Male runners capture MIAC gold

One month ago, Jake Marotz '10 was nursing a stress fracture on his left tibia. His junior cross-country season appeared to be shattered in early September. Marotz took a complete break from running. Since, the junior runs four or five days per week.

Good thing one of those days was Saturday's MIAC Cross-Country Championships, held at Como Park in St. Paul. Marotz showed up and claimed 17th place to help St. Olaf to its first MIAC team title since 2004. The Oles' Dubuol Ruon '10 won the individual title.

Coach Phil Lundin, who left Division I Minnesota to take over the vacated position left by the retired Bill Thornton, won his first MIAC title.

"There are a couple things that I think about when I think about the successes of the team," Lundin said. "There are three things: one, the team. They are all good guys. A little wacky, but they are good guys. Second, there is a talent level there that required maturity and time to get to the point where they could challenge for a MIAC championship."

Lundin, however, gave much of the credit to the man who began the St. Olaf cross-country tradition.

"Third is the person that cultivated that [success], who is Coach Thornton," Lundin continued. "I have to give him credit for putting these people in a position where they were able to win."

The circumstances were perfect, given that Thornton was awarded the 2008 MIAC Distinguished Service Award following the race on Saturday. Although Lundin has inherited the Oles' program, Thornton's presence is still felt in Skoglund on a daily basis.

"He's in here all the time," Lundin said. "We welcome him. You can't just jump in … We've decided that it would be best to use the almost four decades of [Thornton] and say we can't dismiss this. The guys love him. Many of the things that have gone have obviously led to great successes. He felt comfortable with that. We incorporated many of [Thornton's] traditions and ideas with our own."

In terms of the race itself, the soccer-player-turned-runner Ruon finished first, followed by David Green '09 and Cullen O'Neill '09. Marotz finished fourth on the team, but without his extra push, the results could have told a different story.

"Jake did a fantastic job," Lundin said. "He came out of the blue. We challenged him. His goal was to be a top-seven guy, and we said that we [needed more]. We said that 'you have to go for it.' As it turned out it was good because we had some people that had less than their best races. He was able to fill in some gaps. Coming off the stress fracture it was inspiring to say the least."

For Marotz, his goal was simple: to help his team.

"[The race] was really satisfying," Marotz said. "Ever since conference last year, one of my goals was to help the team win this meet … It's been frustrating watching the team all fall without me. Before the race I didn't know what kind of race I'd have but I was determined to give it a try. I was 30th last year and I thought if I could do that this year, I'd be satisfied. With 17th, I was very happy. "

Ruon's performance, conversely, is a testament to the newfound talent level that arrived when Ruon decided not to pursue soccer another season; instead, he chose cross country.

"I just hope [the win] attracts some athletes to the program so we can continue to be competitive in the conference."

Moving forward, the Oles travel to Grinell College for the Regional meet on Nov. 15. Seven runners will run for St. Olaf. The top two teams advance automatically to the National meet, with the possibility of there being at-large selections.

Lundin stresses the importance of balancing workouts leading into the Regional meet.

"If there is a challenge for them to stay focused moving into the championship part of the season, then there is a problem," Lundin said. "The issue is staying healthy and how to ungulate the training in terms of variables and intensity and volume. How you do that to keep them sharp, to keep them in a position to maintain that high level of fitness, that's the key."