Army West Point Athletics
Men's CC Blog:What is Family but Shared Experience
September 09, 2015 | Men's Cross Country
Army Fans,
For the Army West Point cross-country team, Labor Day Weekend provided the first opportunity to let the dogs run wild and compete since May. Arriving at the University of Maine Friday afternoon, we conducted our team and individual pre-meet routines. While Coach Smith provides the down-to-the-minute, excruciatingly detailed running and warm-up plans, he also understands to let the peculiarities of each athlete's psyche be in the twenty-four hours before a race. Superstitions range from Mitch Dutton enthusiastically picking out movies for the bus before falling asleep himself halfway through them to Ryan Smathers' room-temperature bath time to Jon Valeri waking up to "It's a Beautiful Day" by U2. Whatever gets you ready, I suppose.
Saturday's race showed the reason for the excitement surrounding this season. Despite the Firsties' fatigue and illness, the Cow class showed the "train doesn't stop for anybody" by laying down clutch performances. Matt Bearden muscled out his first individual victory, Billy Brown Bailey patiently hunted the pack of Black Bears to finish fourth overall and Mr. Jacob Fong closed hard on his battle buddies to cross the line in fifth. However, the race of the day goes to yearling Jon Valeri, who beat his best 8k time from last year on a full five-mile course – a difference of almost 50m – in his first hard effort of the season. After the performance of his life, Jon selflessly dedicated the race to Tom Brady's first-born son, all the homies in the 617, and Bono. Although barely tall enough to meet the height requirement for Space Mountain, Jon's potential as a major contributor this year loomed large on Saturday.
After the race, the day revolved around failed attempts off a local river rope-swing, watching college football games, study hall, and tripling the population of Bangor, ME, for dinner. On Sunday, the team drove the ninety minutes (getting anywhere in the state of Maine requires a full tank of gas) to Acadia National Park, where we conducted our longish-runs of twelve to fifteen miles on a route more scenic than the Hidden Valley logo. We continued the day at a local dive in Bar Harbor dissecting lobster for lunch before moving to the beach, where we quickly realized the mistake of taking plebes anywhere public. Baltimore-native Mike Singer swears his complexion now appears darker than a blank sheet of paper, newcomer Zach Brehm's running version of the Speedo singlehandedly cleared the beach of any local girls, and Garret Plant naively wanted to challenge Mr. Sharknado himself, Alex Duffy, to combat in the water ("if not me, then who?"). These three and Ryan Wieties add a lot of personality to the already diverse nature of the Nuthouse. Yet, all joking aside, this trip acted as a great opportunity to get to know the forth-class' oddities and begin their transformation from formal teammates into our family of misfits. After dragging ourselves out of bed for an early morning practice the next day, we hit the road for the five-movie-long journey back to West Point. Â
That sums up the Maine event of the Labor Day Weekend and the kickoff to what should be an exciting season ahead. Stay tuned for Friday's de facto New York Collegiate State Championship when we square off against Columbia and Cornell.
Go Army!
-Drew Beck
Â
For the Army West Point cross-country team, Labor Day Weekend provided the first opportunity to let the dogs run wild and compete since May. Arriving at the University of Maine Friday afternoon, we conducted our team and individual pre-meet routines. While Coach Smith provides the down-to-the-minute, excruciatingly detailed running and warm-up plans, he also understands to let the peculiarities of each athlete's psyche be in the twenty-four hours before a race. Superstitions range from Mitch Dutton enthusiastically picking out movies for the bus before falling asleep himself halfway through them to Ryan Smathers' room-temperature bath time to Jon Valeri waking up to "It's a Beautiful Day" by U2. Whatever gets you ready, I suppose.
Saturday's race showed the reason for the excitement surrounding this season. Despite the Firsties' fatigue and illness, the Cow class showed the "train doesn't stop for anybody" by laying down clutch performances. Matt Bearden muscled out his first individual victory, Billy Brown Bailey patiently hunted the pack of Black Bears to finish fourth overall and Mr. Jacob Fong closed hard on his battle buddies to cross the line in fifth. However, the race of the day goes to yearling Jon Valeri, who beat his best 8k time from last year on a full five-mile course – a difference of almost 50m – in his first hard effort of the season. After the performance of his life, Jon selflessly dedicated the race to Tom Brady's first-born son, all the homies in the 617, and Bono. Although barely tall enough to meet the height requirement for Space Mountain, Jon's potential as a major contributor this year loomed large on Saturday.
After the race, the day revolved around failed attempts off a local river rope-swing, watching college football games, study hall, and tripling the population of Bangor, ME, for dinner. On Sunday, the team drove the ninety minutes (getting anywhere in the state of Maine requires a full tank of gas) to Acadia National Park, where we conducted our longish-runs of twelve to fifteen miles on a route more scenic than the Hidden Valley logo. We continued the day at a local dive in Bar Harbor dissecting lobster for lunch before moving to the beach, where we quickly realized the mistake of taking plebes anywhere public. Baltimore-native Mike Singer swears his complexion now appears darker than a blank sheet of paper, newcomer Zach Brehm's running version of the Speedo singlehandedly cleared the beach of any local girls, and Garret Plant naively wanted to challenge Mr. Sharknado himself, Alex Duffy, to combat in the water ("if not me, then who?"). These three and Ryan Wieties add a lot of personality to the already diverse nature of the Nuthouse. Yet, all joking aside, this trip acted as a great opportunity to get to know the forth-class' oddities and begin their transformation from formal teammates into our family of misfits. After dragging ourselves out of bed for an early morning practice the next day, we hit the road for the five-movie-long journey back to West Point. Â
That sums up the Maine event of the Labor Day Weekend and the kickoff to what should be an exciting season ahead. Stay tuned for Friday's de facto New York Collegiate State Championship when we square off against Columbia and Cornell.
Go Army!
-Drew Beck
Â
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
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