Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Healthy Lifestyle Propels Steier


Jake Recker | Editor for The Mount

“I just don’t let it bug me. People are usually not teasing me to be mean, they are just more  curious as to why I do it,” senior Jimmy Steier said. Steier has made it his lifestyle to stay in the best physical shape possible. Most teenagers today ?nd it impossible to stay dedicated to a certain task whether that be school work or a healthy lifestyle. The dedication Steier has to staying healthy shows how he is unlike most teens.

“I want to live long and staying in shape is the key to that,” Steier said. Steier has been an avid soccer player for most of his life and that is what ?rst got him interested in staying so healthy.  Since his sophomore year in highschool, Steier has been exercising for four hours a day on average. A typical afternoon for Steier consists of two hours of lifting and cardio exercises after school then a two hour soccer practice in the evening. When lifting he concentrates mostly on compound lifts such as bench press, deadlift, and squatting. After his heavy lifting, Steier does cardio exercises to help with his speed and stamina. In the fall, Steier plays on his club soccer team Omaha Football Club and has been on the varsity soccer team for Mount Michael since he was a freshman. “I have always been in pretty good shape from playing soccer but it was not until high school that I realized there is more to staying in shape than just the physical aspects,” Steier said.

The fear of becoming out of shape and unhealthy motivated Steier to start eating healthy on top of all his physical activities. “I read online that the proper nutrition can help in sports,” Steier said. “After reading that, I decided to only eat healthy and stay away from foods that can harm my body.” The only food Steier eats now includes any type of lean meat like chicken, any type of vegetable, any type of whole grain carbohydrates, brown rice, and natural peanut butter for protein. Steier also takes supplements to enhance his workout abilities. “I take creatine to help with my general lifting ability as well as occasional pre-workout to get me energized for my workouts,” Steier said. However, the most essential tool for building bigger muscles faster according to Steier is protein. “For me, protein is the key supplement I take and I think that anyone who works out should take some form of protein.”

 Steier’s lifestyle is well known around Mount Michael. He inspires some students to work out while others just think he is too dedicated tostaying healthy. Senior Hunter Hottovy is one who was motivated by Steier to start working out almost as regularly as Steier. “My freshman year,I would work out on occasion, but after seeing the drive Jimmy had to stay in such great shape, I was motivated to work out harder,” Hottovy said. “Now I try to work out every day and am eating healthier than I used to.” Although there are some who can appreciate what Steier does every day, there are others around Mount Michael who cannot comprehend why Steier has the drive to stay so healthy. “Other students around the school often come up and ask me why am I so crazy about staying so healthy,” Steier said. “I just tell them that this is my choice and that this is extremely important to me. This is my lifestyle and I don’t force mine on them, and likewise they don’t force theirs on me.”

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

RoboKnights Head to National & World Championships



A recap of the Robotics season heading into the US National Championship next week in Ralston, NE.
There were three competitive Robotics teams representing Mount Michael this year. The teams started in August with designing a robot to play this year’s challenge. Building and testing came next, along with programming and game strategy.  The season started in November. The teams attended six tournaments throughout the season including the Nebraska High School League and the Nebraska State Championship (both hosted right here at Mount Michael).

The year so far has produced:
One Championship (Nebraska League)
Two Tournament Runner-Up finishes
Four Semi-Final finishes
Five Quarter-Final finishes

There are two Mount Michael teams qualified for the US National Championship, March 7 to 9, at the Ralston Arena.  Only 110 High School Teams are qualified for this event. Our boys are in very elite company.  One of our teams is qualified for the World Championship of VEX Robotics in Anaheim, CA in April.

Mount Michael Teams Qualifying for the National Championship Competition
1970b Talladega Knight: Chase Goddard, Andy Ernst, Anthony Taylor, Andrew Carpenter, Eric Sullivan, Ashton Legenza.
1970a Sleepless Knights: Paul Kujawa, Josh Bloomquist

Mount Michael Team Qualifying for the World Championship Competition
 1970a Sleepless Knights: Paul Kujawa, Josh Bloomquist

Update 3-1-13: Talladega Knights recently scored 130 in a programming competition which places them 23rd in the World. The top 30 at the end of the season qualify for competing at the World Championships. The team should know whether their score holds up early next week.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Knight Swimmers @ State


The Mt. Michael/Skutt Catholic boys swim team placed 13th overall at the Nebraska State High School Championship Swimming and Diving Meet, held February 21-23 in Lincoln, NE.

Mt. Michael freshman Jackson Thompson had an excellent meet, setting a new team record of 57.08 in the 100 Butterfly and a personal best of 59.78 in the 100 Backstroke.

Thompson joined with Skutt Catholic swimmers Luca Parolin, Daniel Bokor, and Brady Kirkpatrick for the boys 200 Medley Relay. The boys set a new team record and made it into Saturday's consolation finals heat. They were the first swimmers to make it to finals in the four years Mt. Michael and Skutt Catholic have been together. At finals, they lowered their team record by another second and placed 9th overall.

Mt. Michael senior Elliot Prusa, the first member of the team to swim at state all four years, swam on the boys 200 Free Relay. They went 1:35.77, the team's second fastest time ever.

Finally, Prusa and Thompson joined with Parolin and Kirkpatrick for the 400 Free Relay. The boys set a new school record in prelims and qualified for consolation finals. On Saturday, they lowered their record by another three seconds and placed 12th overall.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Knight Bowlers State Runner-up!



The Mount Michael Bowling team completed their season by capturing the Class B State Runner-up Trophy.  In the first round the Knights defeated #2 York followed by #3 Grand Island Northwest in the semi-finals.  In the championship match they fell to #1 Hastings.  Also competing at the state tournament in Lincoln were teams from Elkhorn South, Elkhorn, South Sioux City, and Waverly.

Left to Right: Griffin Willer, Blake Tomich-Batten, Gabe Cohen, Peter DeWald, Joe Kucerik, Christian Jones, (not pictured, Nick Scheer).  More Group Photos

Saturday, February 16, 2013

State Runner-up Academic Decathlon





In their first year of competition the Knight’s Academic Decathlon team place 2nd at state in our division.  The winner was 6 time defending champion Nebraska City Lourdes.  In the competition each team is divided into 3 levels according to GPA. The three levels are Honors, Scholastic, and Varsity.  Each level is then represented by 3 members of the team. The individual medal count for the Knights is as follows:

Honors Level:
Thomas Kalil: Team high score
Rowan Gruber: 2nd place Economics (Tie)
Cameron Engel: 2nd place Economics (Tie)

Scholastic Level:
Alex Hotovy: 3rd place Art, 2nd place Language and literature, 1st place Essay, 3rd place Science, 1st place speech, 3rd place overall Scholastic.
Andrew Johannes:  2nd place Interview, 3rd place Math, 3rd place Economics
Augustin deMayo: 1st place Language and literature, 1st place Science, 2nd place Music.

Varsity Level:
Adam Terasinski: 1st place Art, 1st place Language and literature, 1st place Science, 2nd place Economics, 2nd place Music, 1st place overall varsity.
Ben Connealy: 2nd place Art, 3rd place Language and literature, 1st place Economics.
Cory Keegan: 3rd place Math, 2nd place Essay, 2nd place Science.

Additionally the contest feature alternate competition for those not participating at the team level. The categories were combined as follows. Fine arts: music and art, Soft Science: economics and literature, Hard Science: math and science.

Alternate Honors:
Eunwoo Jee: 1st Place Soft Science, 2nd place Hard Science
Alternate Scholatic:
Jacob Eyth: 2nd place Fine Arts, 1st place Soft Science, 3rd place Hard Science
Alternate Varsity:
Ben Pape: 1st place Fine Art, 2nd place Soft Science, 1st place Hard Science.

As a team the Knights were 3rd place in the Quiz Bowl this year's special topic was Russia/Soviet Union.

Small School Info 1/2 page down from Omaha World Herald

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Ash Wednesday



The Mount Michael community of students, faculty, staff and monks gathered in the chapel for the 2013 Ash Wednesday Mass, Fr. Louis Sojka was presider. Photos

Recycle Bowl

Mount Michael Finished 4th in the state of Nebraska in the "Recycle Bowl" Mount Michael recycled 6 lbs per capita. In Nebraska 29 schools were competing.