BRXC Alumni Race

Dear BRXC Alum,

That time of year again!! This year will mark the 35th Annual Brother Rice Alumni Cross Country Reunion BBQ.  The race this year will be August 11th at 10:00 AM.  We will gather just outside the track.  For the last 34 years, this event has been organized by legendary coach, Don Molenda.   As you may already know, Coach Molenda has retired from coaching. It is impossible to give Coach Molenda the proper credit he deserves for giving so much of himself to Br. Rice Cross Country over the last 35 years.  This reunion is a great chance to talk with Coach Molenda & reconnect with former teammates who helped contribute to the rich tradition that the Br. Rice Cross Country program has today. My hope is for the BRXC BBQ to expand and grow into an event that all alums look forward to attending year after year.  

Last season was an interesting year.  The year before we were Regional Champions & State Finalists. Perhaps the final results may not show a terrific 2017 season, but I and the other coaches believe it was a turning point in the right direction for the program.  For the 1st time in my coaching career, the team was without any seniors. This turned out to be a positive as it provided an opportunity for the underclassmen to take leadership roles. The team did keep the streak alive of qualifying for the IHSA sectional meet, when we did just enough to finish 6th in the regional. With everyone returning, we hope to be back in the hunt of battling for the regional title again this season.  

Individually, junior Dan Spellman proved to be our top runner last fall.  He didn’t finish the season as well as he would have liked, but came back motivated and had a very promising track season, going under 10 minutes in the 3200 and running a huge personal best in the 1600 in his last race.  Eddie Burke will be a major contributor in his sophomore season after ranking #4 in the 3 mile for freshmen.

As far as track season, the F/S team won the indoor Catholic League title, but allowed other interests to get in the way during the outdoor season and finished 5th.  The young varsity team placed 6th at the CCL championship. Going into the sectional meet, I thought we had a shot to qualify in 7 events, despite losing our best sprinter to injury.  As always, things don’t go as planned but we did qualify in 4 events and just missed the 4x2 by .09 seconds. Josh Boulanger jumped 45’7 to become sectional champion in the TJ, junior Tommy Gleeson (Coach Bill Gleeson’s son) placed 2nd in the 800m and for the 2nd year in a row, junior Justin Palmer passed the same Oak Lawn athlete between the last hurdle and the finish line to capture 2nd place in the 300 IM.  The 4x400 relay team ended the night with a 2nd place effort with senior rookie Brendan Coghlan, Boulanger, Palmer, and anchor Ty McCoy (who returned from an ACL injury he developed during football).

The following week at the state finals, Josh Boulanger once again PR’d in the TJ. His 1st leap of 46’7.25 was good enough to hold the lead after the preliminary round on Friday.  He was within grasps of becoming Br. Rice’s first state champion since 1978 when an Evanston athlete bested his mark on the very last jump. Josh settled for a very respectable silver medal and the best placing for a Crusader since 1978. Josh now ranks #3 All-Time in the triple jump behind Jim Solus (1977) & Chris Christian (1979).    

I hope to see you on August 11th to kick of the 2018 BRXC season!  As always, you don’t have to participate in the race, but are encouraged to share stories and have a good time.  I know I do not have contact info for all alumni, so if you know someone who isn’t included, please forward & pass along their email address.  If you can attend have any questions, you can respond back to twazio@brrice.org.  I hope you’re enjoying the summer & perhaps even logging a few miles.  Go Crusaders!

Sincerely,

Tom Wazio ’97

Head Cross Country/Track & Field Coach