On the Road With the '13s: A Tribute to Rio 2012

Salutations, friends of DXC!  Here's hoping everyone enjoyed a gluttonous Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends and an even better "Small Business Saturday."  I am writing this entry to inform all of you that in the spirit of the fiscal cliff and impending economic (and literal Mayan) doom, the '13s have decided to recklessly splurge on a 3-week international road trip that began today!

The excitement started yesterday as the budding metropolis of Clifton Park, NY (home to the dynastic Shenendehowa Plainsmen) served as host for some distinguished guests: Adam Doherty '13, David Connolly '13, Jonathan Gault '13, and Philip Royer '13.  The 4 visitors were treated to one of the wildest nights the Danaher family has had in a long time: a chili party to watch the Notre Dame Fighting Irish valiantly triumph over the Trojans of Southern California.  So wild, in fact, that everyone was even allowed to stay up past 11 to watch the end of the game!  And drink beer!  Jackpot!

Following the game, Phil (after numerous rock, paper, scissors victories) was granted the privilege of strapping on a ghillie suit and sleeping in New York's version of Chernobyl (read: my room).  Adam and Dave spent the evening in the decadent French room (is it Monet or Manet?  TRICK QUESTION: Renoir.  Gets me every time), and Jon was sent to sleep in the cage next to my fearsome dog, Rascal (a.k.a. Mr. Muffins).  Don't worry--we took both of them "out potty" beforehands.

This morning, our hardy guests were treated to an 8 mile run at Kinns Road Park, where boys turned to men at a certain nationally prestigious high school not named CBA NJ.  Alison Danaher, who is indeed a confirmed saint, prepared a scrumptious breakfast of eggs and fruit salad for us as well.  After some packing struggles and purchases of Blue Raspberry Refresher from Stewart's (an upstate New York delicasy), we were eventually "off-out" on the open road.  Our destination for the next few days is Hamilton, Ontario to visit Anthony Romaniw, a former member of our team and forever a '13.  Although the political policies of this strange land do not necessarily correspond to our strict conservative values (socialized healthcare?! TAXES!?!?!?!?!?), we look forward to finding some common ground with our northern bretheren.  It was difficult (especially for Adam) to see Mitt "Mittens" Romney lose narrowly to Stephen Harper in this fall's election (damn you PEI and your 2 electoral votes!!!), but we will find a way to make it through.

That's it for now, stay tuned for more updates from your favorite boy band (the '16s were sooo 2 months ago)!

Respectfully yours,

Mike Danaher '13
Trip Narrator and Risk Management Advisor

I'm a Gonna Win: Mario Kart Tourney

Every fall, the men of DXC adopt an unofficial team video game. No one ever really plans for this to happen, but we spend so much time at the XC house trying to entertain ourselves (usually during the three-week span that was preseason, RIP) that it becomes inevitable. My freshman year, it was Left for Dead, and last year it was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This year’s game took a little longer to emerge, but by the end of term, there was no doubt that Mario Kart 64 reigned supreme among the members of the men’s team.

As athletes, we’re competitive by nature, so it was only a matter of time before people started talking trash about who the best player on the team was. Many were vocal about proclaiming their dominance, but none more so than Mike, who, after honing his skills during a year spent playing Dylan Summers in their three-room East Wheelock double, believed himself to be the team’s greatest player. In the end, Mike didn’t take into account the obsessive nature of Phil and Will’s personalities (two people who are either naturally good at everything, or who spend so much time practicing a skill that they force themselves to be good), but that’s skipping ahead a little bit. Anyway, it was decided that the team would hold a World Cup-style tournament to determine the ultimate Mario Kart player, with class bragging rights also on the line.

Here were the rules Mike came up with:

RULES: 19 people entered, so the best I could do was 5 groups of three, 1 group of four.  If anyone is unable to participate in the near future, the last member of that group of 4 will join the group that has an absence.  Race all 16 courses, in the order that they are presented in the game (so starting with Luigi Raceway and finishing at Rainbow Raceway).  Points will be awarded as follows for each race:

1st- 3 points
2nd- 2 points
3rd- 1 point
4th- 0 points

At the end of all the racing for the group, tally points and blitz me with the amount of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishes that each person had.  The 6 group winners and the next 2 highest scorers will move to the semifinal round of 8, where there will be 2 groups of 4.  From there, the top 2 in each group will go to the final four, where it's winner take all.  Ties for 1st place in a preliminary group or for the wild card will be broken by who won more races, if still tied then who got more seconds.  If STILL tied, then a one-race tiebreaker will be held at an agreed-upon course.

For the semifinals and finals, we moved to a 4-2-1-0 scoring system in order to incentivize victories.

The groups were seeded, with Mike, Adam and Steve drawn together in the Group of Death. If those races were held today, with a much-improved Steve, the results may have been different; instead, both Mike and Adam advanced to the semis (’13s are nasty). Aside from that, all the favorites advanced, with Dave punishing a pitiful effort from the freshman class by winning all 16 races against Joey, Matt K. and Taylor. The only class that fared worse than the ’16s was the ’15s, who only entered two racers, neither of whom made it out of their group. The ’13s showed impressive depth, sending five of six through to the semis, while Will and John packed a formidable 1-2 punch for the ’14s. The upperclassmen-heavy semifinals looked as follows:

Group A

John

Phil

Tim

Jonathan

Group B

Dave

Will

Mike

Adam

Group A played first, with Phil jumping out to an early lead, notching four firsts and seven seconds over the first 12 races. With four races to go, both John and Phil had separated from Tim and me, and even though Phil let up, getting last in three of the four races, both advanced comfortably to the finals. John led the way in the group with eight wins, including the last four, while Phil was second with four wins. Tim and I each won twice (apparently I’m good in cold weather as my two wins were Frappe Snowland and Sherbert Land). Tim finished third, while my nine last-place finishes doomed me to last. 

Group B featured many delays, and it was finally decided that I would replace Adam as the final racer since getting everyone together at the same time was proving to be impossible. After a semi-respectable showing in Group A (I did win two races), I was optimistic that I would not be embarrassed, but it was not to be. As Dave and Will pulled away, I took solace in the fact that Mike, who had been so cocky on the eve of the tournament, was also going to be eliminated. Though I hate to see a fellow ’13 do poorly, after observing Will, Dave, John and Phil in practice, I knew that Mike was way too confident entering the tournament and that he would have to face the music once he lost (which he did, admirably). 

Thus, the final was set, and just like cross country, there was a team and individual title on the line. With two ’13s (Phil and Dave) versus two ’14s (John and Will), it really was a battle for the title of “Best Class Ever” (even though if we scored five, as we do in XC, the ’13s would probably pull out the win). There was much excitement on the team prior to the final, and Henry, Matt K. and I were on hand to take splits, which we stopped after about the third race because A) it was much harder than it seemed and B) it was completely pointless.

The field was bunched in the early going, with three different racers winning the first three races. As always, Moo Moo Farm turned into an unpredictable battle, with Will going from first in the previous race to last at Moo Moo. At the midway point, Will and Dave sat in a tie for first with 16 points, while Phil and John were tied for third with 12 apiece. Obviously, the team standings were also tied at that point. 

As the races continued, the stress of competition began to impact the combatants, as Phil struggled through a run of rotten luck while John almost caused a schism between Papas Jo(h)n when he blamed my announcing for his failure to achieve victory. Starting with Mario Circuit, Will won four of five races to build a commanding lead. Dave, on the other hand, faltered down the stretch, collecting four lasts and a third in the final five races to drop into last place. Ultimately, Dave’s mistake-free style was not enough, as the longer races of the Star and Special Cups revealed his fatal flaw: an inability to drift. Even though Phil was well out of it by the end, he rebounded to win the final two races on the strength of his drifting, something that is vital to success at a course like Rainbow Road. John used a strong second half to finish second, but he could not catch Will, who, as he did on the cross country course all season, finished as Dartmouth’s #1 man. 

Here are the official final results, via Coach Sterling.

Just the Facts

	Will	Dave	Phil	John
Luigi Raceway	4	1	0	2
Moomoo Farm	0	4	1	2
Koopa Troopa	1	2	4	0
Kalimari	4	2	1	0
Toad's Turnpike	1	4	0	2
Frapper	2	0	4	1
Choco	0	1	2	4
Mario	4	2	0	1
Wario Stadium	1	2	0	4
Sherbert Land	4	1	0	2
Royal Raceway	4	2	0	1
Bowser Castle	4	0	2	1
DK Jungle	2	1	0	4
Yoshi Valley	1	0	2	4
Banshee BW	2	0	4	1
Rainbow Road	2	0	4	1
Final	36	22	24	30

Random thoughts (from Henry): The ’14s are nasty. 

Sadly, it’s hard to argue with him. All in all, the tournament was a blast, and while it’s unclear whether the ’13s depth is more impressive than the ’14s firepower up front (I say it’s about even), we can all agree that the upperclassmen are far superior to the hapless ’15s and ’16s.

-Jon Gault '13

 Everyone had a hard time avoiding the bananas

Finals: Rather like Band-Aids

Hello there.

We have realized something in the past few frenzied days. Final exams are sorta like band-aids. As we all know, there are two ways of dealing with band-aids:

method 1: procrastinate by slowly peeling off band-aid because of the fear of it hurting when it comes off all at once

method 2: just hammer and pull the thing off all in one go

To sum up, they both suck to do but are necessary if you want the band-aid to be over and done with.

That is all. I hope this has been illuminating.

Carry on.

-Matt

Regionals

Well, the smoke has settled now and all we are left with is Matt and Henry doing acoustic covers of boy bands and System of a Down.  Before they launch into another rendition of One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful," I'll give a quick recap of regionals.

The course at Hammonasset park was snow-covered and muddy on our run through Thursday afternoon, but somehow by the next day it was mostly dry.  Similarly to HEPS, we had a solid day but not what we wanted, and disappointingly, no Nationals bid.  Will G. put himself in contention early, but faded over the extremely windy and brutal last 2k.  Le canadien had a breakthrough race and made All-Region, a fact that he has reminded me of no less than 20 times since Friday.  After mistaking a solid wooden post for a baked good, Jonny worked his way through the field with me, eventually caught up to Phil, and we all finished within 3 seconds of each other.

Early on...not sure what the UConn guy is up to.

Willy!

Curtis, one of the top freshman in the race.

Sully -- HEY, DID I TELL YOU I'M ALL-REGION!!

Henry and some snow.

Jon, me, and Phil heading for the line....yes, Jon outkicked both of us.

(Photos from Dad)

17. Will Geoghegan '14 30:37
25. Dylan O'Sullivan '15 31:04
32. Jonathan Gault '13 31:09
34. Steve Mangan '14 31:11
36. Phil Royer '13 31:12
47. Curtis King '16 31:32
62. Henry Sterling '14 31:41

All in all, not a bad day, but it always stings getting beat bad by Columbia and not making nationals.

That's a wrap on the XC season -- it's ski season for Silas and myself so Matt and the rest of the team will have to keep people updated on the indoor season.

-Steve

Dylan "Sully" O'Sullivan aka le canadien

Okay so this is a rather silly post and a shameless plug for one of our very own, Dylan O'Sullivan '15, 5k/10k guy. He has a new twitter which is monitored by his close friends and serves as a showcase for some of the great and terrible things that happen to come out of his mouth, acceptable or otherwise.

Because of his canadian identity, with which I sympathize with directly being only 6 miles from Canada myself, he is not used to so much attention. Canada doesn't have that many people and since coming to the Grand Old US he has had sort of a social shock to find that there are many, many people that he can say absurd things to and they will most likely listen.

So he is using, through his friends, this twitter account to amass a following that may spark a new kind of international dialogue....it will most likely consist of Dylan saying cynical, depressive thoughts about pretty much anything, but he is indeed a treasure so that is why we are lobbying for his unique artistic spirit and his mission to have more followers than people he follows on twitter. To be specific, I would call his art the art of complaining. We hope you are entertained by him and his strong opinions. Please don't be alarmed if you are offended, we are regularly.

Cheers!

SULLY!