Cougars cross-country have big plans going forward

The Martin Luther School Cougars’ cross-country team, lead by head coach Ken Johnson, dominated the 2013 Independent Private and Parochial School Athletic League (IPPSAL) championship.

The Cougars had seven of the first nine runners to cross the finish line, lead by senior Thomas McLoughlin who came in first place.

“This team stayed together,” said Johnson. “Our game plan was to not let another schools runner get in between you and your teammates. You want your teammates to beat you, not the other schools.”

Scoring in cross-country differs than in other sports. “Unlike basketball or hockey where the most points win, in cross country the least amount of points wins. You add up the places of the teams top five runners and the least amount wins,” said Johnson.

The title snaps a four-year drought for Johnson and the program, which became accustom to winning championships after triumphing from 2005 to 2009.

This may not be the most talented team Johnson has coached, but they worked hard, followed his game plan and stuck together all year. Johnson knew early on that this would be the team to end the title drought.

“I don’t want to say I knew from the first day, but I knew,” Johnson said. “First meet we finished one, two, four, five, six, seven.”

The Cougars had four runners finish in the top five at the IPPSAL championship race.

“Each time we ran in IPPSAL we were just focused on beating the other team,” Johnson said.

The team was by their captain McLoughlin, the only senior in their top five.

Freshman Tyler FayConsolo finished right behind McLoughlin in the final meet and even draws comparisons to Johnson’s most talented runners.

Juniors Devin Berrious and Nate Gosling along with sophomore Grant Terdoslabich rounded out the top five for the Cougars.

“I think we did good overall as a team,” said McLoughlin. “We improved overall which is the most important part. All of our times went down, we had a lot of kids step up when we needed them, to win the championship.”

The Cougars also finished third in the Private School Athletic Association (PSAA). The Cougars cross-country program has not won the PSAA league since 2008, after winning it three years in a row. Johnson is hopeful to snap that streak next season.

“We have three underclassmen that run under a six minute mile, one is only in eighth grade,” he said. 

“We can slot them in and the other guys will get better.”

Johnson expects to not only be competitive next season, but he expects to repeat.

“With our young guys we shouldn’t be losing anything. We should repeat,” he said.

His soon to be former captain agrees.

“I’m proud and hopefully they can do the same thing next year and bring it back to how it used to be,” said McLoughlin.  “I think they have a bright future.”