the second year in a row the USTFCCCA (bless you!) convention has been in Colorado. Last year, a group of Johnnie coaches and alumni attempted to summit Quandary Peak near Breckenridge. The combination of -30 degree windchill, poor visibility, and the mile detour of snowshoeing off the trail caused us to turn around just short of the peak. Despite not getting to the summit, we still had a great adventure and solidified our desire to try a winter hike again.
Not everyone could make it back this year, but last week Johnnie coaches Maxwell Kuzara (‘17) and John Pollack joined me for redemption. We hit the trail around 8:30am with the temperature coming in around 5 degrees fahrenheit. The sky was clear all day, giving us great views of the neighboring mountains and we only encountered a few other hikers all day. There were a few challenges as we neared the summit. Wind gusts close to 40 miles per hour hit us pretty hard on a ridge and the last few hundred feet of elevation was a good workout. We successfully reached the summit of 14,271 feet, climbed around 3,400 feet, on a total trip distance of 7 miles in just under 7 hours. It was a fantastic adventure to enjoy just before the busy track season gets underway.
Despite all that energy exerted in one day, it didn’t count toward my running streak, so afterward I still needed to get my daily run in. I figured I would churn out a quick ten minute run once we got to our hotel- a mere 5 hours away in Nebraska. But I hadn’t factored the timezone change into my calculations! Once I realized we weren’t going to make it to the hotel, I decided to stop at a rest area and around 11:30pm I got in my run. Actually, it was a good shake-out run and my streak is preserved!
A thank you to John and Maxwell for joining me on this recent expedition and much appreciation to coaches Joe and Brady for keeping practice running smoothly in our absence! Finals wrapped up last Saturday and it’s pretty quiet in Collegeville right now. Athletes have been given their training plans for break. Remember guys, Santa’s watching!
Enjoy the holidays!
Jeremy
Since cross country has wrapped up, we are officially entering the track and field season. We have adjusted to the new NCAA season rules. The new rules allowed us to start practice earlier and have a slower progression into the season. Starting in September, we practiced twice a week. In October, we moved to 4 days a week, providing everyone a rest day on Wednesday and have stayed with that throughout the fall.
The guys have been getting restless and we will run a 30 meter test this week. This test is always highly anticipated by the athletes as the first opportunity for competition- even if it’s just between teammates and only earns bragging rights. Last year’s champion among the sprinters, vaulters, jumpers, and hurdlers was Emanuel Popoca (JR, Bloomington Kennedy). It was a big upset victory over Kevin Arthur (SR, Champlin Park). There has already been a lot of speculation among the guys and Kevin is hoping for some redemption!
Coach Joe is also getting restless. He is taking a group of guys to the University of Minnesota on Friday afternoon. Some jumpers, hurdlers, and our heptathletes will be getting the competitive season going for us and enjoy a break from the end of the semester grind in Collegeville.
Speaking of getting away from campus, several coaches are headed out to Denver for the annual coaching convention or conveniently shortened to the USTFCCCA Convention. Maxwell and Pole Vault John (Pollack) will be joining me for the road trip west. Hopefully we will learn a few things and maybe sneak in some hiking while we are there. If you’re in the Denver area, let us know!
In the meantime, mark your calendar and start training for the annual alumni meet: January 27th, 2024!
Jeremy
BTW: here is a link to this year’s apparel order. Orders are due by Monday, December 11th.
SJU Track and Field Apparel Order
Normally I don’t have much to report in the fall, but I am truly excited for this year. We have a great coaching staff, a strong group of returners, and a good freshmen class. When you add in the new NCAA rules allowing us to practice earlier in the year, there is a lot to be excited for this season.
As mentioned last week, we rounded out our coaching staff with the addition of Maxwell Kuzara as the new full-time distance coach. Brady Labine is sticking around after finally exhausting all of his eligibility to help coach the sprinters and hurdlers. Of course, we still have Joe Vardas and John Pollack as well. Coach Joe has been at SJU for 26 years and does an outstanding job coaching the hurdles, jumps, decathlon, and javelin. John is in his 9th year as our pole vault coach and has developed our vaulters into a dominant squad in the MIAC.
The new NCAA rules allow flexibility to spread our practice opportunities throughout the year. Therefore we have decided to begin practicing two days per week throughout September and had our first day on Monday. It’s a big team! We had 47 guys out on the track. That doesn’t include the distance runners and the multi-sport athletes. The team is a good mix of returners and new faces. The returners include two National Championships participants, three conference champions, and twenty-one MIAC conference scorers. The first-years include ten athletes who competed in their high school track and field state championships. Combined, they make for a gimongous* team and I can’t wait to see what they can accomplish this year.
A larger team size means we rely more on the generosity of alumni, family, and friends to ensure we can supply all members of the team with a great experience. Your donations this year will support the team on the quest for their third consecutive outdoor MIAC Championship. Thank you for the continued help and I look forward to seeing you at meets this year!
Jeremy
How to help:
Support the Cross Country/Track & Field Teams through a simple donation. Make sure to set Cross Country/Track & Field as the designation.
Become an advocate and encourage and promote the event on any social media outlets. We can use all the social media help we can get!
If so inclined, set up a matching gift that will encourage others to donate. Make sure to set Cross Country/Track & Field as the matching designation.
Enter dollar amount and decide if you will make the full gift regardless If the match is not complete met (check box)
Select “Other” and enter a dollar amount to give and check the “Per donor” box
Select the Match a designation box and select the designation you want to match
Fill out the rest of the form
*Gimongous: Giant and humongous combined, coined by one of the Kid KG’s and she thinks it’s hilarious to be mentioned in this post.
Classes are back in session, athletes are trickling into the track, and we are all excited for the upcoming season. We have a great group of returners this year led by two National Championship participants of Kevin Arthur (SR, Champlin Park) and Carter Grove (SR, Osakis). Carter ran an outstanding 8:59 for in the steeplechase at the MIAC Championships last year. Kevin set the school record in the 200m dash with a 21.15 and was All-American in the 100m. We added a large group of freshmen as 45 new athletes will be joining us. Many of those should contribute immediately and I will highlight some of them as we get going with practice.
Many of you may have heard that we had a change in our coaching staff. Tim and Maxwell Kuzara have switched roles. Maxwell has taken over head coach duties for the cross country team and Tim is his over-qualified volunteer assistant coach. I love this duo working with the distance runners. Tim created a great program by building relationships with athletes by genuinely taking an interest in each person, meeting the athletes where they are at for training, and providing an environment for all to succeed. I see that same ability in Maxwell.
The beginning of the school year also means the Go Johnnies Challenge. This fundraising event has been imperative to the team. In previous years, your donations have allowed us to buy new uniforms and take the team to high-level competitions. More importantly, it allows us to have a larger roster and travel everyone to competitions. This year’s Go Johnnies Challenge is Thursday, September 7th. The website is currently live and you can donate now.
Details are below and I will include more information next week.
Jeremy
How to help
Support the Cross Country/Track & Field Teams through a simple donation. Make sure to set Cross Country/Track & Field as the designation.
Become an advocate and encourage and promote the event on any social media outlets. We can use all the social media help we can get!
If so inclined, set up a matching gift that will encourage others to donate. Make sure to set Cross Country/Track & Field as the matching designation.
Enter dollar amount and decide if you will make the full gift regardless If the match is not complete met (check box)
Select “Other” and enter a dollar amount to give and check the “Per donor” box
Select the Match a designation box and select the designation you want to match
Fill out the rest of the form
The past three weeks have flown by and we are currently in Rochester, NY for the NCAA Division III National Championships. We won the MIAC outdoor championship by 40 points over St. Olaf. We qualified 57 athletes for the championship and had the potential to score in every event. We fell just short of that goal, but made up for it by scoring three athletes in several events such as the javelin, hammer throw, and 800m run. We are proud of the depth and hard work of all our athletes this season.
We had little time for celebration as we split the team for the last chance meets. The 4x100m relay team headed to Augustana College in Rock Island, IL and everyone else to La Crosse, WI. We had some good performances and personal records, but no “last chance” magic to qualify additional athletes to the National Championships.
Still, we had some outstanding performances throughout the year with three athletes qualifying for Nationals in four events. Kevin Arthur (JR, Champlin Park) will run both the 100 and 200 meter dashes. He set MIAC Championship records in the 100m (10.46 sec) and 200m (21.20 sec); and helped the 4x100m relay to a Championship record (41.11 sec). He also set the All-Time MIAC record in the 200m (21.15 sec) earlier in the season. Carter Grove (JR, Osakis) will be competing in the steeplechase after he dropped twenty seconds from his personal record to run 8:59.39. He finished second in the MIAC and is now #2 All-Time at SJU. Brett Hague (SR, Brainerd) will compete again in the javelin. This season, he set the school record, the MIAC Championship record, and the MIAC All-Time record.
Speaking of Brett, we had an interesting situation at the airport this week on our way to Rochester, NY for Nationals. Three of our guys were stopped at airport security to have their carry-on bags inspected. Coach Joe had his extra large sunscreen confiscated. Carter had his distance spikes inspected and Brett had multiple issues. His javelin spikes and the metal stake he uses to mark his approach were pulled out of his bag. Then the security officer pulled out a mason jar of sand. How do you explain that this is a jar of your “lucky” sand and your performance at Championships depends on it taking the flight unharmed? After testing the sand with various substances, the kind security officer let it through, possibly more amused that this mustachioed youngster had a jar of lucky sand.
Here is when the guys compete:
Thursday:
3:00 pm: Javelin
6:05 pm: 200 prelims
6:35 pm: Steeple prelims
Friday:
5:00 pm: 100 prelims
Saturday:
11:30 am: Steeple finals
1:30 pm: 100 finals
2:40 pm: 200 finals
How to follow along:
Elijah Wade will be tagging along to provide some coverage of the meet:
Watch live:
Follow the live results:
If you are in the Rochester, NY area, stop by and cheer the guys on!
I’m not sure where to even start with the outdoor season. To quickly summarize: we canceled some meets including two home meets, moved some more meets to Sundays due to weather, and traveled twice to Iowa to compete. The last snow piles have almost disappeared. At the very least, we made use of the new indoor track!
The season is nearing its end and the conference meet is this weekend at Bethel. We have had some great performances leading up to the meet including two school records. Kevin Arthur (Champlin Park) broke his own school record in the 200 with a time of 21.15. His old school record was 21.50 set last year. The video of his race is below.
Brett Hague (Brainerd) broke the javelin school record with a throw of 68.10 meters (223-5). The old record was set by Tom Engwall in 2003 with a throw of 67.80 meters. I’ll need to get Brett to share the story in a later post. It will be one of the stories that becomes SJU legend.
Here are some additional highlights from the season so far:
https://www.instagram.com/sjutrackandfield/
Now, onto the 2023 Outdoor MIAC Championship meet. To set the stage, we won both indoor and outdoor championships last year. This year, we lost the indoor championship to Bethel by two points. Who will prevail outdoors? Bethel has a great group of sprinters and hurdlers who will be tough to beat. Add in St Olaf’s distance runners who might carry their team into the lead. Both are good teams and have the potential to win many of the events. In our favor, we have fifty-seven athletes qualified for the meet and our goal is to score in every event. Follow along on Friday and Saturday with the links below or show up to Bethel and cheer on the Johnnies. Friday’s field events start at 2:00pm and the track events start at 2:30. Saturday’s events start at noon in the field and 1:30 on the track.
BTW: We have started awarding t-shirts to athletes who break into the top-10 of their event to commemorate their “pretty good” performance at SJU. Catch me at a meet if are in the top-10 and would like one.
I have mixed feelings about the MIAC Indoor Championship meet. Losing by two points is difficult to accept. Bethel had a good weekend and we knew they would be difficult to beat. They have a few great athletes and will do well this week at the National Championships. Once we get past the disappointment of not defending last year’s championship, we can focus on the upsides of our team heading into the outdoor season.
In true Saint John’s fashion, we will be a stronger team if it ever stops snowing. Our indoor conference performance was impacted by injuries, conservative coaching decisions, and a mediocre performance overall by the team. Hopefully we will be at full strength during the outdoor season and some of our injured athletes will be ready to return. As a coaching team, we made some decisions to be conservative with our athletes at Conferences and limited some of our athletes who have a history of injuries. As usual, the additional outdoor events like steeplechase and javelin will help the team’s performance. Regardless, it will be a close outdoor championship since St. Olaf will have a good team led by a strong group of decathletes.
Before we get too caught up in the outdoor season preparation, we still have Joe Charbonneau (JR, Richmond, WI) competing in the pole vault on Friday, March 10th at the Indoor NCAA Championships. Joe has improved tremendously in vault and cleared 16ft. -1in. at the MIAC Championships to win and qualify for Nationals. Joe continues the string of successful vaulters for SJU. The vault squad had a dominating performance at conference by placing 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th. Beyond those that scored, the vault squad qualified seven of the eighteen spots at conference. Vault coach John Pollack does a great job with the guys and I am amazed at the improvement we see in his group.
We are excited for Joe as he embarks on his first trip to Nationals and are looking forward to hearing the stories of John and Joe on the Road.
Follow along to the Division IIII National Meet here:
See you outdoors!
Jeremy
BTW: Our triple jumper, Elijah Wade, has been working on an Instagram page with some fantastic videos of the team. Check it out here: sjutrackandfield on Instagram
For a brief moment last week, the coaches turned their heads to the outdoor season with thoughts of an outdoor meet at the end of March. The sunshine and melting snow really got us eager for the outdoor season. In true Minnesota fashion, those thoughts were squashed this week and now we need to refocus on this week’s indoor championship.
Like most things in the state, we have had some changes to the championship schedule. The meet is delayed by one day to accommodate the winter storm. At Macalester, the heptathlon starts Friday and the other events are Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s field events start at 3:30pm and the running events are at 4:30pm. Sunday's schedule starts with the triple jump at 10:15am and the track events at 1:00pm.
As we prepare for the meet, we are lamenting the loss of some great seniors from last year’s team. Last season, we had several events that we knew we would contend for the win. It is difficult to replace guys like Ryan Miller, Maguire Petersen, Shawn Schindler, Michael Wallace, Omavi Collison, Gavin Rupp, Jack Young, and Joe Stauffer. All of them were guys that we knew were going to score points. This year is a little tougher as we have had some key injuries. Regardless, we still have a well-rounded team and can score in almost every event. Bethel has a very good team this year and is highly ranked nationally. They will score most of their points in the 60, 200, 400, 600, and 60 hurdles. Can Bethel score enough points in those events to hold us off? Come to the meet or follow along to find out.
Jeremy
Meet Details:
Tired of being at home this week? Come check out the meet! Here is the link to buy online tickets:
Macalester Ticket Online Tickets
Prefer to watch the meet from the comfort of your home? The livestream is here:
Want to occasionally check the results? Wayzata Results is providing live updates:
The Johnnies had a good meet last weekend at the University of Minnesota, but we will be glad to be back home for this Saturday’s meet. Going into last weekend, I knew Saturday was going to be a long, but I didn’t anticipate a meet lasting eleven hours. Thankfully we had an extra vehicle and could send the team home after the running events finished. After some technical difficulties with the measurement laser in throws, the men’s shot put was just starting as the running events finished. The team arrived home with plenty of time to “study” on Saturday evening, while the shot putters and I returned much later.
Despite the delays, we still had some good performances. Kevin Arthur (JR, Champlin Park) finished second in the 200m dash to a Gopher while improving his personal best with a time of 22.58 sec. First year sprinter Caden Wheeler (Andover) made his collegiate debut in the 60m dash with a strong 7.17 sec. performance. Caden is also a running back and kick returner for the SJU football team. He will be a very good two-sport athlete for the Johnnies. Representing the field events, sophomore Zach Schaffer (Chaska) improved his long jump to 21-5. Zach is in his first year of doing track and learning along the way. The big highlight was Carter Grove’s (SO, Osakis) 3,000 meter victory. He dropped 16 seconds from his previous best time and ran a smart race with a decisive move at 5 laps left. Carter spent much of last year on the injured list and we are excited to have him back competing.
Saturday we are back at SJU with a start time of 11:00am. The other teams competing are Minnesota-Morris, Concordia-Moorhead, Southwest Minnesota State, Gustavus, St. Cloud State, the Minnesota Running Club, the St. Cloud State Running Club, and Ryan Bromenschenkel (‘99). If you see Ryan at the meet, feel free to escort him to the pole vault area so he doesn’t miss his event again.
Hope to see you there.
Jeremy
BTW: We have two options for apparel orders:
The first option closes on February 15th:
https://sjutrack-field23.itemorder.com/shop/home/
The second option does not have a deadline:
SJU Track and Field started the indoor season last weekend with our annual Alumni meet. While we were able to host the meet outdoors last year, this is the first indoor alumni meet since 2020. It’s great to have everyone here and the 4x400m relay teams didn’t disappoint.
There was a good turnout of alumni competing and attending the reception. The alumni team was able to field an athlete in every event except long jump and hurdles. They did have a hurdler entered although Ryan Bromenschenkel (‘99) got sidetracked by a Tim Miles story and didn’t make it to the starting line. Maybe next time!
A few highlights from the alumni team:
The thrower alumni had a great showing winning both shot put and weight throw. After a few wild weight throws, Kai Barber (‘19) was able to control his old-man strength and win shot put. Gavin Rupp (‘22) had a big throw in the second round of the weight and was able to hold on for the win.
Steve Dalhed (‘05) used his experience to edge a couple of freshmen at the line to win his heat in the 400m dash.
The return of Jim Schoffman (‘75)! He has been a staple of our alumni meet and it is great to have him back competing in multiple events!
The Alumni put together a strong 4x400m relay team. The young distance team did their best to hold off the alumni by using a giant stuffed sloth as a baton. The large baton slung over their shoulders forced the alumni into lane three to pass. Ultimately, the young distance guys succumbed to the weight of the sloth and the smarter baton choice of the alumni proved successful.
As for the current team, our returners are a little rusty and our new athletes are, well, new. There are a lot of new faces this year and I am excited to see how they develop. We will have a better prognosis for the season after the next two meets.
The team will be competing at the University of Minnesota on Saturday, February 4th and we will be back at Saint John’s Saturday, February 11th. I hope to see some of you there as we will be breaking out our new uniforms for the home meet. A special thanks to everyone who donated for the new uniforms. Will the Johnnies still rock the baby blue singlet and red shorts? Be there to find out!
Jeremy
Welcome to another track and field season! The team will officially toe the line, enter the circle, or get on the runway this weekend on Saturday, January 28th for our alumni meet. As usual, we will have freshmen having their first collegiate competition and 4x400m relay teams are already planning their outfits. This event will also showcase the newly resurfaced indoor track. The track has been a great upgrade to our facility and we are all excited to show it off this weekend.
It was great to host the meet outdoors last year and we heard several of your requests to keep the meet outdoors. We deliberated about the status of our alumni meet after moving it outdoors last season. However, we felt extremely lucky with perfect weather for an early-April day last year. That same meet has been canceled or postponed several of the previous years. The meet also proved to be a huge undertaking to accommodate the larger outdoor meet, the decathlon/heptathlon, and the alumni. As a compromise, we will be adding an alumni gathering to one of our outdoor meets with access to the press box to gather and watch the meet if the weather dictates. As always, alumni are welcome to compete in any of our home meets. Simply contact me and I will enter you in the event of your choosing.
This meet is always a highlight of the team. The current athletes are able to meet and put a face to some of the legendary names from the record books and Tim’s stories. If you haven’t done so, please consider attending and use the link below to register. It is truly great to see all of you there.
Thanks for reading and all of your support for this team.
Jeremy
During these first couple weeks of the semester, the athletes have been trickling in to check on Joe and I and there always seems to be a group of guys training at the track. They are excited about the new indoor track and want to train on it. I have had to kick a few outside as there is no reason to be training indoors when it is 70 degrees and sunny!
Thursday (today) is our big annual Go Johnnies Challenge fundraising event. I shared some of the information last week and want to show more details of how your generous donations will help the team this year. Most of the donations will go to three main areas: competition trips, equipment, and bonus coaches.
Competition trips include the cross country team traveling to Oregon in the fall and the track team going to California in the spring. We want our guys to know we value and support them, and will provide competitive opportunities to help them reach their athletic goals. Therefore we pay all of the expenses for the athletes- that ensures equity for all athletes and does not put undue burden on families.
Our equipment needs vary each year. The areas requiring regular replacements are pole vault poles and throwing equipment. (Seriously, if someone can come up with a weight implement that lasts longer than one season, you will get a high five from me.) Also, we have been adding weight training equipment to the indoor track for our entire team to utilize. The extra training equipment near the track means the guys can finish their workout without needing to go into a crowded weight room and saves time for our guys.
Finally, we use some of the money to help pay our part-time coaches. We are very fortunate to have some great help and I want to make sure they are compensated for their help. These coaches include: our vault coach, John Pollack who has been a tremendous asset, Maxwell Kuzara who has proven a great right-hand-man for Tim and the distance guys, and Drew Schoenbauer who has had a big impact on the sprint crew. We would not be as successful without those guys. This year we will have one coaching change as Drew has moved out to Colorado and we will replace him with another member of the 2019 National Championship 4x100 team: Brady Labine. We are excited to have John, Maxwell and Brady with us this year.
Here again are the three options to help out our 2022-23 Track and Field team (see below). You can simply make a donation or create a matching gift to encourage others with your donation. We have a few matching gifts already created; you can see on the donation page. Also, please help spread the word and share this information with your teammates, friends and family. We have been so fortunate for your support in the past, we hope you consider continuing that tradition. Remember, all of your donations go directly to the cross country /track and field team.
Here are three ways you can help the cross country/track and field teams for the Go Johnnies Challenge:
Donate: Support the Cross Country/Track & Field Teams through a donation. Make sure to set Cross Country/Track & Field as the designation.
Spread the word! While Tim, Joe, and I have extensive social media networks, we can still use all the help we can get. Seriously, some of us are still trying to figure out how to operate our phones.
Click on the advocate link or scroll to the bottom
Matching gifts are a great way to encourage others to donate. Make sure to set Cross Country/Track & Field as the matching designation.
Enter dollar amount and decide if you will make the full gift regardless if the match is not completely met (check box)
Select “Other” and enter a dollar amount to give and check the “Per donor” box
Select the Match a designation box and select the designation you want to match
Fill out the rest of the form
Each year, September brings about conflicting emotions for me. I find myself lamenting the end of summer adventures and yet excited for the challenges of the upcoming track and field season.
This year is no different. My summer fun included three trips west. First, I spent three weeks with my family in the Washington and Oregon area which involved some backpacking on the Washington coast, four National Parks, and a few days at the Track and Field World Championships in Eugene. I also went on a rafting trip on the Yellowstone River in Montana with some high school friends. I was even able to squeeze in a “quick” weekend trip to summit Long’s Peak in Colorado with a former assistant coach (ProTip: hiking to 14,259ft without acclimating to altitude is challenging).
The excitement for the season was sufficiently elevated for the coaching staff and the team when the indoor track surface updates were completed a few weeks ago. It looks fantastic and feels great to run on! Consider this your sign to start training for this season’s alumni meet.
The athletes are excited for the new year, too. Clases only started on Monday, but many have already begun training on their own in small groups. Our athletes set big goals at the end of last season after winning both the indoor and outdoor MIAC Championships and are already putting in the work to make them happen. I will keep you updated on their progress throughout the year. We have a great group of returners and some strong freshmen to help out.
In the meantime, we have our annual Go Johnnies Challenge fundraising event next week on September 8th. This event has been an outstanding resource for our team and the entire SJU athletic department. Each year, the alumni and friends of the SJU Cross Country/Track and Field teams have donated nearly $20,000. Previously, that money has completely funded our trips to Oregon for the cross country team and California during the track season and we hope to do the same this year. Additionally, these funds will allow us to finish our record boards to highlight the great history of our teams.
Thank you for your continued support of the Johnnie Cross Country/Track and Field teams! Help us out by donating or sharing the information and follow along this season.
Thanks!
Jeremy and the entire SJU CC/TF Staff
Here are three ways you can help the cross country/track and field teams:
Donate: Support the Cross Country/Track & Field Teams through a donation. Make sure to set Cross Country/Track & Field as the designation.
Spread the word! While Tim, Joe, and I have extensive social media networks, we can still use all the help we can get.
Click on the advocate link or scroll to the bottom
Matching gifts are a great way to encourage others to donate. Make sure to set Cross Country/Track & Field as the matching designation.
Enter dollar amount and decide if you will make the full gift regardless if the match is not completely met (check box)
Select “Other” and enter a dollar amount to give and check the “Per donor” box
Select the Match a designation box and select the designation you want to match
Fill out the rest of the form
There is much to write about at the end of the season and not enough time to sit down and write. Hopefully I’ll write more about the conference championship meet after the season. Just know that it went extremely well! The team performed beyond expectation and despite having a few key runners injured, the team was still able to come away with a big win.
This has been an extremely difficult year to qualify for Nationals. Many students are staying in college for a fifth year to use their eligibility from the Covid year. This year, Coach Joe and I optimistically rented a house after last year’s success at the National Championships in North Carolina where we had seven guys earn All-American honors. We were cutting it close and only had two athletes qualified after the MIAC Conference Championship meet: Maguire Petersen (Hutchinson, SR) in the high jump and decathlon and Brett Hague (Brainerd, JR) in the javelin. It was going to be a quiet week in the house if we didn’t qualify anyone else. Several of our guys were close to qualifying but needed good weather and favorable winds at the last chance meet.
The annual last chance meet at LaCrosse had smaller fields this year as many teams opted for Augustana College in Illinois. I regretted the decision to stick with LaCrosse as it stormed for most of the drive. After a brief lightning delay, we had some good times in the 100 but not fast enough to qualify. The 4x100 ran for the first time with Ryan Miller on the anchor leg and broke the school record with a time of 40.65. Good enough to qualify for Nationals. The sprinters came back in the 100 finals with Kevin Arthur running 10.43 to qualify for Nationals as well. Ryan Miller just missed with a 10.51 (10.64-10.67 is the usual cut off for qualifying). The storm rolled in and we moved inside to watch the vaulters. They had an outstanding meet with Shawn Schindler qualifying for Nationals with a vault of 4.86 meters.
Below is the schedule of when the guys compete this week and links for the live results and video. It will be a fun week!
Jeremy
Competition Schedule: central time
Thursday: ~10:30: Decathlon 100: Maguire Petersen
~11:15: Decathlon Long Jump
~12:25: Decathlon Shot Put
~1:45: Decathlon High Jump
~3:40: Decathlon 400
~4:25: 4x100 prelims
~4:45: Javelin: Brett Hague
Friday: ~9:00: Decathlon 110 Hurdles
~9:45: Decathlon Discus
~11:00: Decathlon Pole Vault
~1:00: High Jump: Maguire Petersen
~1:45: Decathlon Javelin
~2:45: 100 meter Prelims: Kevin Arthur
~3:30: Decathlon 1500
Saturday: ~11:00: Pole Vault: Shawn Schindler
~11:15: 4x100 Finals
~1:40: 100 Meter Finals
How to follow along:
Thank you to everyone who showed up for the alumni meet last weekend! I was impressed by the turnout. Apparently you all are starved for some track and field. Surprisingly, we had good weather and a few of us even got our first sunburn of the season. Of course, today (Thursday) it’s back to the unusually cold April and some snow.
We were treated with a number of impressive performances:
Lukas Buehler (2016) dropped a strong 4:17 in the 1500m run.
Matt Scherber (2013) still has some youth in his legs with his 15:22 run in the 5k.
The alumni vault squad of Thomas Franek (2020), Ryan Bromenschenkel (1999), and Mike Leither(2008) placing 3rd, 6th, and 8th against the college guys.
Collin Trout (2020)with a big win in the triple jump with a jump of 13.15m (43-1.75ft).
Steve Dalhed (2005) apparently made use of our alumni meet layoff the last two years and impressed the young guys with his 54.24s in the 400m dash.
The Alumni Performance of the Meet has to go to Jeff Eckstein (2000) for running a long leg of the 4x400m relay. He charged down the track to pick up the baton from an ailing teammate and ran nearly 540 meters. I’m not sure how the officials missed that one.
This week, our main meet was supposed to be at Gustavus today and was canceled because “sometimes it snows in April”. Thankfully, we lucked out by sending eleven of our athletes to California for the Bryan Clay Invitational. This is the biggest group SJU Track and Field has sent out west and they started competing this morning with Lloyd Young (Jr, Bloomington) in the 10k run. Lloyd won his heat (there were three heats!) with a time of 30:23.02. He is now second on the all-time list at SJU behind John Cragg’s 29:57.
Bryan Clay Invitational Live Results
Thanks again for all of the great alumni support. We appreciate everyone showing up for the alumni weekend. It is a special day to have familiar faces return to campus. Also, thank you for the donations which allows us to send the guys to California. They have been talking about this trip for quite awhile and were excited to be in some warm weather.
Next week we will be competing at Carleton on Saturday, April 23rd barring any more snow.
Jeremy
I didn’t write a proper summary for the end of the indoor season. I always expect to have some downtime as we continue to train and prepare for the outdoor season. Instead, we returned from a successful trip at the DIII indoor national championships and started hosting high school meets. We have hosted five meets in the last ten days. The largest meet was nine teams with 37 heats of the boys and girls 55 meter dash. Hopefully the weather improves because high school and college athletes alike are itching to compete outside.
If you didn’t see the results of our National Championships, we had a fun time down in North Carolina and the guys performed well. Eli Mollet (JR, Jefferson, SD) had a good series of throws to finish in twelfth place with a throw of 17.72 meters. Maguire Petersen (JR, Hutchinson) finished the heptathlon strong with a gutsy performance in the 1000 meters. He finished in sixth place overall to earn All-American honors. Special thanks to the Mollet family for a great meal while we were out there.
The outdoor season is off to a slow start. Our first home meet was canceled due to the Minnesota cold and we are scheduled to compete at Hamline on Saturday. Just enough time to get in one meet before we challenge the alumni. You all have about ten days to complete as much training as possible.
Use the link below to register. Whether you compete or not, we’d love to see you all in Collegeville on Saturday, April 9th. The meet starts at 11:00am with a social following at about 4:00pm.
Jeremy
CSB/SJU Alumni Meet Registration
The last time we were at the NCAA Indoor National Championships was also in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. We made it to the track for practice and then Covid hit. We were promptly sent home and watched reports as schools started sending students home. We had no clue we were embarking on the extended Covid shutdown.
We are back in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to attempt this again. We have two athletes qualified who both set school records this year. Eli Mollet is competing in the weight throw on Friday at 4:45 central time. Maguire Petersen is competing in the heptathlon and simultaneously in the open high jump. Maguire starts the heptathlon on Friday at 10:00am central time. His Saturday heptathlon also starts at 10:00am with the high jump starting at the same time. It will keep him busy.
Here are the links to follow along:
Our biggest challenge has already been conquered this week: we successfully transported the pole vault poles to North Carolina without any issues. Now we just enjoy the meet this weekend!