This past weekend the Panthers competed at the Belmont Invitational with the men placing second and the women placing ninth, but that was not what the weekend was all about, said head coach Geoff Masanet.

Masanet said the main point of the weekend was to have a teambuilding retreat at the Land Between The Lakes.

“The main point of it is to get away from it all, we still ran, but we canoed, did some archery, and played games too,” Masanet said. “It was a chance for the team to learn about each other and grow closer.”

Sophomore Jessica Blondell said the weekend really helped her to learn who all the new people were and a little bit about each of them.

“It was almost like forcing us all to hang out but it was really good for us,” Blondell said.

Freshman Ryan Hoklas said this weekend helped him to see the team working as a whole.

“Not just all the fun and stuff at the camp, but even at the meet everyone was talking to each other and encouraging each other throughout the race no matter how tired they were,” Hoklas said.

Panther Trail to host alumni meet

Masanet said while the alumni meet is sort of fun and exciting it is basically a “glorified practice.”

Eastern will the alumni meet at 5 p.m. on Saturday at the Panther Trail

The men are going to run four miles as opposed to their normal 8,000 meters or about five miles, and the girls are running about 2.1 miles as opposed to their normal 5,000 meters or three miles.

Hoklas thinks the meet will serve as another stepping stone, especially for the younger guys, like himself, to get ready to start running the 8K’s for the rest of the season.

Masanet said he is unsure as to how many or which alumni are coming back for the meet but it will still benefit the kids to hang out with some of them and hear their stories.

“The main thing is seeing our kids run on our own course, so that they are ready next week for the Panther Open,” Masanet said. “Especially for the younger ones, they need to get familiar and know this course before next week.”

Hardest practice of the year

In order to continue to prepare for the Panther Open, Masanet held what he said was easily his toughest practice of the season yesterday afternoon.

“If you tried to do this practice on your own there would be no way to get the times you want, we really had to rely on our teammates again today just to get through it,” Hoklas said.

Hoklas said the run was like 80 percent mental and staying focused was the most important part.

“If you didn’t stay focused today you would have lost it,” Hoklas said. “We did mile repeats, and then 800s (meters) hard, and then 500 (meter) finishes, it was rough.”

Sophomore Keith Butler said seeing the miles and how they play out on the course will along with the alumni meet, get the team more comfortable running on their home course.