The 'Cats made their 10th consecutive trip to the 2017 State Meet on a rainy, dreary Friday afternoon. We headed straight to our annual pre race pasta dinner at the Easton Mall. We arrived a few minutes early, so where do the Ignatius boys go? Dicks Sporting Goods? Sunglass Hut? Nope. Barnes and Noble! Learning never stops for an Ignatian!
Saturday morning brought over cast skies, 40 degrees and no rain. We were hoping the course would dry out a bit before race time.
We were the last race of the day scheduled for a 3:00pm start. At 2:30pm the skies cleared and out came the sun and the temperature rose to nearly 70 Degrees. Not what we were expecting!
Twenty teams and 187 state qualifiers settled into their chutes as the starter raised his hand. His pistol fired and off they went like sprinters in a 400 meter race. The "Cats quickly found themselves pinched, but still hit the first mile at a 5:05 clip. The leaders surged at 3,000 meters as the "Cats worked their way through the pack. With 400 meters to go, the tandem of Andrew Biehl, Brett Saunders and Liam McGuire were on their toes driving to the finish. Nathan Soria, Matt Blouch, Nick Saul and Steve Zucca hit the home stretch as hard as they could.
In spite of a valiant effort, the "Cats finished 10th with 240 points. The result may not have been what we had hoped for, but I can still smile when I think of the 75 XC runners hammering the Edgewater workouts, dodging horses on the trails, earning their first letter, running a PR, and most importantly, coming together as a team. My late father Judge Pat Gallagher "36, had an endless supply of Latin phrases for his days on the bench. I can't remember the occasion I heard this, but it seems to fit here. "Nom loqui sed est reg redi." "To not go forward, is to go backward".
Special thanks to the tailgate coordinator Tim McGuire. No one ever leaves hungry when Tim is on the grill. Thanks to Tom McCafferty for supervising the fan bus. Thanks to all the parents, students, siblings and alumni who supported the team at the meet and throughout the season. Thanks to Eileen and Mike Biehl for hosting the post race party at their home.
A couple of house keeping notes:
Please return your uniforms(shorts and singlet) to Coach Voigt ASAP.
You should have received an invitation to the fall sports banquet on November 20th in the mail. ALL runners and families are encouraged to attend. I would like to see 100% attendance!
If you did not receive an invitation, please contact Jennifer Fight in the Athletic office. (jfight@ignatius.edu).
I am looking forward to seeing everyone and their parents then.