At 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, the campus was quiet as most students were either still asleep or just waking up. Then a shot rang out, the ground thundered and crowds cheered as the Gustavus Men’s and Women’s Cross Country team raced from the starting line at their annual Alumni Meet.
The Alumni Meet is an event in which former Gustie cross country runners are invited to come
back and race against the current Men’s and Women’s teams.
While the typical distance for a Division III race is five kilometers (3.1 miles) or six kilometers (3.7 miles) for women and 8 kilometers (4.9 miles) for men, the Alumni Meet was held on a five kilometer course. The race began and ended near the President’s House, with the course set through the Arboretum.
Alumni coach Paul “Keeny” Kienberg of the class of ’05, said that his class has never lost the Alumni Meet, while on the Gustavus team and running as alumni. “Since we left, the varsity Men’s team has never won the Alumni Meet,” Kienberg said.
That record was broken this year when the Men’s team beat the alumni 35-65. Cross Country follows the same scoring as golf, meaning the lower the score, the better. The alumni were able to secure first place, though, with a time of 15:26.
The Women’s team did not fare as well against the alumni, but Head Men’s and Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country Coach Dale Bahr stressed this outcome was by no means a bad thing. “With as good as our women’s team is, to have the alumni come back and still beat them, shows how strong of a team we’ve got.”
This season marks Bahr’s first as head coach for the Gusties. Bahr was a 1995 graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato. He took over for two former coaches: Tom Thorkelson, the men’s and women’s track and field coach, and Jed Friedrich, the men’s and women’s cross country coach.
Bahr is very optimistic about the season. “I’ve never seen a team ‘gel’ this early on in the season.” Bahr, who is starting as head coach after serving as assistant coach for eight years, has high expectations for this season. “I expect to see the women move up considerably at the Conference meet.”
Similar expectations exist for the Men’s team. “The captains have done a hell of a job this year.” Bahr points out that there are some tough Men’s teams out there, but he is optimistic the men can do well against them.
Both teams are returning from first place finishes at the Northland Invitational in Ashland, Wisconsin. “Good team cohesion and fast runners,” is what Senior Steve Grimsby tied the win to, echoing the words of Coach Bahr. Grimsby set the team’s goal as the National Championships at the end of the season.
Erica Hett, a first-year, enjoys the team’s unity. Hett has been running since seventh grade, and she “likes it here. The team is very close.”
Both Grimsby and Hett represent the outgoing and incoming generation of Gustie runners, but Bahr pointed out that the strength of the team, in the way of numbers, is found in the middle, with most of the runners being either sophomores or juniors.
Bahr is very excited about this year. “We’ve brought in some good recruits, and there are two [first-years] on the Women’s team and one on the Men’s team [who] are going to really help the teams out.”
The Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams next compete this Saturday, September 19 at the St. Olaf Invitational in Northfield, MN. The race starts at 11:00 a.m.