Cross country will host 41st Les Duke run Saturday

by Kevin Byrne

Just how pumped are top Grinnell runners Adam Booth ’04 and Justin Riley ’06 for Saturday’s Les Duke Invitational?

“I would say we are pumped about 50 to 60psi, very similar to the pressure currently in my bike tires,” Booth said.

Booth has won this event the last two years and will be gunning for an unprecedented three in a row. The Pioneer runners will be on their home course at the Oakland Acres Golf Club just west of Grinnell on Highway 6. They will be joined by thirteen schools including Bethel, Buena Vista, Coe, Cornell, Dordt, Grand View, Gustavus Adolphus, Luther, Macalester, Upper Iowa, Wartburg and William Penn. This will be the 41st Les Duke Invitational, and coach Will Freeman and all of his runners are excited about running at home against some good competition and improving overall.

“As a team, we’ll do what we can to win the meet,” runner David Honig ’06 said. “I’ll contribute by racing in a felt jumpsuit.”

Apparently trying new racing fabrics and testing the clock will be two of Grinnell’s focuses this weekend, along with preparing to face off against some good, nationally ranked teams.

“I will say that Wartburg is ranked sixth nationally and it looks as though we match up very well with them,” Freeman commented. “I do not get too worked up about national rankings as they mean little at this time of the season. Still, it will be a great matchup.”

One thing Freeman and his Grinnell Pioneer runners, who are currently ranked 19th in the nation, are getting worked up about and focusing on is intensifying their training to prepare for some bigger meets down the road. Normally, all the meets prior to the Conference and Regional meets serve as training for the runners, and the Les Duke is no exception.

“What better way to mentally prepare for Regionals than Les Duke?” Honig suggested.

Coach Freeman has been preparing his runners mentally and physically all year.

“We begin a new phase of training next week,” Freeman said, referring to the more intensive interval training to come. “To this point we have done nothing fast at all, focusing on aerobic threshold pace and lots of easy tempo running (miles). We step it up starting next week. As far as meets down the road, we are training for November (Conference, Regionals and Nationals). Anything before that are used as indicators of training only. November is what counts.”

Grinnell will be better prepared for Les Duke and for November meets than they were a couple of weeks ago because of a strong showing last week. Freeman was looking for some good matchups and got them last week at the 32nd All-American Invitational at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Grinnell finished second, only 48 points back of the blistering pace put forth by nationally ranked Division II power Minnesota State. Booth and Riley had very good showings, running strong races and both finishing with a time of 19:59, good for second and third respectively. This time was only two seconds behind the winner of the race, Tom Haxton, from the University of Chicago, who barely outlasted the Grinnell combo in the final sprint.

Other Pioneers also fared well. Honig was the third Grinnell runner to finish and was followed by Adam Beals ‘06 and Mitch Herz ‘05 to round out the top five for Grinnell. Juniors Jordan Glaser and Omondi Kasidhi completed the scoring unit for the Pioneers, who were quite happy with their showing.

Freeman and the Pioneers are looking to improve their times and take advantage of their home turf this weekend, while at the same time looking forward to bigger meets in November.