Blog Archives

Captains Blog Week 7

9/28/2019

The week started a little different than most. While we all expected to be heading to Milaca at 4:30am Saturday morning, instead we were told to stay at home because driving conditions were unsafe due to flooding roads. We all waited to hear back from Coach and we ended up not going to Milaca due to the flooded roads in Grand Forks. Everyone ran on their own on Saturday, many running through the flooded streets and sidewalks which makes for a fun run!

We started off the week with a speed workout at Riverside. We did 3 x 1000’s and 6 x 400’s. This was a really good workout for many people, and we saw lots of smiles! On Tuesday, we had a normal run. On Wednesday, we had team pictures, which is Coach Allan’s favorite day of the year (there was a bit of sarcasm in there). On Thursday it was meet day! The first race was at 4pm and we were all extremely excited to have another chance to race at our home course. Middle school boys and girls started us off with extremely fast times and lots of happy faces after their race. Mikayla Weiss got her first varsity win (so excited for Mikayla, who always works so hard!!), as well as Alexis Kuglin winning her first middle school race! The varsity boys were led by Quinn Roehl, coming in 5th place, and Curtis Sande taking 3rd in the middle school race. With all the PR’s that many runners earned, our Monday meeting is going to be a long one! On Friday, we had long run; we had the perfect temperature for the run, with nice cool air to help our bodies after our race the day before. With the Cushman Classic being that same day, we had some runners that ran at 3, so they could go to pregame activities, and other runners starting at 4. After practice, we had team bonding at Now Or Never starting at 5, perfect for after our run!

Thank you Now Or Never for having us for the second time, very much appreciated! We all love your shakes! Our next meet is the Minot Invite on October 5th, with EDC and State getting closer and closer! This will be a good chance for us all to run the Minot course in preparation for State! Let’s have another great week of practice.

Lauren Harrison
Junior Captain

September 27th, 2019

9/27/2019

Hello all!
I’m equally as honored as I am excited to start my professional journey here with GFCXC. I have a heart and soul for coaching which I’ve discovered the past two years that I’ve been a coach for the Grand Forks Public Schools and surrounding areas. I currently am an assistant coach for the KnightRider gymnastics team in Grand Forks which is where I developed my love for coaching. I love knowing I can impact your kid’s life in multiple ways as they start or continue their running career.

When I am not coaching cross country or gymnastics, I am spending time with my little family which entails of my loving boyfriend Thomas and our adorable dog Layla. I am also a senior psychology student at the University of North Dakota (go hawks)! When I am finished with my undergraduate degree, my goal is to coach college sports eventually, then potentially go get my masters degree in psychology and law. This is all dependent on how long I stick with coaching however, as I can see myself doing this for a LONG time.

You may be thinking, why cross country?

To answer that question honestly, I would have to say I genuinely miss being in the sport myself. Cross country had such an impact on me while I was in high school. I ran four years for Roosevelt High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Soon I found myself addicted to the sport and when I started college I felt as if something were missing. One day during the summer I literally found Sean Allan’s contact information and reached out asking if I could help out this year. Currently I assist Coach Rosseau with middle school girls and boys. I genuinely enjoy the dynamics of this cross country team and the way that Coach Allan invests himself into every athlete he comes into contact with.

That being said, I want to thank him and the other coaching staff as well as the athletes for welcoming me to the team. I am so excited to see where coaching cross country takes me. My goal is to embody a coach your kids can look up to and turn to when they need it. Your kids are the future of this program, which I intend to help build up as much as I can.

Let's go Knights!
Coach Alix

Central's Weiss captures first career title - GF Herald

9/27/2019

Link to Grand Forks Herald Story

Captains Crunch Week 6

9/21/2019

After coming off a great meet at West Fargo. We started the week with varsity doing mile repeats with surges built-in. While Jv and Middle School did 3,2,1’s. The weather on Monday was raining and cold, but that didn’t stop our training. Tuesday was long run with better weather that day. Following was a normal run on Wednesday then we got back to work with some more speed on Thursday, we ran some 800’s, 400’s, and 300’s. Once again we had some chilly weather with rain. But that didn’t stop everyone from getting after it in the workout. Then Friday we had a normal run and got ready for our meet. Following our run coach Tack took us through visualization for our big meet on Saturday. The bus left bright and early at 6:45 am. Once we got to Bismarck we got off to about 70 degree weather which was very different than the chilly rain. Everyone went out and worked hard and ran their race the best they could. The results were not as good as people were hoping because most of the team was struggling from a cold that was going around the school. That didn’t stop some of the team and going out and getting those PR’s. The races were only part of the good things that happened. There were many Central athletes that finished their races and stood at the finish line and gave everyone that finished behind them a high five. Not only congratulating Central athletes, but the competition too. It’s things like that, which show the sportsmanship and respect we have on this great team.
Adam Arnold, Jr Captain

Bismarck

9/17/2019

Captains Crunch Week 5

9/9/2019

This past week has been a very busy week! Our initial plans to have a speed workout on Monday had to be rearranged, due to rain storms that hit over the Labor Day weekend. To make up for our lost day, Coach Allan created a fun, competitive 1,000’s workout for the team. Our boys and girls teams competed against each other to see who could run the closest to their given time. The team with the most wins after 5 rounds won. It was a close competition, but in the end, the Girls Varsity team took the prize (bragging rights ) in a 3-2 win over the boys!
The rest of the week carried on as planned, and all of our athletes put in a lot of hard work, which paid off at our meet on Saturday in West Fargo. The Girls Varsity started out the day, and we came ready to race! Four of our top five runners made it into the top 20! Leading the Knights was Senior, Mikayla Weiss (3rd) and 8th grader, Claire Hynek (5th). Rounding out our top 5 was 8th grader, Aria Kindseth (17th), Freshman, Sierra Heyd (19th), and Freshman, Annika Presteng (26th). At the end, our girls team took 4th place, with there only being a 3 point difference between 2nd and 4th place. This really resonated with our girls that every runner counts!!
On the boys side; Freshman Quinn Roehl lead the crew placing 4th! Following him was Sophomore, Zach Martin (15th), Sophomore, Cade Halverson (19th), Junior, Adam Arnold (20th) and Sophomore, Carter Elde (21st) in his first race this season. The boys took 3rd as a team!
The rest of our teams also had outstanding days! Cayden Reed lead the JV boys who took 4th as a team, while Nora Berry lead the JV girls to a 3rd place team finish. Both Middle School teams took 4th overall, and all eight of our MS girls ran PR’s!
While the beginning of our week did not go as planned, we ended strong at the West Fargo meet, with lots of season PR’s, career PR’s and outstanding teamwork among all our athletes! Good work, Knights!

Sophia Roehl
Junior Captain

Captains Crunch Week 4

9/8/2019

It certainly has been a busy few weeks for the cross country team! Since the beginning of our season we’ve welcomed many new faces as well as caught up with returning ones. At our first meet in August at Hillsboro and second in Grand Forks, not only did several newcomers finish their very first race (which is very exciting!!), but we also had returning athletes set new personal records after getting stronger during our summer practices and XC camp. A handful of runners have even PRed by over a minute!
This year, we’ve also welcomed a new coach, Dr. Tack. He’s specifically the head of the varsity boys, but I’m sure many athletes can testify as to the enthusiastic encouragement and energy he has brought to our team. Also, Coach Brumitt has joined the team to coach our middle school girls and has been a great addition as well. Along with coaching changes, we’ve also introduced some new things to our schedule such as visualization for race preparation and yoga for flexibility, and I’m excited to see how they will help us improve throughout the season.
One other new tradition we’ve started has to do with water bottles. Each athlete who has been on the team before received a water bottle with a sticker saying their name and the year they joined on it. New athletes receive their water bottle after completing their first race. Then, as the season progresses, athletes can earn stickers to add to their bottles such as ones denoting “athlete of the meet”, core values, and PR’s. This has been very fun so far and it will even help us stay hydrated!
Our next meet is in West Fargo on September 7th, which will allow us to get acquainted with the course where we’ll have our conference meet. In the mean time, Go Knights!!!

Mikayla Weiss
Senior Captain

Introducing Coach Tack

9/8/2019

Greetings!
I am very excited to have been asked after 15 years to "come out of retirement" and be a part of the GFCXC family as the boys varsity head coach. Since my years coaching at Fargo South, I had nothing but the utmost respect for Coach Allan and the nature of of his program, one I strived to emulate. It truly is an honor to wear maroon and work with these exceptional young men and women.

I have 7 years of coaching experience with Fargo South and Discovery Middle School: JH boys cross country, JH distance for track, JV distance for boys track, assistant boys cross country, head girls cross country coach, and head girls distance coach for track. I have had the honor of coaching alongside those who have multiple regional, state, and even national coaching recognitions, as well as multiple state cross country and distance champions in my short tenure. I was honored to receive the EDC and State Class A Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2004 during my final year coaching.

This year marks my 23rd year as a teacher, my 14th as a high-school English teacher. My first 13 years found me in the Fargo Public Schools, teaching 8 years at Fargo South and 5 years at Fargo North. I went to MSU Moorhead (my alma mater) and became an associate professor of secondary education and research methods for 7 years. I had the opportunity to move "back home" when a position at UND opened up, and I took a similar teaching position for the past 3 years. This also allowed me to be closer to my family, as my father was diagnosed with cancer. I missed the opportunity to spend the majority of my time teaching, and am honored to have been considered and hired to come back to the high-school classroom to teach Junior and Senior English. My professional career has had me work with many school districts across the nation, and GF Central definitely is one of the best!

I have a wonderfully supportive wife, Stacey, who is a nurse at Altru. Gabby, my daughter, just started 5th grade, while my son, Brooks, just started kindergarten.

Thank you for sending us such dedicated, kind, supportive, and selfless young men and women. I take great pride and responsibility in not only helping develop them into the best runners they can be, but also continue to help develop them into exceptional men and women.

Go Knights!
Coach Tack
#GFCXC #OnwardCentral

My wife Stacey and I at the U2 concert (my favorite band!).

Gabby, Brooks, and Cooper the Wondermutt!

A very proud coach with one of my former athletes, Laura Roesler, at her induction ceremony into the North Dakota Sports Hall of Fame.

West Fargo Invitational @ Johnson Park

9/8/2019

Yesterday found the Knights XC teams facing strong EDC competition in cool, rainy conditions at Johnson Park in Moorhead. We thank all of our GFCXC family who made the trip and helped cheer on our teams. Despite the steady rain and temperatures in the upper 50s all meet, all the teams put forth great performances, and many PRs were achieved. The entire Girls JH team set a new PR in this race!! NOTE: The JH runners are 3K times, while every other race was a 5K. The official times were also adjusted in the 5K to reflect a course that was a little long.
Boys' PRs Girls' PRs
Quinn Roehl - 17:06 Claire Hynek - 19:56
Zach Martin - 18:01 Sierra Heyd - 21:14
Lane Stevens - 18:36 Alexis Kuglin - 13:04
Tucker Vasichek - 18:43 Taylor Gowan - 13:06
Josh DeFoe - 19:00 Katelyn Stern - 13:43
Cayden Reed - 20:01 Faith Tuinder - 14:03
Torrey Westereng - 21:54 Emily Arnold - 14:41
Curtis Sande - 11:15 Katie Uhlir - 15:53
Cooper Bakke - 11:23 Tennasyn Henry - 15:54
Layton Boaz - 12:36 Kendra Haag - 16:56
Aidan Fiala - 12:37

Here is a link to the complete results via Pickle Events: https://www.mtecresults.com/event/show/3175

Again, many thanks for your support. Our next race will be Saturday, September 14, at the Anderson/Stavn Invite at McDowell Dam in Bismarck.

Go Knights!....Coach Tack
#GFCXC #OnwardCentral