Episode 410 — 2025 NJCAA XC & Half Marathon National Championship Post Show | Blizzard Chaos, Grit & National Titles - Airey Bros.'s Radio

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Airy Brose Radio, be there or b
Square because it's all killer.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
No filler, Ladies and gentlemen, Howdy and aloha, we are here,
you were there, and you are now rocking with the best.
Thanks for tuning in for another live episode of Airy Bros.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Tonight, we're lacing up the spikes to recap the twenty
twenty five NJCAA National Championship weekend, from snow cover cross
country courses to record breaking half marathon runs at Fort Dodge, Iowa.
Before we get rolling, y'all know the drill. This is
a value for value show, So if you're getting any
value out of anything we're doing over here, please send

(00:44):
us a little love back, send us a little value.
Click on that link to buy us a coffee. We
would be greatly appreciated. Y'all know the drill around here.
Make sure you have her that like button and are
subscribed on YouTube. Drop a comment, every view, review and
share helps us grow and give back to the sports
we love. Follow us on Instagram at aery Bros. Radio.

(01:05):
As always, this episode is fueled by Black Sheep Endurance
for all your ultra marathon and nutrition coaching needs. And
as always, let's not forget. We're here to shine a
light on the coaches, programs and athletes we wish we
had access to growing up. If you're a runner looking
for that next level fit, this episode is for you.
On to tonight's guests. Okay, from seven to seven to twenty,

(01:25):
coach Daniel Pescador will be joining us again from Mesa
Community College. Women are back to back national champions at
the Division two level. From seven to twenty to seven forty,
Coach Mallory Dominguez is back from College of du Page.
Their ladies won their first national title and the men
finished second. At seven forty, coach Chris Bean is going

(01:46):
to be back from Odessa College. The ladies took home
their first ever national title in the Division one race
by seventy three points over Iowa Western. At eight o'clock,
coach d Brown from Iowa Central, the host college, will
be joining us to talk about their men's twenty twenty
five national title run end. At a twenty coach Mark

(02:08):
Bierbaum will be joining us from Iowa Western Community College
to talk about their weekend. The women finished second in
the XC race and the men's half marathon. We're back
to back national champions, and Julianasaka said a new NJCAA
record running one point fifteen forty seven. Oh, I think

(02:28):
I might have got her with my pr there, but
it would have been a close photo finish. Alright, right,
ladies and gentlemen, we're going to get into it tonight.
As I mentioned, coach Daniel Pescador is back with us
from Mason Community College. Let's get into it.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
Coach, how are we doing, sir?

Speaker 5 (02:45):
You're doing? How you guys doing?

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Awesome? First and foremost, congratulations.

Speaker 5 (02:51):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Second, have you thought out yet?

Speaker 5 (02:57):
Oh my gosh? Shorts leaving the hotel and they're like,
why are you in shorts? I'm like, we're going back
to Phoenix. It's warm, I'm getting ready, so we're ready
to go. It's so called.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah. We uh, you know, we were following along online
and you know, checking all this Instagram and stuff in
the morning and uh, Coach Tony Krider put a post
out when they were getting on the bus and I
text Jim, I said, it's snowing and for Dodge, it's
going to be a crazy day today. So it was
really fun to watch and root and cheer knowing, you know,
having conversations with all the people we've had conversations with

(03:32):
all season long, and you know, we were rooting for you. You
had a tight one there with Paradise Valley. They were
running and gunning up front, but you guys, yeah, managed
to pull it out. So let's talk about it.

Speaker 5 (03:44):
Yeah, I mean it was I mean, first of all,
just hats off to Paradise Valley coach Barney, their entire team.
I mean, I think that we're in a fortunate position
that we have them to compete against, you know, more
often than that, you know, because I was talking to
some of the other coach is that we don't see
we have one day to get it right. There's one chance.

(04:06):
So but but yeah, they ran great, you know, so
hats off to them. They were really out there going
for it, you know, and that was awesome because in
the weather, you just don't know. So for us, you know,
our women, you know, when we're at the starting line
doing strides, because we had talked about you know, race
plan strategy the day before when there was no snow

(04:28):
on the ground, I mean, we knew it was coming.
We did enough to what extent, so they looked at us,
and they're like, what are we gonna do? Should we
change anything? I'm like, absolutely not. Get to the front
and just stay there and we're just gonna hope for
the best. And yeah, I mean it looked like we're
losing because of how it was played out with Paradise

(04:51):
Valley's top three, but we just knew that we had
the depth and we're just like, if we could just
stay close, maintain, I think we're gonna be all right.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, So coach, what what's the mindset Saturday morning? I
know you said you knew it was coming, maybe not
as intense or as white, but what what's the mindset,
what's the approach, what's the what's the morning of speech
with the girls? I would imagine being from Arizona, that
might have been some people's first time seeing snow maybe possibly.

Speaker 5 (05:23):
Yeah, for I mean, we have two one from flag Staff,
one from Snowflake that that live up there. But for
the most part, we're all, you know, Desert Valley, Phoenix.
So really, when I woke up, we woke up, you know,
we're all talking about it as a group, as a
coaching staff, But I mean I was nervous. I ain't
gonna lie on, Like I go to my assistant coaches,

(05:46):
I'm like, are we gonna be all right? Is there
anybody that can beat us in these conditions? Because you
just don't know how it's gonna shake out. We didn't
let the team see that or you know, get pick
up on that. We just told them like, let's go
be us, let's go do what we've been doing. We're
either gonna succeed together or we're gonna fall short together.

(06:07):
But whatever it is that we're gonna do, we're gonna
do together. So we just we try to stay calm, collective,
and yeah, it just turned out to be a good
day for us.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Nice And I would imagine, you know, watching it on
on the on the web stream, you know, it seemed
like the Division three races probably had the worst of
it in terms of it coming down, but for you,
for you guys at the Division two race, you guys
probably had the worst course conditions.

Speaker 6 (06:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (06:35):
I was watching both races Division three and Division one
from the hotelum the live stream just to see how
they were navigating turns and straightaways. And I mean it
was definitely a white out for D three and D
one by the time we got on that course, so
it was it was just a muddy mess. It was
just I mean, my our top girl, Olivia Baker, she

(06:58):
fell about a mile and a half into the race
and got a concussion. Yeah, so but she finished so
that that helped. So yeah, it was pretty bad.

Speaker 4 (07:09):
Well, Coult, you answer my question because I said to Rich,
I said, I think Olivia had brain freeze because when
she finished the race, she was grabbing her head and
I thought it was oh, it was so cold that
the cold defector. I didn't realize, I said, I said
to Rich. The camera is really just you got the
first runner and then you got the the overhead view,

(07:31):
so you really didn't get to see what was going on.
I didn't realize she fell. But man, hats off to
her for getting back up and finishing like she did.

Speaker 5 (07:39):
Yeah, she was devastated. She felt that she let the
team down. She's like, I'm so sorry I didn't win.
I'm like, you weren't. I mean, it's okay, like if
you didn't finish, we would in one as a team.
But yeah, so once we got back home, she was confirmed.
She went to the to the trainers. They did a
concussion protocol test and you know it was she's got
a concussion, so it was about before a mile and

(08:01):
a half, so she ran more than half that race,
you know, with a concussion. And I mean I didn't
see her fault when my assistant coaches did. But she
was a trooper man because she she finished and she
still got six.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
So yeah, and I think that's everything because in a
situation like that, it might be easy for athletes that
aren't on a team that are competing to just step
out right. But she finished race. Didn't affect any of
your other athletes.

Speaker 5 (08:33):
I mean, the only one that the cold really got
to anybody was Lucy. Lucy was struggling, you know. She
came by me at the after the two mile mark
and she was just like she just looked like a
frozen possible or not. I just yelled at her. I'm like, Lucy,
we got less than seven minutes of running. Just hang
in there. But outside of that, no, I mean we

(08:57):
I think they handled the condition as best as they
could have, you know, and they just kind of stuck
to each other, stayed near the front and never really
lost sight of each other. You know, our entire top
six and our seventh Olivia s Crockens wasn't that far
behind either.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
How much before the race were you guys there, because
I know you said you watched the other races from
the hotel. How much time do they have actually been
in the elements? And you know, you don't want to
get cold, right, you don't want to be soaking up
by the time you start. How'd you handle that?

Speaker 5 (09:32):
So we got there a little later than we normally do.
We always like to be there at least thirty five
to forty minutes before they start warming up, which is
an hour before the race. So for the men, I mean,
we would have liked to be there about twelve forty
or so, but we we didn't get there until about
one ten, one fifteen ish, and they just stayed in

(09:54):
the van the other fifteen minutes and basically they just
got out started warming up, And same with the girls.
They were in the van about ten minutes before they
had to start to warm up. So we just had
to make do with what we could.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
And talking about the men, and men took on fifth.
That was their fourth top five finish in five years.
How did the race go for the men?

Speaker 5 (10:18):
Yeah, you know, I was very proud of them, obviously,
we wanted to get on the podium. I don't think
that they started out too hard. They were out perfectly.
I felt through one K, two K, I think we
were a second at that point, and just looking at
the times, I thought it was a very controllable pace
to where you know, in cross country you see all

(10:38):
teams that get out too hard and then they just
get caught. I don't necessarily think that we got out
too hard. It just you know, we all had to
deal with it. Some handled it better than others, and
once we just kind of started going backwards, it was
just at that point just hang on to fifth. So
we fell short of our goal. But I was just
very proud of their effort for sure. On you know,

(11:02):
they competed. We went for it, you know, because we
told our guys, is, don't go trying to get third
or fourth, you know, let's go try to get second
or better, and if we fall short, we'll end up
third or something. So I'm proud of them that they
really gave it a go and they chased it and
it just wasn't in the cards for him that day.

(11:22):
But they're disappointed, but I told them exactly what you said.
It's the fourth, top five. I'm like, for us, that's
a disappointment, you know, to be fifth, but every other
team would love to be fifth, just one time. So
I'm like, look at the positive in that. It's just
that's the type of program that we are. So, you know,
they bought in and we're leaving fifth and we were

(11:43):
ranked fifth, and I've told them we've gotten into that
meet numerous times ranked second or third and leaving fifth
or sixth, you know, so I was still happy and
I told them to be proud of their effort.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Did the men have any feedback on the course, any
of the conditions for the ladies before they started?

Speaker 5 (12:02):
Uh, they just told him, try to stay on your
feet is gonna be really hard, because I think like
three of my guys went down, not as bad as
Olivia Baker did, but yeah, it was just like, you know,
it was one of those just best of luck and
try and stay on your feet.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Did you guys make morning of like spike adjustments or
anything like that.

Speaker 5 (12:23):
No, And in hindsight, we sold My assistant coach asked,
because we had half inch spikes with us, and we'll
actually we switch them out. And I'm like, I mean,
I don't want to give them another layer of something
to think about and stress about. So we're like, they
just let it be, and you know, I think we're
gonna slip regardless. I don't think any size of spikes

(12:44):
would have necessarily prevented anything. So yeah, I mean, in hindsight,
we probably should have put the half inches in or something,
but yeah, we didn't do a whole lot.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Okay, what was the what was the celebration like on
Saturday night?

Speaker 5 (13:01):
Oh man, so you know Ford Dodge. I'm sure there's
probabing to hop on later everything was closed, but no,
we just wanted to go get warm.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
You know.

Speaker 5 (13:14):
We took a few pictures there in the course and
in the clubhouse, but we just wanted to get get
back to the hotel, take some hot showers. But it
was just just ecstatic, just happiness, just like a relief
that you know, to go back and do it again.
And after being ranked number one, and the and the
way the race was unfolding. If you weren't looking at

(13:36):
live scores, you would have easily thought that we lost
that race because it didn't look pretty through a mile
and a half. So once they all crossed the line,
Initially the girls were down because like we were sure
that we lost. But once I saw that we won,
they're just just tiers of tiers of joy. So we're
just happy. I'm happy, proud of the girls, proud of

(13:57):
my coaches and the parents that braved the elements and
made the trip over there. So it was just fun.
But after that, we just went to dinner, got some
warm food, and just went back to the hotel because
everywhere we tried to go it was closed.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
Cut you all right, it was a nail bier. Rich
and I. We were texting each other back and forth.
We were counting as you guys were coming in. I'm like,
I think the fifth one just went across. I think
they got it. I think they got it. You Yeah,
you said last week when we talked to that defending
is harder than winning the first one. Do you feel

(14:33):
that now that that it's over and done with it,
that was harder than winning that first title?

Speaker 5 (14:40):
Because I feel that PV threw everything at us and
it was so hard like last year. I want to
say that, like it kind of almost everything went too right,
you know, it just went textbook like best case scenario.
We're all top five in the top nineteen. You know,
we were gap or are we're space closer closely? Last

(15:03):
year we were six, eight, thirteen, fifteen, nineteen. This year,
you know, obviously we had the five six, but then
we went to sixteen or nine, and then sixteen and
then twenty five. So I definitely feel it was a
lot harder this year because there was a lot more
pressure riding on it, you know, because all of the

(15:23):
sophomores that they wanted last year, you know, the expectation
is all you got to win it again. So I
definitely do feel it was a lot harder this time around,
and obviously the elements added the layer to it. So
I think by about four K it is when I
was finally relaxing, you know. But at two miles, I'm like,

(15:44):
oh my gosh, I'm like, we're about to lose this thing,
you know. And I saw the scores at three K
and they were fine, But at four K I kind
of just knew because the last one k half of
it is uphill in the snow, and I'm just like,
there's no way that that we would drop thirty five

(16:04):
places in one k when all three of PB's runners
like they're they weren't going to score any more any
lesson what they already had and we're just maintaining. So
by four K I was a little just more relieved,
I would say, from a half a mile prior to that. So,
but definitely a lot harder this year, for sure.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
Did you get to enjoy it or are you thinking
about next year ready?

Speaker 7 (16:29):
You know?

Speaker 5 (16:32):
Yeah, No, definitely enjoying it. Definitely enjoying it. Obviously you know,
eyes are on track, but next you know, obviously eyes
are on next year. It's we got to reload. You know,
we've got three girls coming back, but we've got some
really good prospects coming in that, you know, I think
we're gonna be up there again.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
This back to back national titles. Does that help recruiting
a little bit?

Speaker 5 (16:58):
It definitely has, I feel, you know. I mean, we've
fortunately been pretty good you know, on the continually as
annually basis, so I definitely do think that has helped.
But definitely finally getting over that hump and out doing
it twice in a row. I've gotten quite a few
phone calls this week from athletes and parents like, hey,
so can we still do that campus visit? I really

(17:21):
want to go and check it out. So it's definitely
help for sure.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
And what's did will you guys? Do you guys do
indoor track?

Speaker 5 (17:32):
We we do indoor track and outdoor, but we all
go to division one because there's no division two in track,
so we go up against everybody.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Okay, so you how many indoor meetia on the schedule.

Speaker 5 (17:46):
So we've got on tap five, so we'll mostly be
nau quite a bit. For three of our meets. We'll
go to Albuquerque for the New Mexico Don Kirby Elite,
and you know, a couple of our little local your
college meets here hosted by Central or Pima, and then
national so we'll we try to get about four to
five good meets in and then Nationals.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
And so is there one qualifying standard for indoor Nationals?

Speaker 5 (18:13):
Yep, yep, it's just we don't do like a provisional
or eye. It's just you hit the time and you're
in or the distance and whatnot. So you know, that's
why I tell the kid to take advantage of every
meet because we don't have a lot of meats to qualify.
And that was our end of season. You know, we're
at the airport having our meeting. I'm like, look, cross

(18:34):
country's over. You don't go to Nationals by the luxury
of a good team. It's you got to get yourself
to national So what you do in the off season
is going to matter and it's completely up to you
whether you go to Nationals or not.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
When will when will everyone get back to work?

Speaker 5 (18:51):
We've got two weeks off, so we'll take two weeks
off and then the week of Thanksgiving they'll probably run
three to four days out of that week, and then
we're back to six days a week after.

Speaker 4 (19:02):
That, Coach, is there any athletes that are leaving you
next year that have signed with any colleges yet?

Speaker 5 (19:11):
Not yet, so Katie, Well, all are four sophomores, Katie,
kin Lee, Lucy, Marissa. They're still exploring. They're going to
be taking some campus visits here coming up, and same
with cal and Alex. They've got some visits lined up.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
You know.

Speaker 5 (19:26):
I think Katie is looking at a couple of schools
in Colorado, California. Same with kin Lee. Lucy really wants
to go to one of the universities in Utah. Kyle
and Alex are kind of just exploring all options. So
no no commitments. Yet just yet, but they definitely want
to keep moving on.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
And we know you gotta get recruits in. You gotta
you know, load to team up. How much of your
job is helping with that but also helping the athletes
find the right fit for them.

Speaker 5 (20:00):
Yeah, so, I mean, obviously recruiting is a big thing,
you know, trying to get out into the high school races,
trying to reload our team every year, and and part
of that recruiting pitches what I what I do and
what I tell them. I mean, I'm very forthcoming. What
I tell my kids on the team right now, it's
I will help you as much as you want me to.
If you know where you want to go, that's cool.

(20:21):
But if you need me to call someone and email someone.
I mean, I've got a pretty good network of coaches,
so I help them out as much as they want
me to, because I just tell them, if if all
we do is a high five, thank you for two years,
then I didn't really do my job here. I didn't
do what I set out to do for you. So
that's what I tell my own kids. That's what I
tell kids that I recruit, because they asked me, well,

(20:42):
how do we get to the next level. And you know,
we are one of the top programs, so we do
get a lot of you know, I get a lot
of phone calls and emails about our kids. But I'll
help them out as much as they want me to.
But if they're like, I know where I'm going to go,
then that's cool too.

Speaker 4 (21:00):
You know.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Coach Isaac Wood from a slick is up there at
the University of the Pacific if anyone wants.

Speaker 5 (21:04):
To yeah, yeah, yeah, ladies, yeah, and he gets it done.
So actually, I do need to reach out to him
too also, So if he's listening, Isaac, give me a call.
I'll call you, Coach.

Speaker 4 (21:20):
One thing we didn't get to ask you last time.
We were kind of in a time crunch. Are you
guys at altitude?

Speaker 5 (21:27):
No, we're not. We're down at like borderline sea level,
I would say, so, yeah, no altitude for us. I
think it starts to get to about like Sedona in
the Prescott area is when it starts kind of considered altitude.
I think Prescott's about like fifty one hundred feet.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
All right, So Coach, he's not too hard.

Speaker 4 (21:51):
You ever take that drive?

Speaker 5 (21:53):
No, we I mean, unless we have a meet we
don't really. I mean, we just we go to the
mountains and trail system here so we we get whatever
heels we can in.

Speaker 4 (22:04):
Coach, is there anything about the championship about the team
that we haven't covered that you want the audience to
know about this season?

Speaker 5 (22:11):
Yeah, I mean I think we covered most of it.
I mean, I think it they just showed their toughness
and their togetherness, you know, by coming together and winning.
And you know, we told them it doesn't have to
be perfect, Let's just go out and win again. And
it definitely was not perfect by any means, obviously with Olivia,
you know, falling, Loucy not having her best day. But

(22:32):
I think it just showed their their their closeness and
what they wanted for each other. And you know that
just you know, speaks volumes to the type of group
that they are and just very very proud of them
for sure.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
Well, sorry, Richie, keep cutting off. Coach, thank you so
much for your time. It is awesome watching the men
and the women last weekend. And I hope we talked
to you soon.

Speaker 5 (22:58):
Yeah, it's awesome. Thank you guys your time.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Absolutely, Coach. Tell everyone we said thank you for the entertainment.
On Saturday. It was fun to watch Jerry Thanksgiving all right,
ladies and gentlemen. That was Daniel Pescador from Mesa Community College.
On to our next guest, coach Mallory Dominguez from the
College of Due Page. The women were the NJCAA Division

(23:21):
III national champions and the men were the runner ups,
and coach Dimingez was named Coach of the Year.

Speaker 4 (23:28):
Hie, hey, coach, are you good?

Speaker 2 (23:33):
You you thought yet? What did you say? Have you
thought out yet?

Speaker 7 (23:38):
Yeah? I mean, well we're from Chicago, so that's cold
here too, but true, we are home. We made it
home like nine something pm last night. Home.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Okay, Well, congratulations on many things. The women were champions,
the men's were runner up, and you were coached to
the year. So it was a pretty awesome weekend for
you guys. It was fun to watch.

Speaker 7 (24:02):
Thanks. Yeah, we're really happy with it. You know. I
think we always just shoot for the top, you know,
regardless of wherever ranked, regardless of you know, when we're
supposed to finish or whatever. I think, you you know,
go for it every time. I think both groups did that,
and you know, and I was I was really happy

(24:23):
with how they built it.

Speaker 4 (24:26):
Coach, you said, you're used to the weather because you
guys are from Chicago area, but you woke up Saturday
morning and it was white. What was that initial thought
when you went outside and you saw what the weather
was doing.

Speaker 7 (24:40):
You know, it didn't like when we pulled up, it
had just started kind of snowing, and we didn't really
think it was going to stick. To be honest, we
got there really early and like all rain or if
this is snow, it's just gonna melt when it hits
stuck around and then you know, we're setting up our
tent and the kids don't run for a warm up,
and then we're like, oh, this is real snow. But

(25:02):
I think you know, with the forecast, we thought it
was gonna rain, and you know they're like, okay, rain whatever,
like everybody has it. But I think when it started snowing,
my kids were actually just really excited. They were like, okay,
like this is gonna be cool. Like I've never raced
a race in the snow before. So I think the
fact that they just took that and we're just excited

(25:23):
about it, I think that's what allowed them to do
so well. You know, the mindset shifted from you know,
prs to to kind of just going out there and
competing and and my kids know how to do that,
and so they were just I think they were excited,
Like our girls were jumping on the start line and
the kids were just kind of excited to go out
there and and and you know, racing something different.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
So so from our vantage point on our couches watching
the race, it looked like the Division three had the
worst weather. It was coming down the hardest. During the
Division three races. You said they were excited when they
got done and you coaching running back and forth, were
you ready to get back in the bus and get warm?

Speaker 7 (26:08):
You know? Actually, for us, it really didn't feel that cold.
You know it We've had colder like times where I've
been more cold. I think the snow kind of held
the temperature up a bit more than it could have been,
you know, like the days following I want to say Monday,

(26:29):
because we stayed for the half marathon that was really cold.
That was much more cold, and so it really actually
wasn't that cold. I mean, my kids when they were
done racing, yeah, they wanted to go get dry because
they were wet. I mean, we joked that they look
like wet dogs after that, but so they wanted to
get dry. But honestly, you know, I our coaches, we

(26:50):
weren't that cold out there. You know, we were doing fine.
So it was definitely a different experience. You know, visibility
was really low. So there were a couple of times
You're in the men's race and I was just running
where I thought was to the next point I wanted
to go, and then I would like, stop, on where
am I? There's like no one around me, and I
had to like get my bearings because it looked completely

(27:12):
different than it looked, you know, prior to that. But yeah,
I know, we were enjoying it. We like, we liked it.
We liked the snow. I would say, if you ask
the majority of my kids, they liked the snow.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
So did the men have any feedback for the ladies
on the course or anything with having the having been
able to get out there and run hard on it?

Speaker 7 (27:33):
Yeah, you know, the men the girls were asking, you
know what, what to think about it, and the men
kind of just told them, hey, take the turns wide
because it's slippery on the turns, you know. So I
think that they put that into action. Do you know,
they had spall that spikes on, so they you know,
did the best with the surface they could do. But
I think that was the one big piece of advice

(27:54):
the guys had because I mean, but in both races
you saw a little bit of slipping and sliding, but
we didn't have anybody can wipe out or anything. So
that was that was good. It was a win for
the day in itself.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
Were you guys running with half inch spikes or anything
like that or did you just keep them as is?

Speaker 7 (28:11):
Uh, some of my kids spikes are probably beyond removing me.
Some kids had some longer ones in and then some
of my kids are like, I have these and they
showed me in there like quarter inch pyramids and I'm like,
what are you doing? Whatever? It was too late at
that point, but they all had spike. They all had

(28:34):
spikes of some hard in there.

Speaker 4 (28:36):
So yeah, Cause you mentioned running from spot to spot
and not knowing where you were. Were you able to
keep track of the race and where your kids were
as far as oh, we're in this place, we're in
that place, or were you just concerned with what their
individual efforts were.

Speaker 7 (28:55):
In the women's side, I kind of knew, like, you know,
without even doing all the math. I was like, okay,
like we have to be winning, you know, just with
like how high up all the girls were throughout that race,
and I kind of just kept beyond at them to
go because I was like, this is only a five K.
I think a lot of my girls because we raised
six k a lot, and I don't know about the

(29:15):
other teams on the East Coast and D three, but
like for us, you can't really find a five K
during the season at all. So we raised six k's
all year because you know, every other collegiate division is
six k at this point, and so we can't really
find five K. So I kind of remind my girls like, hey,
this is a five K, Like you need to make
your moves now because it's like faster, it's shorter, and so,

(29:36):
you know, I think they responded to that and now
just you know, like looking like okay, like we got one, two, three,
four or five. You know, we're we're up there. So
I kind of like felt like we were winning. And
then you know, they said it over the intercom too,
and I was like, okay, like they just need to
keep this up, and they did, and the men's race.

(29:57):
You know, Harper had those two guys that finished fourth
and fifth, and I knew they were up there, and
I knew that that was going to be kind of
what we if we were going to try to win it,
we were going to need to get up there with that.
And you know, I think my top two guys, Adrian Quintaro,
Jack Schultz gave it, you know, a really valiant effort,
and even Zach Bacci Freshman had a really really great race.

(30:20):
Those were our three All Americans, and I think they
went for it. If you look at the beginning of
the race, Jack and Adriana were up with that pack,
and I think they gave it all they had, uh,
and then they went for it. And I'm glad they
went for it, because you know, if you're going to
try to win, you got to go for it. You know,
I knew we were going to have to try in
the beginning because especially with those conditions, you're just you're
not going to catch up. And so they went for it,

(30:43):
and I think ultimately that you know, Harper just was
able to maintain it and our guys weren't and at
times don't really show prs, but obviously but I do
think that my men raced the best race they raced
all year. And I said multiple times with the guys,

(31:03):
and I think a couple other coaches kind of noticed
that with us too, Like if there's seven runners scored,
so obviously not how cross country worked, but a seven
runners scored, I think we would have won because we
just had such a close pack, you know, like my fifth, sixth,
and seventh runner were really really strong and all like
really far up there, but we just lacked on that

(31:24):
front end. The you know, front runners really close packing
both the men and the women, and obviously that was
enough for the women to get out on top and
for the men. It kept us really competitive and ultimately
got a national runner up. We avenged what we did
at regionals because regionals we were third, so to come
on second the nation, I'm really proud of them. I
know that all the kids on both sides left everything

(31:44):
out there, and so I'm proud of what they did.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
What'd you guys do for a Saturday night celebration?

Speaker 7 (31:51):
Oh, we went to eat a local restaurant afterwards, so
we actually our hotel. We got stuck in a Dee
Brown with Idola. Central was very very kind to us
because we had a last minute situation where our hotel
that we had booked back in July and Fort Dodge

(32:12):
had flooded and they called us on Tuesday and said
we can't accommodate you, and so we had to find
a hotel last minute. We ended up all the way
an hour fifteen minutes away in Names, So that kind
of kept us from some of the festivals would have
normally done because you know, like banquet wise was kind
of too hard for us to get back to that
and all different stuff. But you know, he hooked us

(32:32):
up with at a gift card to a restaurant in
a local restaurant and Fort Dodge, so we then ate
there and celebrated there afterwards, and then I think the
kids were pretty exhausted. So then we went back to
our hotel and Names and got dry and cleaned up
and and had some dinner. After that lunch, we kind

(32:53):
of just catered it into a hotel and it kind
of had a relaxing night and and got some rest
because we knew that they were all going to run
the half Maria on Tuesday, so it was kind of
like we were happy and then all right, let's rest,
let's recover, let's get ready for the next thing.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
So how did the next thing go? How was it
on Tuesday?

Speaker 7 (33:12):
Yeah, I think it went really really well. I was
really happy. On the girls side, I had no idea
how we would do place wise, none of my girls
have ever even run thirteen miles in a training run,
so but I knew they were on a high from
the five k and I knew that all of them,
with their persistence, that they were going to finish it.

(33:32):
It was just a matter of like how well we
were going to finish. And they got sixteen out of
twenty two teams, so they beat sixty two teams, and
you know, obviously we're not on scholarship, so I'm really
proud of them. It's the first time college y Pages
ever appeared on the women's side at the half marathon,
and so really really proud all six girls that we
you know, put in finished and so that was really great.

(33:55):
On the men's side, you know, even better, they were
sixteen out of thirty two teams, so right there in
the middle beat forty one teams and ten D two
teams and then the other two D three teams coming
out the top. D three team in that half marathon.
So it was a pretty hilly course and we do

(34:15):
a lot of hills, so I think the kids were
ready for that, and they all just really had a
lot of fun. So that definitely was like my biggest
goal for them was to have fun and they had
to race that big competition and they really love that,
love the atmosphere of that half marathon, and you know,
I can't think Guy was central enough. I feel like
they put on a real championship event and it was.

(34:37):
It was fantastic and my kids really enjoyed it. So
I thought that the half marathon went really well too.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
For the ladies. That was their first half marathon ever,
not even in training. Were there some people that were
like that was fun. I want to do that again.

Speaker 7 (34:51):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. This is you know the kids I get.
I've and flows some years I have a lot of
mid distance kids, and then the years I have a
lot of long distance kids, and I feel like I
have a lot of long distance kids right now, you know,
and they, uh so they love this stuff. They just
kind of eat it up. And so yeah, they were

(35:11):
they were really enjoyed it. You know, the only kid
out of all twelve between men and women that have
done this before. Was Kevin Dietrich. He's actually like a
special I don't know, you would call him like a
third year at COD. But he didn't he didn't race
track last year and he's only raced a half marathon once.

(35:33):
He didn't he raced it back in Virginia last year,
so he used his two years across country alibility, but
this was his second half marathon, so didn't race across
country Championship race to half marathon, and then we get
him back for track this year since he's only done
one year of track. Didn't race track last year due
to an injury. So he loves the long stuff. I
mean like half marathon marathons. That's his thing. So he

(35:55):
was our top male finisher and he was the only
kid that we go, that's a race to race to
have so far. So yeah, like a lot of the
kids came out of it and they like that was
a lot of fun. You know, I want to do
that again. Then they start talking about marathons and I
was like all right. I was like, that's uh, we
got track to get to.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
So I'm curious. You know, across country it's a spectators
are moving. You know, if you want to really take
in the race, if you want to coach the race,
you really got to be running around moving. What's what's
the layout? What's the course like? Was it loops? Are
you moving around to get the different points on the
course on the half marathon course? Or is it like
you're the you know, the the baseball coach that's coached

(36:34):
across country. You see the start and then you walk
to the finish line and wait for them to come in.

Speaker 7 (36:39):
No, I move. I'm moving now.

Speaker 4 (36:42):
You know.

Speaker 7 (36:43):
Maybe in a more typical early season race, I may
not move as much, but I was moving that day
because and the only reason I say I might not
move as much is because I have three assistant coaches
and two of them are former athletes of mine, Kelly Kidler,
Nicholas Keeling. Kelly Killer's in nine times and JCA All
American and Nicholas Keeling is twenty twenty two cross country

(37:09):
National champion individual National championship for D three back when
he was in Massachusetts, and then he went on to
win the five k in twenty twenty three the following year,
and he's also All American in the ten k, so
both very decorated athletes, the former athletes of mine, and
so it's really cool to have them on the coaching
staff so they know both sides of it. And then

(37:29):
Coach Turner, he's actually our throws coach, but he helps
out with cross country two. I think we kind of
made him fall in love with it. So I have
the three of them, and so no, we can kind
of spread out throughout the course. So we still did
that on Saturday. But then I'm kind of crazy, so
I was still bouncing around. You know, there's a part
of the course that you know, they go out at

(37:51):
the start and then they hook right and they do
make a loop. Both the men and the women kind
of started the same way, so they make loop. So
you'll see them come the far end of that loop,
and then they come back in and you see them
again on the near end of that loop, and then
they literally come back and loop around, so you kind
of seem three times. And that's kind of where I
sent a lot of the parents that don't like to
run back and forth. A bunch was over there, and

(38:13):
so I went over there first. But then when they
were running into this back loop and I sprinted to
try to get to the end of that kind of
back loop and watched them again, especially for the men,
and then the men went back into that original loop
and whereas the women just kind of went on to finish.
So yeah, I think I recorded like all eleven thousand steps.

(38:34):
By the time the races were over, where I was,
I was kind of all over. That's the fun part
of it, you know. So but I think, you know,
I have my coaches all throughout the course were in
parts that maybe people weren't in, and I think that
was helpful too, just to have that support for the kids.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Are you getting out of the half marathon of course
at all. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (38:53):
So then coach Kelly, she stayed with me. The other
coaches went back with some of our other kids, and
we drove to you know, we obviously were driven to
the start, and then we watched, you know, the kind
of looped around I think like TWOI ish miles. You know,
we would see him again towards that start. They looped
through a neighborhood, and then we drove to the five

(39:15):
mile marker, and we drove to the ten mile aid station.
Both those aid stations. We were like fastest half marathon
ever actually, the two of us had just raced a
half marathon on our own, like you know, before Nationals,
we kind of just ran it together, and but this
we were spectating it. We're like, why is this going
by so fast? Like we were driving to the different

(39:35):
points and we were barely making it before our first
kid got there, so and then obviously trying to drive
to the finish. But it was a great setup. It
was definitely easy to get to the different points, and
then we could even see the kids running, you know,
alongside the roads we were driving, and so it was
it was set up well to spectate. And from the
feedback I got from a kid, they said it was hilly,

(39:57):
but it was a pretty course.

Speaker 4 (39:59):
So so running all over the place yesterday, I'm going
to assume your travel today. Have you got to reflect
on the seasons, the season and the team's accomplishments.

Speaker 7 (40:10):
Yeah, you know, well we made it back yesterday. We
drove straight afterwards. But yeah, I think a lot of
us are still in shock on the women's side because
you know, this is the first COD team to ever
win cross country on the women's side, and my first
year was COD. I got to be and to you know,

(40:33):
you got to be part with the men. The men
won their first cross country championship, and then you know
in track last year we won both championships, the men
and the women. So it's been really special. This was
like the fourth one, this is the last one that
we had never done yet, and so it was really
really special, I think for my whole coaching staff because

(40:56):
this was like we're adding a banner to the wall.
You know, it's kind of in history, and so that
was really really special on the girl and I think
the guy end. You know, even though we were at
the champions it's not something to overlook. You know, since
since I've been here in twenty twenty two, the men
have either been first or second every single year. And
when you have to turn over half over half your athletes,

(41:16):
I mean you only have freshmen and sophomores every single
year to be able to stay top two, I think
that that's fantastic. Really proud of them. You know, the
men's side getting more and more competitive, in both sides,
but getting more and more competitive every year is more traction,
more visibility gets to our division, more kids are you know,
going the NJCA route. It's getting more and more competitive

(41:39):
and so I'm really proud of them. Top two every
year since twenty twenty two. It's it's fantastic. So I'm
really just proud of everybody, and I'm still trying to
absorb that at all.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Have you made any recruiting calls yet? Oh?

Speaker 7 (41:55):
I got a lot of text messages and emails to
applied to. So I'm sure a lot of coaches do
you know after this weekend? So yeah, we were always recruiting.
We're always recruiting, and and really we just love to
have any kids that buy in us and want to
work hard. And we always tell kids we give him
a a four year model in a two year So

(42:17):
that's the kind of kids we're looking for. And we've
already got kids ready to go for next year, and
so we're just excited that people want to be a
part of us and they want to continue on this legacy.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
So how many athletes are you losing from these two teams?

Speaker 7 (42:33):
On the men's side next year, we will lose Jack Schultz.
He committed to Governor State University. It's an ai A.
He's just a sophomore, so that's why we're losing him.
He's out of eligibility and we will lose David of
Vilas same reason, sophomore out of eligibility. He's still deciding

(42:53):
where he's going to go. So two of those guys
were pretty freshman heavy, So that's a benefit that we
return a lot of those guys. And the women's side,
we do lose h three key athletes to Ali Pastiora,
Bree Pellegrini, and Morean Bloomley. So that's uh, that's big

(43:16):
they lose and they're all just sophomore. So definitely have
to rebuild on the women's side. But I'm hoping that
this championship kind of attracts more girls to to the program.
And you know, we've been growing the girls program. When
I got here, we had three girls on the team,
and so to be able to win a championship now

(43:37):
is it's just it's it's great. We're just we're so excited.
So and I know all of the past girls on
our previous teams are just ecstatic too.

Speaker 4 (43:47):
So, Coach, is there anything about the team, or the
season or the championships that we haven't covered that you
want our audience to know?

Speaker 7 (43:58):
No, Like I said, I think I essential hosted a
really great meet and just shout out to all of
the teams out there, D one, D two, D three, everybody,
you know, just embraced it and we all had to
blast out there. I didn't really hear any kids complaining
about anything on either of the days, the half marathon
or the or the snowy cross country race. I feel

(44:20):
like everybody just went out there and computed and we
just we just did the thing. You know, Kudos to
the other teams. And in our region, Region four continues
to be strong, so respect to both Harper and JJC
obviously rounding out the top three for the men and
and or two out of the top three for the women.
You know, our region has got some strong runners in it.

(44:42):
So I just think congratulations to everybody and and and
you know, just just kind of it was a great event.
I was excited to be a part of it. It
was really cool to see our division gets visibility, even
some some famous athletes comments on uh on some of
the posts and some of the videos, you know, die
stat sharing and all that stuff. It's it's really cool

(45:03):
to get that traction too those divisions.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
So yes there's former Division III athletes. Is really fun
to watch everyone competed on Saturday under those conditions that
said to Jimmy, reminded me a lot of my championship
year at Alfred State. It was snowy and muddy and
slippery and sliding, and so it was. It was really
exciting and really fun to watch. So let the teams

(45:27):
know that we we appreciate the entertainment on Saturday.

Speaker 7 (45:30):
Yeah, so you know firsthand what it's like.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Then absolutely, I.

Speaker 7 (45:34):
Can't say I'm quite raced one like that. I've had
little dusting snowfall races, but not quite not quite a
race like that.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
So it was fun.

Speaker 4 (45:43):
Well, coach, congratulations to you and your team. Thank you
so much for joining us tonight. Best of luck and
track and help. Talk to you soon.

Speaker 7 (45:52):
Thanks so much, Thanks so much for having me and
have a great.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Night you too, and Julior Thanksgiving as well, Thanks you too.
Thank you all right, ladies and gentlemen. That is coach
Mallory Dominge is from the College of du Paige and
JCAA Division three Coach of the Year. The women were
champions and the men were runner ups. Moving on, we
got coach Chris Bean from Odessa Odessa College in Odessa, Texas.

(46:17):
The women took home their first ever NJCAA Division one
cross country national championships, and we are excited. They also
won the half marathon championships as well.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
How you doing, sir, good, you're doing all right? Yes
we are. Congratulations sir. Thank you for joining us tonight.

Speaker 6 (46:40):
I appreciate it and always enjoy talking to you guys.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
Have you been able to thaw out yet?

Speaker 6 (46:49):
Say it again?

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Have you been able to thaw out from Fort Dodge?

Speaker 6 (46:54):
Oh? My goodness, Yeah, that's uh. I can't tell you how.
That's been the joke around campus since I got back today.
They uh been a lot of ribs and stuff from
ribbing from the athletic director and stuff about what we
had to go through down there and are over there
or up there whatever. So uh, it was definitely an

(47:17):
interesting national meet.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Yeah, it was. It was super fun to watch, you know.
I woke up in the morning, was checking Instagram and
stuff and saw some coaches posting that, you know, as
they sit text Jimmy and said, hey, it's snowing and
Fort Dodge it's going to be an interesting day today.
And you guys did not disappoint. The gals showed up
and showed out and it was it was really fun
to watch what was the the morning of PEP talk.

(47:42):
Did you have to I would imagine some of the
ladies that was the first time seeing snow.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
That is true.

Speaker 6 (47:49):
Yeah, my international group, definitely, you were well truthfully, even
my my American kids, you know, it's not really been
around anything quite like that was. I mean, we literally
the day before go out run the course and it's
cold and we're expecting forty low forties and rain is
kind of what we keep seeing. And we literally get

(48:13):
up the next day and go to the course and
you can't even see the course. It's just all white.
I mean, I mean there was no course there. And
luckily Division III ran before us, so at least there
was some footprints to.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
Follow coach to. The ladies were number one pretty much
all year. How was it to go in as that
number one ranking and come out as a number one ranking?

Speaker 6 (48:37):
You know, I think we talked about this last time
we got together, and I prefer to not be number one.
I like something to chase and something to be hungry for.
And I think you probably get a little more nerves
and stuff when you're dealing with being number one the
whole time. But we just didn't talk about it, you know,
very often. You know, I think I did talk to

(48:59):
him the night before about, hey, there's we've been number
one the whole season for a reason because we are
the best team here. And you just got to go
out there and we're gonna have to be tough, and
you know, if you fall down, you're gonna have to
get up. And just remember that no matter who's used
to this and who's not used to this, it still

(49:21):
comes down to running and toughness and and everybody's gonna
be running in the same, you know, situation. So we
might as well go out there and give it her
best effort and see where're at.

Speaker 4 (49:32):
So was there any performances that from your ladies that
surprised you or shocked you, or someone someone that performed
out of what they normally do.

Speaker 6 (49:43):
Yeah, it's kind of funny you asked that. So two
of my girls really stood out for me. Rukia is
my girl from Algeria, and she just I mean she
got there and literally the second practice we had, she
rolled her ankle at the golf of course we run
at and even when she started getting back, I just

(50:05):
was really questioning how tough she was, and I'm like thinking, man,
I don't know that I recruited a really good girl here.
And the more we kept rolling and the more she
kept training and got fit, it was pretty obviously I
was wrong at how good she really is. And she'd
run four nineteen in the fifteen hundred meters before I

(50:26):
got her, so I knew she had stats. But I
think the one thing that I'm pretty good at is
really toughening our kids up, which I think helps when
you go into an environment like this. And the other girl,
Katine Johnson, my Jamaican girl, and you have to understand,

(50:47):
Jamaica's just don't run in that kind of weather, and
typically if you get that kind of weather during the
year at a meat they don't show up very well. Well,
Katine's something special. She's Jesus Is. She's a sophomore for me,
and uh she fell down a couple of times during
the race, still got up and ended up being my

(51:07):
fourth girl, and she had been my fifth girl all year.
So I was really proud of what she did because
she's the one that you when it's game time, She's
the one you count on the rest of the year.
You just don't ever know, like certain meats that don't
really matter. You're not sure Katine is gonna be good

(51:28):
or not, but when she goes to the big meat,
she's always risen to the challenge.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
There.

Speaker 6 (51:40):
Sorry, somebody's got a car that's going off. Your guess
if you could hear that horn, but I'm not. I'm
sitting in the parking lot doing this and somebody's deals
going off.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
Go ahead, coach, What's what was what was the post
race celebration like on Saturday? I know you guys so
had eyes on the prize for Tuesday, but were able
to take it in and celebrate a little bit on Saturday.

Speaker 6 (52:09):
I don't you know when you got the half marathon
right after. I don't know that. I mean we did
go have dinner together and enjoyed that, and Sunday was
so stinking cold that we just kind of hibernated in
the in the hotel and and tried to rest and
relax and uh do those kind of things and uh,

(52:33):
hang on, guests, Sorry, I'm having some technical difficulty.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
You're good, but yeah, it.

Speaker 6 (52:43):
It ended up being that I think we just pretty
much stayed like it was business as usual throughout the
weekend and I think that really some of the shock
of the cold for some of them kind of gave us,
if you will, something to focus on to where we
weren't doing too much celebrating now, don't you're wrong. You

(53:05):
know they threw some snowballs at each other there when
we were getting there, was you know, some hugging and
all of that kind of stuff like you have right afterwards.
But you know, by the time we got back to
the hotel, they had been so cold for so long.
All they wanted to do was, you know, go take
a hot shower, get in the room and hibernate.

Speaker 4 (53:27):
Coach, you know, you've won some JUCO national titles when
you were at South Plains. What does this one mean
to you? Being the first one at Odessa.

Speaker 6 (53:39):
Well, this is kind of a hard subject for me,
you know, this is what Well, let me have the
positive end the negative, I guess if that's okay. The
positive side of this is, you know, building a new
program at a new school, and there's just there's a
lot of great things there with new people, and you

(54:01):
want to impress your your athletic director and your president
and all that. So those are all kind of the
good things, and you also kind of want to know,
you know, I did it at South Plains? Was that
just perfect circumstances? Was that you know how much of
that was really me being the head coach and building
the program, how much of that was my assistant coach?
How much of that was you know the athletes were

(54:21):
able to get at that time? And could we replicate that?
But I did tell my president. He asked me when
he interviewed me to meet it for the job, He said,
how long do you think it'll take before you can
win a national title here? And I said, I think
I can do it year two. And he looked at
me like I was crazy, and he said really, And

(54:42):
I said yeah, if I get the support and some
of the things and some of the people that have
sent kids continue to send me kids and things like that,
I said, I really think that, you know, we could
win by year two. And this was year two. So
I didn't lie to my president and told him the
right thing. On the negative side, you know, my wife,

(55:05):
who passed away a year and a half ago, was
always my rock and she was my supporter and band.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
And so.

Speaker 6 (55:15):
You know, when we won, when I knew that we
had won and our fifth girl passed the line there.
Instead of going to hug the kids, I had to
like walk away and go out kind of be by
myself for a while and and kind of have a
moment where, you know, it's kind of like trying to
be you know there with my wife. Uh, you know, like, hey, baby,

(55:36):
you know we were able to do this again. That
was a hard moment because you know, she and I
were so close. She was an athlete in college, played
volleyball and you know, every championship I'd ever want in
South Plains College. I always felt like she was kind
of the heart of it because she was the one

(55:56):
I could go when I had bad days and talk
about things, and she would just let me balance things
off of her all the time, and you know, it
was always supportive, and you know, when you don't have
that anymore, you really kind of doubt sometimes if you're
going to be able to get to the level you
want to get to. If that makes any sense.

Speaker 4 (56:17):
Yes, coach, thank you for sharing that. You gave me chills.
I'm not gonna lie. I appreciate you sharing that with
us and our audience. I know how much that means
to you, and I know your wife is with you
and the team. So I appreciate that so much. Was
I know, you kind of said that you weren't sure
if you were going to be able to get back

(56:37):
back to that without her or being out a new
school or having all those dominoes that were in line
with South Plain. Is there a little bit of a
pat on the back for you, Like, yeah, I still
got it.

Speaker 6 (56:51):
You know, I don't know if I look at it
that way, but I mean, yeah, I think there's a
little bit of that.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
I just.

Speaker 6 (56:58):
You have so much pressure a little bit of all
the people that were my Soule Planes college athletes and
coaching friends and you know, coach Kittley and coach Wiley
and who was with me at during most of those
champions of South Planes. You know, when I got the
job there, they're all kind of like, well, it's just
gonna be a matter of time before you win national
titles there. Well, that's kind of a heavy burden to

(57:21):
kind of because I really you really don't know when
you take a new program, because you do have to
have the support of administration, you do have to have
enough scholarships to get it done. Uh, you have to
have the trust of you know, some of your buddies
that at the Division one schools that want to send
you really good athletes because they want them back and

(57:42):
they trust you to do that. So there's just a
lot of different things that are you really don't know
until you get into it. But you know, I was
confident if I had the right scenario there like I
did at South Plains, that I could do it again.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
Coach, have you had some time to enjoy this or
have you gone right into track mode?

Speaker 6 (58:06):
Well, we traveled back today, so you know, I was
worried about you know, we got up at three point
thirty this morning and you know, got on the plane
at six fifteen and traveled back. And I got back
and dropped them off at the dorm and went in
the office for a few minutes that I'll load to
a few people, and I'm just like, you know what
I'm gonna I'm going home. I'm exhausted. So I think

(58:30):
that there may be some time to soak it in,
but right now I think I'm just mentally worn out,
if you know what I mean. And uh, you know,
I'm gonna go back to the office and do and
do some normal things Tomorrow. I've got some recruiting things
to do, and I think that's the one thing that
I don't reset for coaching and things like a lot

(58:51):
of people do. I reset for recruiting. Because it was funny.
I was talking to Felix who's at El Paso Baby,
and I'll so, the head cross country coach over there,
and he's one of my longtime friends, and one of
his his assistant coach was there and anything. They asked
me the question he know is you know you're back?

Speaker 1 (59:11):
What you know?

Speaker 6 (59:13):
What was it that got you here? Kind of that
kind of question. And I'm like, because everybody else thinks
it's about coaching, and it's not about coaching. It's about
recruiting our jobs, recruiting our jobs, not coaching. And we
all call ourselves coaches, we all call ourselves recruiters, because
if you're going to do it at a high level,
you've got to get the good kids there first. Then

(59:33):
obviously coaching comes into it after that. But I always
feel like I spend seventy or eighty percent of my
time and day recruiting and trying to find the best athletes,
and twenty percent to thirty percent of my life really coaching.
And I think that's kind of where you can be successful,

(59:54):
is when you start to realize that it's all about
who you can get on campus. So I mean, these
five girls that I got on campus, there's a whole
lot of coaches that at this level, they could have
coached those five and probably done what I did. But
those people were not able to get those five on campus.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
All five coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
No.

Speaker 6 (01:00:18):
Actually, Millicent, my girl that was number one, It ended
up she's a qualifier, so she's going to go to
Alabama in January. I'm sad because she she got the
papers today and she was asking about sign and everything,
and I just she's a sweetheart and one of the
nicest girls I've ever had, you know. And y'all know

(01:00:39):
I lost Elizabeth elandad over to Clemson. Uh, you know
before we started the fall or else we'd have really
been good with those six and uh, and then I
lose Lillian Matteo Torres, my little girl, who also helped
us win the half marathon uh yesterday, you know. So
we won both titles, and she was my number three

(01:01:01):
girl in the half marathon and ran really good because
my one of my other girls had to drop out
with some foot problems. So I lose her because she
graduates in December and it's going to go somewhere. But uh,
I've already got another girl coming uh in January, and
uh you know I've got Rukia back and Katine back

(01:01:23):
for the spring.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:01:25):
Now I'll lose Katine, my Jamaican girl for next year.
But you know JUCO is just a constant rollover and
trying to find new bodies, and I'll find I'll find
some good talent for next next uh next cross country season?

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
Is having those two new two new banners. Will that
help for recruiting a little bit too?

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
I hope? So.

Speaker 6 (01:01:49):
I mean I was, I was at the state high
school meet in Texas here and you know, telling everybody
this is where I do believe that being ranked number
one the whole year helps you. Is you know, you
can see junior college coaches up talking to kids, and
then I walk up and go, hey, you know, our
team's number one in the country and JUCO and has
been all year long, and we've got every number one
vote you can get, and that kind of opens their

(01:02:12):
eyes a little bit more when I get to talk
to them a little bit so and then of course
I give him a business card that has kind of
you know that we've won thirty two national titles when
I was at South Plaines and some of those kind
of things and the Hall of Fame stuff, and I
don't do that really for me, but I want them
to look at that and go, Okay, well I'm talking
to a guy. Maybe I should listen to.

Speaker 4 (01:02:35):
Well, coach Bean, we know you're tired, we know you've
been traveling, we know you're at dinner with your kids,
so we will let you go. Thank you so much
for your time today, sir. Thank you for always making
time for the Airy Bros. And congratulations on a great season.

Speaker 6 (01:02:53):
Well, guys, I appreciate it. And just because of the
format that you guys do, I know other other guys
that you interview and all that. O. D. Browns may
be coming up after me, yes, but I know how
much we appreciate you guys, because everybody wants to go
and be in the spotlight with the D one coaches

(01:03:14):
and all that kind of stuff and what they represent,
and we get overlooked a lot at this level. And
there's some really good coaches and really good coach you know,
recruiters and a lot of good people at this level.
And I appreciate that you guys spotlight junior college because
there are so many people that don't want to do that.
So I want to tell you, guys, thank you, and

(01:03:35):
then I really appreciate both of you for what you
do well.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
That means a lot to us. Coach you know, Jimmy
and are both junior college all Americans. It's a place
in our heart and you know we hold it high
value because we know the benefits of what good coaches
like you can do for athletes like us. And we
will always continue to spotlight the n j c AA
because it did a lot for us, and so we
want to give back and do our part. So we

(01:04:01):
do appreciate you. Get some sleep, get some rest, and
enjoy your thanksgiving.

Speaker 6 (01:04:08):
Same to you, guys, and I really appreciate you again
and thank you. Ever need anything or anything I do
to help, please let me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
Know absolutely we'll get you back on here door and indoor.

Speaker 6 (01:04:19):
All right, sounds good?

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
Take care of coach A right you too?

Speaker 6 (01:04:22):
Byte?

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
So yeah, all right, ladies and gentlemen. That's coach Chris
Bean from Odessa College in Odessa, Texas.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
As.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
Again, the women were double champs this weekend, winning the
Division one cross country race as well as the overall
half marathon national title. Joining us now is coach d
Brown from Iowa Central, the host school, as well as
the twenty twenty five men's national champions. As we had
him on a little while back, we asked him what

(01:04:51):
he was hoping for the weather. He said horrible, and
the running gods granted him his wish because it was
quite a spectacle on Saturday. Coach, it was great to watch.
It was fun to watch. It reminded me of my
nineteen ninety five and JCAA championship run in Alfred State
in New York. It was snowy, just like it was

(01:05:13):
on Saturday. So you guys put on a great show.
All the coaches have said really good things about the
production of the meat and the half marathon, and congratulations
to you, sir, oh he froze, thank you.

Speaker 8 (01:05:26):
You know's in New York. I would expect a mess,
a mess like that. I would expect a mess like
that in New York. I wasn't expecting it to be
like that. But as long as everyone else think it
was awesome, good for them.

Speaker 4 (01:05:37):
So.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
Were able to enjoy to coach it a little bit,
or were you were you doing nine million things?

Speaker 3 (01:05:48):
Oh my gosh, no, I was. I was freaking out.
I was so scared.

Speaker 8 (01:05:52):
Like that first race, I was on my hands and
knees of three other people brushing snow off of the ground,
looking for a white line in the white snow. Like
I pretty much knew where the course was, but there's
one spot where it went either through these two trees
or these two trees like.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
It was.

Speaker 8 (01:06:08):
It was frightening, and we're trying to figure this out
before the lead cart gets there, trying to throw up
some more flags real quick for him. We got orange
spray paint out to spray paint the snow I had.
I had to pass the lead cart and make a
trail for him. Meanwhile, he's in this nice, heated, heated.

Speaker 3 (01:06:29):
Cavoda.

Speaker 8 (01:06:30):
I'm in this nice golf cart. The the snows in
my eyes. We're lucky it got nicer out, nicer out,
because that was rough there.

Speaker 4 (01:06:40):
So Coach, the one question we've been asking, because we've
talked to some coaches from some warmer climates, was how
shocked they were with the weather when they woke up
and they went to the meat. You kind of mentioned
before that it was kind of a nightmare trying to
find the lines for the course. Where you when you

(01:07:00):
woke up you saw the weather. I heard it was
accumulating before the Division III race. Were you having a
panic attack?

Speaker 3 (01:07:08):
Yes.

Speaker 8 (01:07:08):
So I'm driving in. You know it's dark out. I
got there at like six thirty am when it's still dark.
As I'm approaching the golf course, I can hear it
starting to hit the windshield. I'm like, that doesn't sound
like rain. But that's okay. Because I kept thinking myself,
snow is better, snow is better. There's not gonna be
a lot of snow. It won't stick. I'm fine, no
big deal. And then it kept coming and it kept

(01:07:31):
coming and accumulating and sticking, and it was wet, and
it was, like I told the newspaper this, I've never
seen so many snowmen on a golf course in my life.
Like it was ridiculous. Everywhere our course, marshals are making snowmen.
There's people making snow families all over the place. Like
even now, like all the snow's gone, there's still like
remnants of snowballs scattered throughout the golf course.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
It's crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:07:54):
So so we know it was a nightmare for you
with the course, but it seemed like the memo were
ready for it. Seemed like they thrived in that weather.
I told you after that regional meet they were on
a mission. They were very focused.

Speaker 8 (01:08:10):
They knew what they had wanted to do, and they
knew what they needed to do to get it done
on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
So kudos to them.

Speaker 8 (01:08:17):
Like and again that first kilometer, I was like, oh no,
because they were out really hard. I'm like, I know
they're excited, I know they want to get this done,
but we can't win it in the first kilometer. But again,
that might have been the right thing to do to
kind of get out. You know, by the time we ran,
you know, it wasn't so much where there's trails cut

(01:08:38):
in the snow, but definitely by the last two races
it was kind of a path that you almost had
to follow and it was harder to pass people. But
that probably worked to their advantage. But you could see
with the kilometer splits like it was nerve wracking, and
you know, it's usin Hutchinson, back and forth, back and forth,
back and forth. And I thought after that seven k
I mean I just assumed we were second place. I

(01:09:02):
just you know, and again we're on that golf course
where the internet's bad. I just thought, well, once more
of the fifth runners come in, it's going to bounce
us back up to second place. Because my son's like, no, Dad,
look you guys won.

Speaker 7 (01:09:13):
You won.

Speaker 3 (01:09:13):
Look at the phone, like, oh.

Speaker 8 (01:09:14):
Yeah, but it's not updated yet, you know, like it
was that close where don't worry about it. And I'm
driving down to the finish line to see who's down there,
and I saw Jiffette, So I better go congratulate him
because I and again I am thrilled to death to
see Jaffette win, you know, I was central alum, like,
what's a better story than that?

Speaker 3 (01:09:33):
So I'm gonna go congratulate him.

Speaker 8 (01:09:35):
And then all of a sudden, I must have hit
a spot on the course where the internet works again,
and my phone just started blowing up, like and I'm like,
my first thought is, oh, what happened?

Speaker 3 (01:09:45):
Who needs me? Where do I have to go?

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
Now?

Speaker 3 (01:09:46):
What needs to get fixed?

Speaker 8 (01:09:47):
And I see all these messages from people not there
saying congratulations. You know, I'm like, it's still probably not
up to date yet, it's still probably wrong, and you know,
and I'm getting closer to Jefet and I could just
tell me to look on his face that you know,
he knew they were second and we were first. And
it really it still took a long time to sink
in because even now it's like I look back and

(01:10:08):
I know it happened, but it's just like, wow, that
was That was incredible. That was memorable for everybody. I
have a lot a very different set of memories than
anyone else can for that day, just for everything else
that was going on. But god, that was it was fun,
it was crazy, it was bizarre. It was it was

(01:10:28):
once in a lifetime hopefully thing for a lot of us.
You know, it's just wow, that's all I can say.

Speaker 3 (01:10:35):
So it was cool.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
And this was your ninth cross country title.

Speaker 8 (01:10:40):
It was a sixth for the men. Six I don't
keep track. It was six for the men. I think
the women are like, they're like seven, I think.

Speaker 2 (01:10:49):
Okay, So of that, you would say this is the
most unique one.

Speaker 8 (01:10:54):
Oh yeah, you know, the first one was was pretty
incredible to because again that's just like we didn't see
it coming type thing. But yeah, this was very unique,
and it's so it's so much fun to do it
on a home course, you know, because you have all
these people helping, all these other people involved, and most
of them, even though they're helping and they're involved in

(01:11:16):
some way, still have zero clue what's going on.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
Right.

Speaker 8 (01:11:18):
They don't know what we're doing, They don't know what
any any idea what these kids have put in to
get to that point. You know, like it's not a
basketball game. It's not a football game where you know
a majority of the US can follow and understand it. So,
you know, like we had our digital photography department. We
had three or four students out there taking pictures of
everybody and giving them to all the athletes for free,

(01:11:40):
which I thought was just really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
We had one of our intersections was one of our.

Speaker 8 (01:11:46):
Director of financial aid and her daughter were there, like,
you know, I don't expect them to do anyth about
cross country, but it's just cool. And honestly, the whole day,
I am feeling guilty. I'm feeling terrible. I'm like, oh,
I mean I'm frozen, but I signed up for this
right kind of. But all these course martials are out
there like numb thinking man. I hope in between Divisions.

(01:12:07):
They can get into the clubhouse and have a donut
and coffee and not hate me for the rest of
my life. But you know, it's just so so much
to it, so much going on. That's just it's just
it's still like a whirlwind. But and then you got
all of a sudden reset and come back and get
this half marathon off the ground.

Speaker 3 (01:12:21):
It's like, wow.

Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
Yeah, I mean the the weather definitely, I think brought
a lot more attention on social media, you know. I
mean I saw so many, you know, pictures of people
like reacting to it, videos of people reacting to it.
So and I think I think it was the Division
III race that on Sunday it had like they put

(01:12:46):
it up on YouTube and it had like twenty seven
thousand views.

Speaker 4 (01:12:50):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:12:51):
So I mean it was it was so much fun
to watch. And yeah, yeah, it's just unbelievable. Guy said
to Jimmy too there when you when the there's your
one races, when I said, they're flying and I think
they went through the first one k like three h
four or something around there. I was like, they are flying,
so it's not not affecting them in the least.

Speaker 8 (01:13:13):
Hey, And that production by Runner space. I went home
and watched it with my family the next day. Wow that,
like so many things were so awesome about that day,
Like and someone else had said, you know that weather,
you couldn't have bought better publicity for your event. And
they're right, as much as it wasn't fun for me
and my standpoint, but wow, just but the runner space,
like showing the course from Friday to Saturday is just like,

(01:13:36):
no way is that possible? You know, and listening, you know,
those guys, they did their homework. They obviously listened to
your podcast. They had a lot of great and I
wanted to tell you that, like that was awesome. They
obviously listened to the podcast. They had great information, great
things to say and to repeat to share with the
viewers on their live stream.

Speaker 3 (01:13:54):
Came right from you, guys. So congrats and thank.

Speaker 6 (01:13:56):
You for that.

Speaker 4 (01:13:57):
Yeah, thank you, well, thank you for that. And we
were texting each other back and forth. Oh they listened.
They listened.

Speaker 3 (01:14:05):
Yep, for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:14:07):
Coach you said how how how much fun it was
or sorry for using word fun, but yeah, it's okay,
We'll let it go. You got you got to run
the race, and then you got to win a national championship.
Is there any part of you that says, never again?

Speaker 8 (01:14:24):
I just want to coach every time, every single time
we host that, you know, it's like towards the end,
it's like never again. And someone's like someone else that's
just got this little role, like was listome, I can't
wait till next year? Like no, no, no, no, no,
don't even talk about that. Like, first of all, we
already got a host for like the next two years,
so it's not an option. But let's not even think

(01:14:45):
about that. Don't put that into the universe just yet.
But you know, one of our maintenance guys, he's he's
just amazing because I'll email him at like midnight and
I'll text him again at six am, like oh yeah,
and we need this and.

Speaker 3 (01:14:58):
He's just like all about like all right, let's get
it done. Let's do it. Can't wait.

Speaker 8 (01:15:01):
Like man, there's just so many people that I've had
by my side that this would not have happened without them,
and so that's incredible and big thank yous to them.
But yeah, people say that and I'm like, please, don't,
let's not talk about that. Like I enjoy it when
it's over. It's a lot of fun because again I
take it as a personal challenge. I want to make
this the best thing these kids and these coaches can

(01:15:24):
experience together.

Speaker 3 (01:15:26):
And just the memories.

Speaker 8 (01:15:28):
Again, wasn't thinking about the weather memories, but the memories
that they're going to have.

Speaker 3 (01:15:32):
And I think we pulled it off.

Speaker 8 (01:15:35):
You know, I have a whole list of things that
didn't go right or didn't happen, or I didn't get
to do, or I could have done better. But at
the same time, everyone else looking from the outside and
they know probably none of that. And I guess that's
great because they thought it was awesome and that's what
I wanted. Regardless of what I was able to do,
it turned out to be good enough and great enough

(01:15:58):
for them. So but yeah, I did get a lot
of good feedback from coaches. Athletes from other teams thank me,
like that's that's kind of cool, even if their coach
put them up to it. It's had a couple of
guys from Hagerstown as they're getting ready to pull out
of the lot from the half marathon to drive home,
you know, they're like, hey, coach, thank you, this was
this was so cool.

Speaker 3 (01:16:15):
We really appreciate it.

Speaker 6 (01:16:17):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:16:18):
The day before, on Monday of the half marathon, we're
having our coaches meeting and it's kind of on a hill.
So down below the hill is this lake. I think
that's why it's called Lakeside Golf Course. But anyway, there's
guys out shirtless, guys out there. I don't know if
they were jumping in the in the lake or what,
but they're out there sledding in their shorts and it's

(01:16:38):
still cold out mind you. So again just adding to
the memories, adding to the experience. You know, when we
travel places, we try to do special things with our team,
Like when we're in Richmond, we went to DC to
see the monuments, like that's cool things you never forget.
We've gone into caves when we're out in South Carolina.
But these guys can say they, you know, some saw

(01:17:00):
snow for the first time. Some went sledding, They've never
gone sleddy in their lives, like whatever, Like that's what
it's all about.

Speaker 1 (01:17:06):
Yo.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
Yes, we came there to run a race.

Speaker 8 (01:17:08):
We came there to reach this goal, and maybe we
did or we didn't, but twenty years from now they're
still gonna be talking about it.

Speaker 3 (01:17:16):
And it was such a great, great, great thing, great
thing to be a part of.

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
Yeah, Coach Domingas from a college at the page, she said,
everyone that was out there was was in good spirits.
She said, there wasn't like people that were bummed out
about the weather. Everyone was like fired up and just
you know, they went out and got after it and
it was it was awesome to watch. It was really
awesome to watch.

Speaker 8 (01:17:42):
How was I heard the half marathon course was hilly. Yes, yes,
we bring bad weather to the cross country. We bring
hills to the half marathon. But even when we ran
it in twenty twenty, at that point, I think there
was like four or five guys that broke the national record.
So it's hilly, but it's it's a good course. I
don't love it one bit, Like we don't have a

(01:18:04):
lot of options of where to go, but because a
little bit where you got to get on the highway
and we had to have cones on the highway. You know,
it's a low traffic time of day, so that helps.
But yeah, there's some quick times out there. People ran
well a lot. I know our athletes personally, we had
a number of personal bests and things that we really
didn't expect so it was it was awesome. Yeah, and

(01:18:26):
it was nice out it was like forty degrees, so
nobody was complaining. They're all like, you know, who is
hot out here?

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
Tropical?

Speaker 3 (01:18:34):
But yeah, it's so much hotter than Saturday. This is
terrible weather.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
So and with the with all the meat directing and
the half marathon stuff, have you had a moment to
kind of sit back and reflect on what the men
have done?

Speaker 8 (01:18:49):
Not so much really Sunday I tried to h it
was our oldest daughter's birthday, so I try to be
present for that. So while we're driving to Aimes, my
wife's driving, I'm trying to get all these emails sent
out about what we got to get done for the
half marathon, and you know, got the core stuff put away.
I got to sleep until eleven today, so that was
kind of nice. And now I have like four or

(01:19:11):
five rooms spread across campus just full of stuff that
I got to put away, and a trailer full of
tent poles and flags to unload and put away.

Speaker 3 (01:19:21):
But yeah, it's the biggest thing for me.

Speaker 8 (01:19:25):
I guess you know, that group of guys are very reserved,
not that they're emotionless, but They're just reserved. They were
so happy, they were so excited, and I think it
was fun for them because we're on the back deck
of doing awards on this clubhouse. Everyone else is down
below looking up at them, and to have some of

(01:19:48):
their tracking cross country teammates and maybe some of the
student body that they know they're watching them, screaming for them,
cheering form like that was so much fun to see
the joe on their faces of their hard work and
their accomplishments. So that was that was probably the most
impactful moment that I've had at this point so far

(01:20:09):
as just watching that kind of unfold.

Speaker 4 (01:20:12):
So was your track teammates Were they throwing snowballs at
them when they were up there?

Speaker 3 (01:20:19):
You saw that?

Speaker 8 (01:20:20):
Huh, Yeah, that was probably them. So yeah, that was
those guys. First, I like, what is going on? I'm like,
it was just let him have fun till somebody gets hurt.

Speaker 4 (01:20:30):
So, coach, you put on a great event. You brought
home a national title. Does the ad give you a
double pat on the back?

Speaker 3 (01:20:40):
I'm going to show them this video. That is a
great question.

Speaker 8 (01:20:43):
He's he's awesome. He was a lot of help. He's
basically like, just tell me what to do, Tell me
what to do, and I'll do it. And he was
out there all day for it. He was actually one
of the guys that could have stayed warm in the clubhouse,
you know, those guys that get paid a lot lot
more than me. He could have stayed in the clubhouse
all day, but he was like the one with our
head track coach and Cleary. They were the ones out

(01:21:04):
there with the spray paint, putting the orange lines down
in between all the races, making sure that things were
going all right. So, you know, like the Super Gophers,
it's like, whatever you need, I'm going to get it.
So that was fun to have people that aren't afraid
to get their hands dirty and do some hard work.
So very appreciative of that. Now, double pat on the back.

(01:21:25):
I don't know, he's probably Hankey's and Cedar Rapids now
his wife's are volleyball coach and we've got national volleyball
championships here coming up real quick. So busy times, busy times, yep.
Speaking of busy times, have you made any recruiting calls
in the last forty eight hours?

Speaker 3 (01:21:42):
You know, I texted one girl because we have a
visit coming up.

Speaker 8 (01:21:45):
On Friday, I had another athlete text me from Tuesday
or from Saturday, and I felt bad, like I had
I just started replying to messages from this weekend just today,
because like I knew, I couldn't jump into.

Speaker 3 (01:21:59):
Media or I just swallowed up.

Speaker 8 (01:22:00):
I had to be careful on texting too many people
to get too much back and forth now that I
don't like them, It's just that I had too much
other things I had to get done, like it has
to happen first, So just started replying, hoping I did
miss a any messages that were timely and super important,
but yeah, so hopefully we can get into that next
week after I get cleaned up and rested.

Speaker 6 (01:22:21):
Up so.

Speaker 1 (01:22:23):
Well.

Speaker 4 (01:22:23):
Coach again, gradulations on the national title and gradulations. I'm
putting on a great event. I'm not gonna lie. The
Airbros had a little bit of fomo that we were
not there, but thank you for including us, and it
was a great event to watch, so thank you so much, sir.

Speaker 3 (01:22:41):
Very welcome.

Speaker 8 (01:22:42):
And if if there is a next time, let's let's
get on it sooner, all right, and see if we
make that happen.

Speaker 2 (01:22:48):
If it will be a next time, say two years
in sorry books, so twenty twenty eight we should be
we'll block that weekend off and eight coach. Always great
to chat with you, always great to catch up. Congratulations.

(01:23:11):
Thank you for putting on an epic show on Saturday,
and it was great to follow along online yesterday and
get some rest. Enjoy your Thanksgiving and I'm sure we'll
see you sometime during indoor.

Speaker 3 (01:23:23):
Awesome. Thanks guys, enjoying the rest of your year. Best
of luck.

Speaker 2 (01:23:26):
Thank you have a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:23:27):
Coach yeah, Bode bye.

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):
All right, ladies and gentlemen. That's coach d Brown from
Iowa Central Community College. Make sure you go check out
all their socials. They were the national champions this year
on the men's side. And last, but certainly not least,
coach Mark Barebaum is joining us from Iowa Western Community College.
The women were second in the women's cross country race
and they were champs in the half marathon, and the

(01:23:52):
men were back to back national champions in the half marathon. Coach,
thank you for joining us this evening. We do appreciate you.
It's great to see you. How's it going.

Speaker 4 (01:24:04):
Good?

Speaker 1 (01:24:05):
It was lazy today, I you know, with everything from that,
you know, cross and half and everything. I kind of
took a day to myself and just sat at home
most of the day and didn't do a lot. Watched
a couple of movies and yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:24:23):
New movies, old movies.

Speaker 1 (01:24:25):
It was like a random B movie about motorcycle racing.
I couldn't even tell you what the name of it was.
I like a lot of random B movies. It's usually
some quality there.

Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
Jimmy's your guy for that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:40):
Yeah, I love a lot like Over the Tops on
there on Netflix.

Speaker 4 (01:24:45):
Now do you remember that one O the Hat on Backwards?

Speaker 1 (01:24:49):
Man, I've been super tempted to watch it. I've probably
watched it fifteen times when I was younger. I really
wanted to. I almost watched that one a day. But yeah,
I got one for you, Red Rocket. I have not
seen that one off to look that one up.

Speaker 4 (01:25:07):
Yeah, it's it's Simon rex Is in it. It's definitely
an indie movie. The subject might be a little weird
for you, but that that director, his name's loud to
me right now, is a really good like indie film producer.
He's like made films on phones, phones and stuff. But yeah,

(01:25:27):
I'm gonna geek out. Let's let's get back to the
cross country. Sorry, So coach, wake up on Saturday morning
and you're in a blizzard. What are the first thoughts
that go through your mind and the team's mind.

Speaker 1 (01:25:43):
Well, so we went ounced the course at seven seven
am and set up the tent with sidewalls and with
a heater and all the different stuff so we didn't
have to worry about the cold and whatnot. Nothing on
the ground, nothing, what he was known yet, you know,
we started hitting back to the hotel and it starts

(01:26:03):
to know a little and my wife and kids are
there and she's like, I'm cleaning a car off. I
was like, it's not gonna stick. It's too warm, and
we head out to the course. I'm like, what in
the world. Yeah, I watched the D three race on
the drive out and then I walked the start line

(01:26:24):
a little bit when I got out there, and it's
just crazy. It's just crazy. Like everybody, everybody indeed did
an amazing job putting it together. Need to say that
up front, amazing host. Everybody had to deal with the
same thing. But my one of my thoughts to myself,
not to the team, but to myself was like, man,

(01:26:45):
everything we did all year, all these teams and this
is the main factor, like couhop prepare for that. No
one prepared for that, like not not for the year,
not training wise, practice wise, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:26:59):
So yeah, it's kind of hard to prepare for it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And and and I'll and I'll let
you guys ask your questions. I'll answer as we go.

Speaker 4 (01:27:11):
So we're watching obviously, we got our Iowa Western banner
on the wall. We're rooting for you guys, and we
see the guys from Hotch go out and they just
go out. It was like there was two guns going off.
What's going through your mind during the race, and at
what point do you realize it's going the way?

Speaker 3 (01:27:31):
It's going.

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
Right past k I knew we were in trouble. We
got out too slow and like way too slow. We
had talked about it after Regions for two weeks that
we did want to get out a little conservatively. We
thought after the Region race that the course was a
little challenging in the back half. Secondly second especially that

(01:27:57):
second loop. Geo went out hard during Regions. Barnabas went
out even kind of on purpose, just to kind of
feel it out. And that's what we thought, and we
talked about a lot, and looking back at it, I
failed in two areas one hundred percent uh. One of
them being I should have really called a last second

(01:28:18):
audible on the start line, and we should have went
out a little bit harder. We talked about getting out
a little bit harder because it wasn't gonna move much
because of the weather, but not we didn't get out
hard enough. You know, some of the teams, like I
was Central, got out so hard and put themselves up
there so so well and it didn't move and they win.

(01:28:38):
Like if you know, I was CenTra ran well, don't
get me wrong, but like seeing Hutches three guys in
the tough fifteen and them not winning, it surprises me.
I just you know, they they looked great. Everybody ran
so well. Jeffette obviously prepared them so well. Barnabas was
like thirtieth of a k and he just couldn't move.

(01:28:58):
He fell twice, could move. I beat myself up the
whole second half of the race, and after the race,
thinking hey, we just didn't peak right, like just we
should have tapered, like I'm never tapering again type stuff.
And and I talked to the guys a lot after.
Like it took me a while because I had a

(01:29:20):
transition to the girls race, hardest transition I probably ever
had as a coach. I was crying, and my youngest
was My youngest daughter was really upset because she loves
those guys, and uh it was. It was a rough transition.
But anyway, like I got a chance to talk to
the guys eventually throughout the day, and like coach, we
had no footing, no footing, we could not move. I

(01:29:43):
didn't get I I didn't even didn't even cross my
mind to get longer. Spikes didn't even cross my mind.
I didn't think it was gonna snow like that, Like
the grass is pretty solidified there. Even if it rained
a little, it wasn't gonna be that big of a deal.
I heard stories at the half marathon some coaches went
to aim some of Des Moines, four or five different
shoe stores and found some different spikes. I saw a

(01:30:05):
picture of Mildred who ran amazing. She had spikes probably
like inchers, And here we are, we're ice skating a
couple of them. It would have mattered even if I
found them last minute, because they have spikes. Those new
Nike spikes that you can't replace, like they're the permanent ones.
But we between the guys and girls, we had eight falls, and.

Speaker 5 (01:30:29):
It is what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:30:31):
Guys are sucked. That's not what we wanted.

Speaker 2 (01:30:33):
It's not what we wanted it all.

Speaker 1 (01:30:35):
And they didn't train like they trained all year to
get that. They deserve so much more from me as
their coach, to prepare them better. We prepared so much
for the cold. We had a propane heater in our tent.
We had everything. I ordered all this black stuff, sleeves, gloves, hats, long, everything,
and didn't once c I won't make the mistake again.

(01:30:57):
Gary Wilson, a coach, old grew tired Hall of fame
guy in Minnesota. He's like, you'll never do that again.
I was like, you're right. And he told me a
story about how he had done something similar, and Uh,
it's me. I bad coaching. I didn't. I didn't do
a good enough job for them. I didn't do good
by them. They deserve much more. They were way too

(01:31:19):
fit for that to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:31:21):
Well, they weren't fit. And they came back on Tuesday,
and they showed that they did.

Speaker 1 (01:31:26):
They did, and and and I don't want to just
talk about the guys. After the guys, the girls came
back and ran really, really well. And we had went
out hard almost every race of the year, and I've
been trying to get them to slow down in workouts,
in and races, and in this particular case, I was
just like, hey, it's okay if you get out a

(01:31:47):
little hard today, no worries. Today's the day to do it.

Speaker 6 (01:31:50):
And and it went well.

Speaker 1 (01:31:51):
And I I knew getting catching Odessa was going to
take a lot. They're really good and coach down there,
he did a really good job of getting them ready
and they're talented. But we our depth showed through. We
had we had really good depth and it hung it
and won't be noticed even but our sixth and seventh

(01:32:13):
were our best were the best sixth and seventh runners
in the in the race as well, our depth was
great and we ran well. We had a couple of falls,
but ran well. Juliana, you know, they Mildred ran an
amazing race and that'll be a fun little battle to
watch during track and and see them go and so yeah,

(01:32:34):
and then you brought it up Tuesday. We took out
some stress on Tuesday and on the guys side, we
weren't looking to try to run fast. We we just
wanted to get the job done. That was the goal,
and Gioe and Barney did a great job of holding
true to that and not going crazy and waiting. Even
though they wanted to run faster, they waited and waited.

(01:32:56):
You could see it when they came through five at
the water step. I was at the guys they were
running with. They were racing, and gi and Barney were
just running and you could see it in the faces.
And they took control of it at the end, and
that was great. And Barney's won two half marathons a
total of like point zero three between the two now.

(01:33:18):
But and then the girls, I thought we did a
really good job of trying to get closer to Odessa
and whatnot. Millicent and you know, Juliana raced together. I
think I heard till about eight, and then Juliana took
off little and one fifteen forty seven guys. That's crazy,

(01:33:40):
that's fast. Yeah, national record. But the top ten people,
the top ten girls broke on twenty. I think if
you go through all of our past results, there's a
handful of girls that have broken twenty the top ten
did insane and then our number two and three one
one were two minutes under our school as well, so

(01:34:02):
it was what we ran. Well, it was great, It
was wonderful, and five in the top ten. On the
guy side, we could have won with our three four five, but.

Speaker 2 (01:34:11):
You guys were one two three in the team scoring.
Uh are you six points?

Speaker 1 (01:34:15):
Oh yeah, because South Plains Oh yeah, yeah, yeah didn't
he Well, no, we ended up with nine nine. So
someone else was there, well, yeah, because we were seventh
or uh, Miguel was seventh, so we were one two seven,
I know, but I think it was there was an
I was central kid there. That was probably what you're thinking. Okay, yeah,
because there's South South Plains had guy up there, ranger

(01:34:37):
at a guy up the ranger at a team. South
Plains did not. Then I was central was there? I
think ranger at a team. But yeah, we were one
two seven eight ten. There's twenty like a twenty three
second split between our seven, seven, eight and ten. They
were right next to each other. Flynn kind of played
a safety net in the back and Victor and mcg

(01:35:00):
l went after it, and Flynn just kind of hung
out and waited and at the ten miles spot, he's like,
are we good? And I was like yeah, and he's like,
I'm gonna take off a little, and he did. He
dropped like a three flat k. He was ready.

Speaker 2 (01:35:11):
So half marathon you, I guess it's funny you get
those shirts made up.

Speaker 3 (01:35:17):
You said that.

Speaker 1 (01:35:19):
So I went to Dana College, which you wouldn't know
the school. You'd have to look it up, but Dana's
a little NAI school. Blair, Nebraska, Birmingham was our coach.
Marathon was his thing, Iron Spark Concordia. Every year we'd
have like five guys and two or three girls qualify
for nationals in the marathon in the Ani and einspar
called US Marathon. Yeah, uh you know Dana Dana Marathon,

(01:35:42):
Dana Thoners is what he'd say. So I I guess, yeah,
I love it. I loved the event when I was recruiting.
I loved it before, you know, before as the duke.
All that just the the idea of it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:35:55):
Yeah, it's fun. And I mean from what everyone was
saying that we've had on it wasn't necessarily really an
easy course either.

Speaker 1 (01:36:01):
It was no yeah, it it raised from eight to
eight to about ten eleven. Somewhere in eight to ten
or seven to ten somewhere in there's a pretty good rise.
I think one of my guys said maybe four and
her feet or something, which kind of played our strengths.
We temple on this Wabash trail. First two miles are

(01:36:24):
flat and then the next three go uphill. In the
next four but we don't go up to six to five.
Gio and Barney tempo five plus five, so they'll do
that five mile raise. Victor has two flynn as to Miguel,
I think only went to four. But so it's it
was I thought kind of similar. A couple of my
guys thought this was harder than Wabash. But and the

(01:36:45):
wind kind of swirled. There was one point where I thought, oh,
and Win's gonna be behind us the whole way kind
of and then I can't remember where we were, and
I was like, shoot, the wind's in our face right now,
and I was saying, this is gonna be a little
bit rough. But then you got to ten, it was
at your back again, and so it was challenging. Last
year's I thought was challenging too. Next year's will be flat.

(01:37:07):
The Huntsville course is a flat loop where you can
see quite a bit. There was hard. It was a
hard time kind of getting around, and D and I
talked about a little bit, water tables and different things
that were a little challenging. But you know, when hosts
pick up this event with crossing the half marathon, it's
hard to take on that half marathon sometimes in some
of these cities and towns, and D did. D and

(01:37:30):
his staff and the ad and everyone just did a
phenomenal job of putting it together. And the gifts, the
swag and all that was was top notch. It made
these kids feel special.

Speaker 4 (01:37:47):
How are the guys after they were? They stoked?

Speaker 1 (01:37:52):
Flynn's still struggling to wrap his head around it. He
doesn't want to talk to me about it yet because
he's worried about crying. The half marathon was great, and
it was a it was a bonus and a and
a helpful thing to take the edge off of Saturday.
But we wanted Saturday, you know, the guys wanted Saturday.

(01:38:13):
And Geo, Barney, Flynn, Victor and Mangnus all graduate in December.
But you know, so obviously the half was great to
go out on a high note and show and I
know every team ran amazing. I'm the coach. I'm bias. Right,
it showed I think that we're the fittest team in

(01:38:35):
the country, and we didn't win a cross and that's that.
And people couldn't say whatever they want to say about
me saying that statement. But I think we're the fittest
team in the country and they went out and showed
that in the half marathon at least, and we just, yeah,
cut it all.

Speaker 4 (01:38:52):
I don't want to harp on this, but I want
to ask you this question. As a coach, we all
know we have to have experience to be able to
make sure the next team doesn't have that experience. Do
you feel stuff like that. Obviously you don't wish for
that or you don't want it to happen, but do
you feel things like that make you a better coach?

Speaker 1 (01:39:14):
You're the seventh or eight person to bring that up
to me.

Speaker 4 (01:39:18):
Sorry to be that person.

Speaker 1 (01:39:20):
You're fine. I mean it's true. Palmer at Florida Will
said that. And yes, I mean I'll sometime next week
probably order longer spikes and for sixteen different kids, and
I'll put it in a bag and I'll take it
everywhere we go from here on out most likely, And yeah,

(01:39:41):
it'll drive me. I'm super freaking competitive, and there have
been things over my time here that have driven me
to figure out how to fix it. Like last year,
our women didn't have a team score in cross country.
We didn't have a team score and that was ridiculous
and made me mad. And I went out and I
got Havza and Wedge and Juliana and Elizabeth and fixed

(01:40:05):
it because I freaking needed to.

Speaker 4 (01:40:08):
Sorry, no, I was, I was putting that up for
rich but I want to I want to touch on that.
You just said your women didn't have a team score.
They got second. Yep, that's gotta that's got to be
pretty pretty epic for you.

Speaker 1 (01:40:22):
And for the ladies, yes, one hundred percent, they wanted
to win. We won indoor an outdoor, so they've only won.
They hadn't lost anything, so they they wanted to figure
figure that out too. But no, huge, huge, huge too,
you know, figure that out. And you know it was

(01:40:44):
a huge, a big thing for me when I left
Virginia last year's like I've got this cannot happen again.
And we had a lot of just random unfortunate things
that happened that caused that, but huge, and the ladies
were excited, they were pumped and.

Speaker 4 (01:41:02):
Yes, yes, and coach, I want to I want to
say to you because I know it's kind of like
people will get the half marathon as oh, not everyone
competes in it, or it's it's on Tuesday for the
airy bros, for the distance freaks. We think it's amazing
and we think it's amazing that you guys brought home

(01:41:23):
to in a row. That's why we wanted to chat
with you because we think it should be in every division.
We think we think it should be a big thing.
So it means a lot to the area bros that
you guys are just time champs.

Speaker 1 (01:41:34):
I'll touch on what you said a little. You know it.
You're right like everybody's focused on cross, no one's coming
in there focused on the half, and you're right, not
everybody stays and people are going to look at it
as oh, it's not that it's an insignificant national title.

(01:41:55):
We ran fast and it's all I yeah, we ran
asked and we put five up there and people can
say whatever they want to say about it. I we
put it together and we stayed and we did it
and it was a national competition and we didn't just

(01:42:16):
run something slow. We we averaged like one oh five.
That's for a half marathon. So and last year Barney
ran one O three And if Geo and Barney would
have been you know, if they would push to a
line to have to I think they run one oh
two and people can say I'm crazy or whatever they

(01:42:37):
want to say, but they they shut it down three
miles left.

Speaker 2 (01:42:41):
So it is what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:42:44):
And you know, cross is the main is, the is
the main thing. But the half marathon is a pretty
darn good event and a pretty awesome event. There's three
hundred and some finishers, like one hundred and ninety six guys,
one hundred and thirty some girls are women across the division,
so I don't care who didn't show up. National championship,

(01:43:07):
national championship, and those men and those women one f seven.
It's the national record, Diana and Kuz national record. And
that I'm ninety five positive shoes, a two time Olympian,
So I yeah, and that event's sweet, love it, love

(01:43:27):
it so cool.

Speaker 2 (01:43:28):
Coach, you mentioned you got some folks that are moving
on in December, have they committed to for your schools.

Speaker 1 (01:43:36):
I thank you for bringing it up. I I was
going to text you and hopefully get a chance to
talk about it. Flynn's going to Grand Valley State. We
have John Johnny's there now, John maybar is there now,
he went in. He just ran an eight fifty five
to two mile on the track time trial. They're red
shirting him. They're so deep out there. Flynn's going to
be great there with them. The rest haven't committed yet.

(01:43:58):
Barney has got a couple of visits set up Victor.
We're still trying to find a school that has, you know,
the major he wants to do radiology and that fits him.
Magnus is Magnets just needs to figure out what he wants.
Geo is the one. I'm gonna say it out loud
because I know this is gonna go national right people

(01:44:21):
that people aren't looking at him, they're not looking at him,
and they're not looking at him hard enough. In my opinion. Uh,
Geo had a rough track season last year. We didn't
run it off. We had a couple of things back wise,
it bugged him and stuff like that. Towards the end,
we focused on California a little too hard and and
uh he ended his outdoor season pretty rough. And uh,

(01:44:45):
I think there are people are missing out.

Speaker 6 (01:44:47):
He is.

Speaker 1 (01:44:50):
You know, I gotta say Barney there because we've got
to say it together, because they're they're they're they're like this,
but they're the two best distance one, two of the
best distance guys in the country, no matter what division.
If Missouri lets them in, lets us into that other race,
there's no way more than fifteen fifteen guys in that
race beat them. There's no way. I can't do it.

(01:45:10):
I can't say it, won't say it. Geo's amazing. He's
fit right now. It's around eighty miles on six days
there for in the middle of the season. He has
grown so much mentally and physically in his transition into America,
which is very hard for some. And he had a
hard time transitioning. This transfer portal I think is messing

(01:45:33):
with it. Too many people are waiting to see proven
D one guys coming out of the transfer portal. But
us Juco kids, you know those two guys at Hutch,
the girl at Hutch, some of these other kids, we
can't even get into some of these races. Some of
the like Missouri, you let us run in some of
those races. There's too many of these all D one races,

(01:45:55):
which is crazy. But Geo it was a factor. Next
year someone picks him up, he's a factor next year.
That's that's my two cents on it. But no, I
got to do a lot of work on that over
these next couple of weeks and get that done. They
get them homes.

Speaker 2 (01:46:14):
Well, we know some coaches if we can help with
the rollodex. Just's our that's our goal here is we
can get the kids to colleges, and kids from New
Jersey to colleges. That's that's why we do this. So yeah,
it's it's unfortunate that people aren't paying attention or get.

Speaker 1 (01:46:31):
Well and it sucks like one little sorry I cut
you off. The one one of those fact in there.
They can't go to the SEC. The SEC has a
small like old school rule. I don't know why it's
a rule, especially with the transfer portal these days, but
you have to take your core classes from the school
you graduate from. And they're going to have math from

(01:46:55):
another school, not from here, not by choice, it just
it's just the way it happened. And so they can't
go to the SEC because of that. And that's a
long story, but it's just the way it happened. So
it takes out a couple of schools that would be
kind of kenyan Fa. You know that that recruit Kenyans

(01:47:15):
and I a couple of friends in that conference and
stuff like that. But in Colorado, Oregon, Arizona, e KU,
Washington State, a couple of those have reached out and
a couple others have reached out Toledo, and we just
got to find the right spot.

Speaker 4 (01:47:35):
Well, coach, I appreciate you. We appreciate you coming on tonight,
being so transparent, always always a great conversation. And I
hope you and the team can enjoy what you did yesterday.
The women enjoy what they did on Saturday. And we
know Iowa Western it's always a team to keep an

(01:47:55):
eye out on.

Speaker 5 (01:47:57):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:47:57):
Can I say one more thing, yeah, sure, no matter
what I said, if anybody takes offense to anything, I say,
Jaffett and hutch and and Odessa and I was essential
in d and and all the all those guys, Butler
and Emerson, they they did an amazing job. Their teams
were prepared and ran well and inspired and uh excited

(01:48:22):
for what where Juco is and and how well we
were in Central Arizona to snow ran. Well, you know,
did an amazing job. And and I I don't take
any anything I said if it's taken in away, if
that says anything different, that I don't mean that. I
just we're started glory. We're just upset with ourselves. And

(01:48:46):
I'm upset with myself and and I that's that's that.

Speaker 2 (01:48:51):
So well, we appreciate you, We appreciate you coming on.
It's always a pleasure chatting with you. We are excited
for indoor and I'm sure if you, like the other
coaches that we've talked to this evening, are already got
their wheels spinning and getting ready for indoor. But you know,
we do hope you take a moment to enjoy everything
and enjoy your holiday season. And I'm sure we'll be

(01:49:13):
connecting over indoor, if not, definitely for outdoor. And yeah,
is there anything we could do any coaches? We do
know some people, so we want to see the junior
college guys go on, gals go on and have success
at the next level.

Speaker 1 (01:49:28):
Happy holidays, Yeah, Happy holidays to you. Guys too, and
thank you, thank you for just the platform that you've
given JUCO, especially this event awesome. Appreciate it, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:49:43):
We appreciate the opportunity. Take care, guys, take care of coach,
have a great evening, good.

Speaker 1 (01:49:48):
Time with you, you too, goodbye.

Speaker 2 (01:49:50):
All right, all right, ladies and gentlemen. That is coach
Mark Beerbaum from Iowa Western Community College. As we said,
the men had their back to back record performance the
half marathon championships and the ladies were runner up in
the Division one cross country race. That is it for
us this evening. That is it for us tonight. We

(01:50:11):
will be back tomorrow. We have a sorry an n
JCAA Wrestling Coaches roundtable. We will be chatting with some
of our old friends and we'll be chatting with some
new friends. So stay tuned. We'll see you tomorrow night.

All Episodes

Episode 410 — 2025 NJCAA XC & Half Marathon National Championship Post Show | Blizzard Chaos, Grit & National Titles

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Crime Junkie

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 410 — 2025 NJCAA XC & Half Marathon National Championship Post Show | Blizzard Chaos, Grit & National Titles