J-Club Hall of Honor
Cross country made its debut as a sport at Saint John's in the late 1940s, and the Johnnies were successful enough to win an MIAC title in 1954.
But interest had waned by the late 1950s, leading to a decision to drop the sport following the 1957 season.
"There has been no interest in the sport because none of the meets has been held at Collegeville," The Record wrote.
But the sport was revived under the direction of head coach Jim Smith, and the Johnnies began a slow climb back to relevancy in the MIAC - finishing third at the conference meet in 1965, fourth in 1966 and second in 1967 when standout freshmen John Cragg and Jeff Brain placed first and second overall.
"You could tell something was building," recalled Brain, a Seattle native. "By the end of 1967, no one could touch us in dual meets except (perennial MIAC power) Macalester.
Indeed, the Scots had won 11 conference titles from 1956 through 1967, including the last six in a row. But with Cragg and Brain joined by Chuck Ceronsky, a transfer from Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary who had not been allowed to compete under transfer rules in 1967, and promising freshman Joe Skaja out of St. Cloud Tech High School, that run seemed like it could come to an end.
Especially when the Macalester runners unwittingly provided the Johnnies with additional motivation.
"They started wearing T-shirts at the conference track and cross country meets that said, 'Perennial MIAC Champions,'" Ceronsky recalled. "That was probably the worst thing they could do. I know for me, especially, it made me think 'You're going down.'"
Ceronsky and his teammates made sure that happened during a memorable season in 1968. The Johnnies began that fall by winning a triangular meet with Gustavus Adolphus and Mankato State (now MSU-Mankato) in St. Peter. Ceronsky and Cragg tied for first place, covering the 3-mile race in a time of 15 minutes and 29 seconds despite high winds and pouring rain. Brain finished in third place as SJU swept the top three places and Skaja and Jon Kallman finished seventh and ninth, respectively.
"The base was already there with John, Chuck and me, then Joe came along and he was as good as anyone," Brain said. "Things just built on themselves."
Skaja had originally planned on running at St. Cloud State, which was also a national power in those days. Head coach Bob Tracy had put together an impressive and talented squad. Led by Van Nelson, who would go on to represent the U.S. in the 10,000 meters at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, the Huskies had finished second in the nation in NAIA in 1967.
But Tracy left the school after the 1968 track season to take a fellowship at the University of Minnesota where he would serve as a consultant for track and field.
"SCSU had managed to scoop up almost every great runner in Minnesota during recruiting that year," Skaja said. "Garry Bjorklund, who went on to the Olympics (in 1976), was going to go there. But (Tracy) resigned and none of us wound up going there. So it was wide -open at that point."
"We worked a lot on getting Joe to come to Saint John's," Brain added. "I think it helped that John, Chuck and I were already there. We looked like a winner. When Smitty got us all in his office, I think he had an awakening. He had all these guys who could really run. They hadn't seen anything like this in cross country before."
Which is why Smith booked the team into meets with higher levels of competition, like the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Indiana, that October. In a field filled with teams like Michigan, Purdue and defending NAIA champion Eastern Michigan, the Johnnies finished ninth overall with Cragg finishing in 16th place.
"That team was so good," Smith recalled. "The talent level was really high. Ceronsky was a key part of it. Not only was he a great runner, but he was a great organizer and a great leader of the team."
Cragg - a 2019 SJU J-Club Hall of Honor inductee - expressed similar sentiments in advance of Ceronsky's induction in 2024.
"He was the core of our track and cross country team and more mature, in many ways, than most of the other developing personalities," Cragg said. "He had dogged persistence in everything that he attempted and was a great friend."
Dogged determination was a characteristic shared by many on that season's roster, which Skaja said made their training intensely productive.
"Those were great times, though. We ran on such spectacular back roads around campus. There was no traffic. A lot of the roads were dirt in those days, which helped if you were getting beat up and needed a break from the pounding you take on asphalt. Afterward, when it was warm enough, we could jump in the lake and go swimming. It was an ideal and exciting atmosphere for a distance runner."
It was also an ideal setting for that season's conference meet, held on Oct. 26. It marked the first time the MIAC Championships were held in Collegeville, and Ceronsky and Brain both remember the mood being electric that Saturday morning.
"With a little promotion, we had around 400 people show up to cheer and line the (5-mile) course in key areas," Ceronsky said. "Mile No. 4 had the hill that now runs between (what is now Warner Palaestra) and what was then the intramural fields (now the site of Gagliardi Field, Haws Field and Becker Park). There were people packed in four -to -five deep there. It was like when you see them climbing the mountains in the Tour de France. People were going crazy and 90 percent of them were our fans.
"I've run a lot of cross country and road races in my life, but I've never had an experience like that moment."
"We had the monks out there shouting their brains out," Brain added. "It was really inspiring. We turned down onto the intramural fields and the course was lined with students, moms and dads, brothers and sisters and girlfriends. The word had gotten out that we were pretty good and people wanted to come out and watch."
Despite battling various ailments that day, the Johnnies lived up to their advance billing - winning the team title with a score of 31 points. Macalester ended up second with 48.
Ceronsky, who was battling knee issues, finished first in a time of 25:42.4. Brain, who was nursing a bad cold, was third (26:15). Cragg, who had a bad back, was fourth (26:26), and Skaja, who also had knee issues, was 10th (27:04).
The surprise finisher of the day was freshman Mike Feneis, who stepped up to finish 13th overall. That was key because Kallman, who had been the No. 5 runner, had to drop out of the race due to illness.
"Mike saw what happened and pulled up the slack for us," Smith told the St. Cloud Times afterward. "If he would have finished a couple places lower, we might not have taken the title."
But SJU did - winning the first of what would be five conference titles in a row.
"That group of guys were so dedicated," Smith recalled. "That's what made them such a remarkable group. They didn't always get the acclaim that football and basketball got. But those guys had such a high work-ethic. They'd think nothing of waking up in the morning and running 5 miles. You didn't have to tell them to. They just did it.
"I was always astonished at how dedicated those guys could be."
The Johnnies dedication continued to pay off at the NAIA national meet, held on Nov. 23 in Oklahoma City. There, they finished eighth, up from 27th the previous year. Ceronsky again led the way, finishing 19th overall in a time of 25:01. Cragg was 29th in a time of 25:15 and Brain was 50th in a time of 25:47.
Before that, though, the team competed against top large schools at the Central Collegiate Meet held in Chicago. With Smith and his Johnnie basketball team in Fargo for a scrimmage against North Dakota State, Smith's wife, Adrienne, filled in as head coach.
"Ade drove them down and the team stayed at her parents' place in Riverside, Illinois," Smith said. "They actually placed extremely well.":
Indeed, the Johnnies placed eighth in a 25-team field. Cragg was 15th overall in a time of 25:30, just ahead of Ceronsky (25:31), who needed a shot in his knee before he took the course.
"My team beat Marquette," Adrienne joked to the St. Cloud Times afterward. "Jim's better do as well when they play in basketball in two weeks."
The success of the 1968 team laid the foundation for the dynasty that followed, not just in cross country, but in track and field where the distance crew would help carry SJU to MIAC titles in 1970, '71, '72 and '73.
"Those guys knew what they were capable of and they pushed each other to new heights," Smith said. "That group went on to accomplish some really outstanding things."
