Our Sport is Your Sport’s Punishment

The fall season has finally kicked off, and people are looking forward to the football games, Homecoming and all the other events that come with going to Cistercian. However, it is easy to forget that there are two sports in the fall season, and I don’t blame you for it.

It is perfectly understandable for no one to want to come to cheer on a team whose meets are often an hour away, at 6 am on a Saturday, and aren’t that entertaining to watch. But there are still some crazy individuals such as myself who do this sport voluntarily. It does not make sense, but we do it anyway.

Our team was good last year, but we never did achieve greatness. Looking back, there were quite a few things that led to our downfall. But none sticks out more than the fateful dinner the night before our race in Oklahoma. After 10 of us spent a long time on a small bus, we were starving. But then we pulled into every Cross Country runner’s favorite carbo-loading spot: Olive Garden.

After not eating on the bus, the sight of never-ending breadsticks resulted in the team ingesting way too many while John LeSage destroyed us all at the Ziosk trivia game. It was an enjoyable and eventful dinner, even before we ordered. But once we decided to stop eating bread and glance at the menu, we discovered something incredible: the never-ending pasta special. While that in and of itself was not what led to our failure, one team member, who shall remain nameless, made the worst decision in the history of Cistercian’s Cross Country program. He ordered the Italian sausage with his pasta.

Cross Country as a team is hoping for a much better performance than last year. Our pitiful placement at SPC was unacceptable. This year, things will be different. This year, we will all order chicken with our never-ending pasta. But in all seriousness, this season will be a significant improvement.

Nico Walz and John LeSage are the strongest seniors that we have on the team. Both live and breathe running, and are ready to singlehandedly defeat St. Mark’s this year. There are two other seniors, but we don’t really talk about them.

The Junior class includes lots of strong runners (besides myself of course). Look for Alex Smith to break his PR’s along with providing us with many more motivational speeches. When you’re waking up at 5 to get to school for morning practices, it’s often a good speech that makes the difference between wanting to die and begrudgingly accepting that you have to run.

And the Sophomores and incoming freshmen will be providing a lot of support, as we expect many of them to make Varsity this year. Returning runners Luke Rakowitz and Santiago Ramirez are sure to make a big splash in their second year. And our new runners, such as Stephen LeSage, Chris Rieke, and Noah Vetter, are all ready to work hard to finally get our school that championship trophy.

It’s hard to be a runner, but we do it anyway and don’t complain about it (that often). Coach Roane’s hard workouts are sure to get us in better shape, especially now that he’s had a year to think up the proper way to punish runners who ate sausage with their pasta. Many runners have spent all summer dreading hearing the word “SUUUURRRRRRGGGEEEE.” But school has started, which means we’re all gonna have to toughen up. It may seem weird to someone who doesn’t run, but we somehow really do enjoy doing this. It is rewarding in the end and the dynamic our team has make practices and meets surprisingly fun. This is gonna be a great year, and we can’t wait to bring home the gold.