2019 Varsity Cross Country Season Recap
For the first time in almost two decades, the varsity cross-country program had new leadership as Coach Jonas Holdeman assumed the role as head coach prior to the 2019 campaign. Coach Holdeman had served as an assistant coach since his arrival at MUS in 2012, and with Coach Joe Tyler’s retirement after the 2018 season, he ably assumed the role, bringing vast knowledge and experience to his team.
His first squad at MUS was an experienced group of dedicated, loyal runners, many of whom improved greatly throughout the season. Seniors Rob McFadden, Duncan McLean, Alex Warr, and McKee Whittemore; juniors Joseph Barnes, Elijah Graham, Miller Pisahl, Max White, and J.P. Wood; sophomores Nash Kaye and Witt Smith; and freshman Charlie Gallop all endured very hot weather but remained consistent to put in many miles to improve.
The Owls ran in two league meets at Shelby Farms, winning both of them. They also traveled, beginning the year in Oakville, Alabama, at the Chickasaw Trail Invitational, finishing 19th out of 45 teams. They also ran in the Tennessee Classic in Nashville (finishing 11th) and the Jesse Owens Invitational, also in Oakville (finishing 7th). These meets helped the team prepare for the region meet, held at Shelby Farms, as the Owls competed against division rivals Briarcrest, Christian Brothers, and St. Benedict. The team ran quite well at this meet and finished second. Kaye claimed second individually, less than a second behind the region champion. Other Owl finishers included White (5th), Graham (9th), McLean (10th), Barnes (15th), Warr (16th), and Wood (18th).
At the state meet, held in Nashville in early November, the Owls ran hard and finished 9th as a team. Kaye was the team’s leading runner, claiming 30th overall, followed by McLean (48th), White (49th), Graham (50th), Warr (61st), Barnes (65th), and McFadden (90th). Despite not finishing as high as they would have liked, the Owls did run hard and competed well.
Coach Holdeman was pleased with the dedication and improvement of his team this year.
“Cross country is one of those activities that people from the outside struggle to understand. They’re like, ‘How can you stand just running? That would be too hard for me.’ The guys on our team run because it is hard—they get a lot of satisfaction from the fact that they do what other people wouldn’t dream of doing, like starting practice at 6:30 six days a week all summer long, running for two hours at a time on Saturdays. But they do it and they improve and they see the direct link between effort and outcome. No coach or spectator gets to say they think one guy is better than another since it’s almost entirely objective: you against other people, you against a clock. Our guys trained hard all year, improved all year. I’m proud of them all,” said Holdeman.
This year, the Russ Billings Cross Country MVP Award went to McFadden, one of the team’s most consistent, dedicated runners. Coach Holdeman has great respect for McFadden and knows that he had earned this honor.
“Rob pretty much embodies the reason that anyone would choose to coach youth athletes: he showed up on time every day, worked his tail off every day, and got better every day. He slapped five with every teammate after every workout and after every race. He made all the guys out there, myself included, want to try harder, to do better. He richly deserved the Billings award,” said Holdeman.
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