Dennis Frazee '07 - On what started out as a brisk September morning, the heat was soon turned up as 5 teams took to the Fuller Aboretum to participate in the annual season opening Hokum Karem (or Karen as the shirts suggest!)

The Hokum Karem was originated at Wabash College by the late, great J. Owen Huntsman and the former University of Chicago cross country coach. When it originated it was thought of as a fun training run to kick off the season and it has now become a part of almost every runner’s vocabulary. For those of you unfamiliar with the Hokum Karem, runners pair up and exchange miles (much like a track relay event) for 6 miles. Team scoring for the Hokum is done by taking the top 3 pairs from each school, tallying up the points and lowest wins.

This year the Wabash Red-Pack showed that it was on a mission falling just short of Depauw University in the overall team standings after taking last at the event one year ago. Although second as a team, it was promising experience for the current members and the 8K races to come. The game plan for the day was not to let anyone get away and that was exactly what each of the 1st legs did. The top two Red Pack pairs came through the mile in close to 4:40 with the third pair not far behind. Each pair held on for as long as they could with the top pair of the day being senior Dennis Frazee and junior All-American at 800 meters Geoff Lambert. They completed the Hokum in a time of 29:19 which was good enough for 3rd overall in the paired standings. The next pair of senior Dustin Beck and sophomore Sam Compton-Craig were not far behind in 7th with a time of 29:32. The third and final scoring pair for the Red Pack were sophomore Hugh Jackson and freshman Micah Milliman in a time of 30:17. The major highlight of the day for the Red-Pack was that they put 3 teams in front of the first team from a year ago and two teams under the top time from last year.

The Red-Pack participates in its first 8K next weekend at Earlham where they will meet Depauw once again!!!

To see more photos from the 45th Annual Hokum Karem click here.