De La Salle boasts more than speed
De La Salle runners focus mind and body to put up impressive academic repertoire
Want to improve your quality of life?
Run cross country.
Want to get better grades, attain laser-like focus and heck, probably even have teeth as white as the freshly fallen snow?
Yep, stretch out that personal odometer a bit.
That is the observation of a lot of folks involved in high school cross country. Sandy Buchanan is the cross country coach at De La Salle and team goals are not always unveiled via a stopwatch.
“We have a super variety of kids on the team,” said Buchanan.
“Ninety percent of them are involved in advanced placement, honors classes and the international baccalaureate program.
“We finished 28th at the state meet last year as a team, which made us last,but we were second academically with a 3.98 combined great point average,” continued the coach. “If you have the focus to run 30 to 40 miles a week, you certainly have the focus to do well in academics, say an AP Physics course.”
The Pilots are talented in the classroom. Ditto on the cross country course.
Thanks to a third place finish at the Grosse Pointe South regional last fall they had the opportunity to compete at the Division 1 cross country finals at MIS.
Every member of the varsity team ran a personalbest time at that regional, and most of those runners return for the 2020 season. Preston Earl and Andrew Renaud were two of the three De La Salle runners to finish in the top 15 that day. Teammates Peyton Ross, Thomas Lanzi and Anthony Youngblood also ran their top times at the regional meet hosted by the Chandler Park Golf Course.
Renaud will once again be among the leaders for the Pilots. He ran a personal best 16:28 last year.
“Drew is a very good senior leader. He is very dedicated to his workouts,” said his coach. “Drew and Preston Earl were our second and third runners for most of the season last year although at the state meet Preston came in first for us. Our senior, Zachary Jarski, was second and Andrew Renaud came in
third.”
Running at Michigan International Speedway last November for De La Salle were: Earl, Jarski, Renaud, Ross, Schmidt, Lanzi and Youngblood.
All but Jarski and Schmidt were underclassmen.
A newcomer to the 2020 team that the coaches are excited about is Robert Trebnik, an incoming freshman who was the CYO champion in distance running. The middle school cross country teams run a 3k rather than a 5k.
The Pilots have started workouts this week. The site of those practices vary, but both Dodge Park and River Bends Park are familiar locales..
The De La Salle runners and coaches meet from 8-10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Buchanan has 40 on the roster, and all but about 10 of those athletes have been showing up on a regular basis. The others have conflicts with things like work and driver’s education and the coaches provide them with detailed personal workouts.
“We had a really great year last year. We had a team that loved to run together and we only lost two seniors from that group,” said Buchanan. “We were third at regionals, fourth at the Catholic League championships and fifth at the county meet.
“We’ve set some goals for this season. We hope to have three kids running in the 15:00s and three in the 16:00s. If we can accomplish that, we can get some quality wins and we’ll move up in the Catholic League,” said Buchanan.
This is her fifth year as the head coach and 10th with the program. She also coaches the distance runners on the De La Salle track and field team.