Rumble Meet

Running With the Mustangs: Rumble Rumblings

By David St. Louis

The North Oldham Mustangs returned to action this past weekend for the 6^th Annual Rumble Through the Jungle.  As the host team, expectations are always high and motivation to put on a good show is never a problem. The guys really rose to the occasion, as they bounced back from a disappointing Tiger Run.  Overall, nine Mustangs set personal bests in a strong field that included St. X, Conner, South Oldham, Butler, and Walton Verona.  The field was the fastest the Rumble had ever seen, and the competition was fierce throughout as Trevin Petersen of Walton Verona set a blistering pace, that only Matt Hillenbrand of St. X was able to withstand by the end of the race. 

In the Varsity race, the Mustangs were led by Junior Colin Grandon (16:49) in 13^th place and Sophomore Taylor Sanders (16:59) in 16^th place.  Also, coming to play this week in the Varsity race were Andrew Beno (17:55), Seth Fowler (18:07), Alec Horn (18:11), and Eric Taglieri (18:16).  Colin and Taylor set the tone early as they mixed it up with the likes of Matt Hillenbrand, Daniel Thurston, Trevin Petersen, Stacey Eden, and Jacob McIntyre.  Although Colin and Taylor would both eventually fall back somewhat off the pace, they set the tone as “front runners” and got the Mustangs in position to score well.  Coach Drew LaMaster was particularly impressed with these two as well as the foursome of Andrew Beno, Seth Fowler, Alec Horn, and Eric Taglieri.  “Those four guys ran with each other stride for stride for the first two miles.  Each week, these guys have gotten better and have worked together to pass their opponents and move up further in races. It will be crucial to the depth and success of our team as we try and close the gap between our lead runners and our second pack.” 

Eric Taglieri said, “Altogether we were able to bounce back from the St. X meet, put on a good performance, and show others how good we can be.”  Beno, Fowler, Horn, and Taglieri all placed between 46^th and 59^th place.  Freshman Matt Dombrosky also ran a strong 18:33 in his first freshman race and fellow freshman Erik Krohn made his 5k debut in 19:02.  Seth Fowler added, ”Our second group of guys stepped up and used each other in a pack.  This pushed each of us to have a much better team score than the previous week at Tiger Run.”  The team placed 5^th overall in the meet as Coach LaMaster and Coach Weingardt like to encourage each runner on the team to score by splitting the squad. 

Alec Horn concluded the comments from the team by saying, “We didn’t plan the pack, but once we got out there and were right next to each other, we all worked together and pushed one another.  I knew I wasn’t going to lose Seth, Eric wasn’t going to let us out of his sights, and Andrew had the most legs at the end.  It was good the pack did come together because it produced a PR for Andrew, Eric, and I.  The team finally looked good and I can’t wait to see how much more everyone improves.” 

In the JV race, the Mustangs were led by sophomores Ryan Kalmey and Zack Mitchell.  Jeremy Rice also ran a strong race before falling off in his last mile.  Kalmey placed 14^th in 18:29, improving 37 seconds from Tiger Run, and Mitchell PR’ed in 18:37 and finishing a solid 18^th.  Rice ran 18:48 finishing 29^th.  Other solid performances included Austin Wilkins in a PR of 19:12, Jack Murphy in 19:19 in his first 5k, Jordan Yates in 19:50 in his first 5k, Steve Terkula in 20:01 (dropping 2:35 from last year), and Boone Lewis in 33:26 (dropping 6:19 off his time from last year).  The JV guys ran a smart race settling in towards the 800 meter mark of the race and continuing to move up the entire race before settling on a 4^th place finish.  This was also despite the fact that the teams were evenly split to encourage more internal competition. 

The focus of the Mustangs over the preceding two weeks before the meet was very strong.  The team felt as though they had let down themselves, their fans, and their coaches the way they ran at Tiger run.  Coach LaMaster remarked, ”I haven’t seen a team as focused as the guys were the past couple weeks.  They came in hungry each day and ready to work and I think that focus is only going to get stronger as the season goes on.  They know that Class AA’s level of competition has significantly improved and that they are going to be tested to the highest level each week.  Furthermore, with the Trinity Invitational and the Midwest Meet of Champs approaching on our schedule, we are going to have to sharpen our times up, or we are going to get blown out of the water by some of these teams we are going up against.” 

See you at Trinity next week.