Coach Patrylak explains name of Mud Mountain
EDWARDSVILLE – Mention the name “Mud Mountain” to area cross-country runners, coaches and fans, and the name is sure to grab anyone's attention.
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Mud Mountain is a portion of the SIU-Edwardsville cross-country course gets the attention of anyone trying to run it; it's also lent its' name to the annual fund-raising 5K run for Edwardsville's cross-country and track programs at Edwardsville High and Liberty and Lincoln middle schools.
“What we're running now is actually Mud Mountain 3.0,” said EHS cross-country coach George Patrylak. “The original Mud Mountain course was actually the course I ran when I was in college here; it's up more University Drive, where the initial first two (residence halls) were placed and the we had a hill that was in a canopy of trees, kind of in the trails by that section. It was actually a 400- to 600-meter hill and because of the canopy of trees, we never had any grass coverage – so that was the original Mud Mountain.
“And then when we moved over here (to the current SIUE course), Mud Mountain 2.0 used to be the part right before where we hit the bike trail, but once they paved the trail and SIUE made a permanent course, that was taken out the course being used, so for upkeep reasons, we've gone to the high school and college course, so now we consider right after the mile-and-a-half to two-mile mark is where we consider it Mud Mountain; it's because those hills happen to be in places where the tree canopies kind of stop the grass growth.”
When the weather gets rainy or wet, the area where Mud Mountain is can get slick and possibly treacherous. “It was pretty slick probably today,” Patrylak said. “Our grounds crew did a great job yesterday putting some mulch (down) and doing some things to get some of the puddles up – we kind of lucked out. It was probably just slick enough, but not too dangerous, just enough to make it a bit difficult.
“It's one of the unique features of the Mud Mountain course.”
The race serves as one of two major fund-raising events for the Edwardsville Cross-Country and Track Booster Club. “This is the one we do at the beginning of the cross-country season and we have a big Trivia Night that we put on right at the beginning of the track season,” Patrylak said. “Together, those our two main sources of income for the season.
“We're a pretty unique booster club because we cover boys and girls cross-country and track and field and we cover Liberty and Lincoln (middle schools) and EHS, so we cover more than 600 athletes; these funds are extremely important to us. Again, the community just amazes me – we set record highs in sponsorships this year and we had another solid turnout, so it's going to really help us financially for the year.”
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