Last year, the cross country seniors (Keenan, Emerel, Geist, Raucci, Girma) got me a framed photo collage that hangs in my office, with the engraving that says “The End of An Era, Class of 2009.” In reality, that Era finally ended with Girma’s last collegiate race last Friday night at Princeton.
And I thought it was fitting that his old teammate, fellow captain and good friend Mike Rolek was there to witness the final chapter of his long running career with the Running Red Foxes. Rolek was Girma’s host on his recruiting visit back in the winter of 2005. They instantly connected, and Girm admitted to Rolek after the visit that he was “born to come to Marist.” A lot of that had to do with Rolek’s passion for the sport and for his loyalty to our program.
So it was totally fitting that the full circle was completed. Rolek was there at the very beginning. He was there at the very end. It was great to see him and Jess there to cheer their old pal “Gary Smith” for the final 12.5 laps of his career. And hopefully, Rolek can shed those crutches and get back to serious road racing in the summer and fall.
Other than Junior Nationals, the 2009-2010 season is complete. We will move on and look ahead to the 2010-2011 seasons in future posts.
1 comment:
Pete, don't forget Girma's academic career as well.
I'll never forget my brief interaction with Girma on that visit. I think Rolek had a class so I offered to take him to the cafeteria for lunch. I was still in "recruit, recruit, recruit" mode, and kept trying to talk running with him. All he was interested in talking about were the classes how he couldn't wait to start attending them himself. He was just as interested in studying at Marist as he was in running at Marist. That always impressed me b/c I think a lot of student (guilty) took that for granted.
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