Aberdeen Roncalli has most of its top runners returning this cross country season and has a new coach to help mentor them.
Former Ipswich and Northern State standout Taylor Thorson has joined the Cavaliers and will help coach the team along with Casey Steele.
The two men, though separated by decades of competing for the Wolves, not only share a love of running, they also share the same philosophy when it comes to training and technique.
“Both of us having prior collegiate running experience, both of us running at Northern, it gives you a different perspective being a distance runner than maybe a sprint coach who’s coaching distance,” Steele said.
Both coaches also want the runners to have fun and not wear down throughout the course of a season.
“We both agreed that training is more important than just racing, racing, racing, because we can’t get good training in if we’re racing all the time and our kids are either burned out or their legs are shot,” Thorson said. “That was one of the first things we talked about. We just go together so well in our ideas.”
The Roncalli girls will be led by Addison Cassady, who was 19th at state last year, and Hazel Kannegieter, who was 31st at state. Other returning state runners include Taylor McComsey, Bailey Nold, and Nora Gonsor.
“We have virtually everybody back except one,” Steele said. “That’s alright because we have young kids who are anxious to fill that slot right there.”
The Cavaliers return nearly all of their members from last year’s boys’ team as well.
Roncalli will be led by Ben Keller, Cole Feickert, Ben Weigel, Ethan Gonsor, and Leo Madsen.
“They’re all going to be vying to be our scorers right now,” Steele said, “and the oldest out of the group is a junior.”
Weigel is just a seventh-grader, but went undefeated in middle school events last year.
“He’s a little tiny guy that runs like the wind,” Steele said.
Some of the boys have been running for multiple years for the Cavaliers, and Steele expects them to keep getting better.
“Each year as these boys mature, they should be cutting 15-30 seconds, just by getting older,” Steele said, “then if their focus is better, there’s another 10-15 seconds that come off a 5K time.”
While performances are certainly important when it comes to running long distances, so is enjoying the experience.
Thorson wants the runners to have good time with the sport.
“If we’re having fun, then that can go into running and running together,” Thorson said. “That’s exactly what I’m trying to do here, is just have these kids have fun and enjoy running, because when they enjoy each other and they enjoy running, the distance and the time that doesn’t really matter.”
While this is Thorson’s first year of coaching at Roncalli, he comes from a running background with his dad, Todd, being a highly decorated coach at Ipswich.
“Not only my father, my college coaches as well, have just taught me so much through running, and I’m glad I have Coach Steele as well, because he’s also teaching me,” Thorson said. “Me being in my first year, I could not be more thankful to have all those great mentors in my life to help me become a successful coach.”
The Cavaliers open their season at a meet in Milbank today.
Steele is ready to get the season underway.
“Our girls are pretty solid right now,” Steele said. “We’re excited about getting into competing and find out where we are in terms of our condition and it helps us to fine tune our workouts.”
The boys will be looking to put four solid runners together in order to field a full squad at the state meet later this fall in Rapid City.
“We need four scorers under 20 minutes to have a chance to have our boys team go to state,” Steele said.
Steele said the Cavaliers will wait to establish season-long goals until they finish competing today during the 4K meet in Milbank.
“That gives them a better idea to be really realistic, what can I run a 5K in?” Steele said.
Right now, the runners are building a foundation that will help to carry them throughout the course of the next couple of months.
“The most important thing to us right now is to build our base of fitness,” Steele said, “and then gradually sharpen and get faster throughout the season.”
