Remembering Allyson Schedule of races: (times are aprox.) 4:00p Middle School Girls Allyson MerryBoys was a member of the 4:15p Middle School 4:30p Freshmen/Sophomore Dowling CatholicGirls Girls Cross Country 4:50p Freshmen/Sophomore Team. This pastBoys summer Allyson died 5:10p JV Girls suddenly. While Allyson may not have 5:30p JV boys been blessed 5:50p Varsity Girlswith some of the natural 6:10p Varsity running giftsBoys that other runners are blessed
with, she, like many runners embraced the sport and participated with the talents she had, the best that she could. Allyson, like anyone who dares to embrace the sport and culture of crosscountry in high school, develops not only as an athlete but also as a person and as a friend. The relationships forged during practice, during races and during tests of physical and mental limits are life long and enduring. That is why it is so tragic when we loose one of our own so suddenly and so completely. Allyson is forever part of our team. We remember her daily in our prayers at practice. The girls also have decided to wear purple shoelaces in their spikes (Allyson’s favorite color) this season as a way of remembering Allyson’s presence still with us as we run. The team has also placed an angel in Allyson’s memory in the outdoor chapel overlooking the track, the site of our prerace prayer services where Allyson prayed with us in the past. We hope to do a bit more landscaping around her angel and add an engraved stone to complete the tangible sign of Allyson’s memory and presences with us. As St. Ignatius of Loyola taught, “hard consolation” is possible even in the most tragic of all losses. Perhaps some of the many possible hard consolations for us in considering and enduring Allyson’s death is to never take anything for granted, appreciate your time here on earth, love your family, friends and teammates, take the time to get to know and learn to love your teammates, support each other and embrace this God given time of your lives.
Dowling Catholic “”The Dowling Project” Urbandale Invite September 5, 2013 Tonight’s Preview Sadly, last week’s meet at Cedar Rapids Prairie was called off due to weather, so this will be our first meet. The Urbandale Invitational in the past had always been the traditional first meet of the year. Due to their middle school renovations the meet was cancelled for several years. Last year’s meet was cancelled due to heat. Tonight’s races will be run in a unique fashion. All freshmen and sophomores will run together in the first girl’s race and then all the junior and seniors will run together in the second girl’s race. The scoring will be broken down into classes and also the top five scores from each school will determine the overall varsity winner. Freshmen/Sophomore Race One of our pleasant surprises this summer has been the emergence of Sophomore Erin Cahalan as a varsity caliber runner. Erin showed signs of improvement last XC season and it continued on into track season. Now, Erin is stronger and more confident and we look forward to her contributing to our team. Caroline Warmuth is another sophomore whom we are counting on along with our other awesome sophomores. We have a great freshmen class as well including last year’s middle school state champion C. Vivian Broderick. Vivian had an outstanding track season and has transitioned into high school very smoothly. We love her strength, toughness and deceptive speed and competiveness. Among our outstanding freshmen class, keep and eye out for Allie McLuen, Jillian Jaeger and Olivia Denkinger to be up toward the front as well. Junior/Senior Race We have great senior leadership this season and I am so very proud of how each has stepped up as leaders. Karissa Schweizer is coming off of a great track season and a great summer of training. She is fit and stronger than ever. She will certainly have something to say about the individual state championship race in November. Look for seniors Jenny Luksan and Nicole Svendsen to be upfront, as well as Addie Schumacher, Kaliana Vila and Emily Hill. Junior standouts Hannah Thomas and Ellen Sullivan will likely be some of our scorers. The horses are ready to run, so get a good spot to watch, but stay out of the way as the thundering herd let’s loose for the first time this season!
“"Find though she but little, she is fierce”
William Shakespeare