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The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

Siblings in Sports

Konnor+Fleming+%E2%80%9915+and+Ryan+Fleming+%E2%80%9916+have+been+practicing+their+football+intimidation+tactics+for+a+long%2C+long+time.+Photo+courtesy+of+Konnor+and+Ryan+Fleming.+
Konnor Fleming ’15 and Ryan Fleming ’16 have been practicing their football intimidation tactics for a long, long time. Photo courtesy of Konnor and Ryan Fleming.

Konnor Fleming ‘15 and Ryan Fleming ‘16 are brothers on the football team at Macalester college. I had an opportunity to sit down with the two from Charlotte, Vermont earlier this week and discuss just about everything with them.

TMW: Do you guys get competitive with each other on the field or in the weight room?

KF: Are you allowed to tell the story about when you hit your power clean max? Can you censor that entire part?

RF: See, that actually got changed. Prior to out max outs you were talking to Hilly [Ben Hillman] in the LC parking lot about squat and bench and how I’d get you there, and I heard the quote “he still can’t touch my clean.” So naturally I took that as getting called out, and I was like I have to beat it now. You cleaned 280 right? So I was doing my cleans. I hit 265 for my first one, 275 for my second, and Coach Murray asked me if I wanted to cut it off. I said absolutely not, I‘m hitting 285. So I got my rep, I rip it up, get the full rep through, throw the bar on the ground, and almost at the top of my lungs, yell “Eat it Konnor.” Which then got changed from all the football guys to “Suck it Konnor.”

Konnor Fleming ’15 and Ryan Fleming ’16 have been practicing their football intimidation tactics for a long, long time. Photo courtesy of Konnor and Ryan Fleming.
Konnor Fleming ’15 and Ryan Fleming ’16 have been practicing their football intimidation tactics for a long, long time. Photo courtesy of Konnor and Ryan Fleming.

KF: Oh that’s not what I heard. For some reason I thought you said “F U Konnor”, and to be fair, the last we spoke your clean max was like 250.

TMW: You guys both used to have really long hair. What was the reasoning behind that?

KF: My long hair started because myself and Ben Hillman, who was my roommate for my first three years and probably my best friend at Macalester, got into a slap bet with one another about who would go the longest without cutting their hair. We grew it out for right around a year, and then got together decided that this was enough. It was very much time for a haircut, but we figured if we were gonna go for it, we were going to do something pretty righteous with it. We went to the Great Clips across the street. I told them I wanted to look like John Stamos on Full House, and Ben wanted to look like Billy Rae Cyrus. We both had mullets for about a week, and then we realized how not sweet those mullets were.

RF: Mine was more part of the 20-Flowteen movement if you will. I think Coach J named it that. Well, I proposed the name and Coach J just absolutely stuck to it. I grew mine since the beginning of sophomore season of football, had it straight through junior season, and got a couple pictures with the sweet hair coming out of the helmet. That’s what was really important to me. Once 2014 or 20-Flowteen was over, I decided to step it back down.

TMW: How does Konnor being an RA on campus make you feel Ryan?

Ryan: Well he did write me up on one occasion. It was his job. He was required to because I was there, despite the fact that I never left the staircase on the floor on which the posters were being torn down, which was what the whole fiasco was about. Most of my shenanigans I try to keep off campus anyway, so it’s easy to not run into eachother like that. But there was that one isolated incident.

KF: It’s protocol. Nothing personal. It could have been anyone. .

TMW: Konnor, So you’re graduating in a couple weeks… Any regrets? Any advice for your brother in his senior year?

KF: Man… I’d say one regret we already touched on was letting Ryan beat me in anything, especially in the weight room. As the technically smaller brother, I always took pride in being able to lift more than him, but so it goes. He’s grown up. Makes me proud every day. chuckles Words of wisdom? Stay after it man. There’s going to be a lot of opportunity, and I’ve grown a lot even in this last year, this last semester, when it’s sort of easy to check out. Whether it be on the field or off or whatever context you’re in, just stay after it man. There’s a lot of learning to do, a lot of growing to do, but you know that. You’re doing it. You don’t need me to tell you how to do Macalester right.

TMW: Ryan, what are you going to miss most about not having Konnor around here?

RF: He is actually, as much as we give each other crap and everything like that, he’s a constant positive reminder of what I can be doing. On the football field he’ll be motivating everybody and all that kinda stuff. But also, in everyday life, it’s just nice to have that connection back to everything that I’ve had, everything that I’ve known, everything that I’ve done before. I think sometimes when I’m kinda just out of it or not feeling everything or whatever, it’s nice to fall back onto that. So I think that’s probably what I’ll miss most.

Ingrid ’15 and Gretchen ’17 Greene are two-sport threats hailing from Madison, Wisconsin. In the fall Ingrid plays soccer and Gretchen runs cross country but in the spring they team up to run mid-distance track together.

TMW: Gretchen, how important was the opportunity to go to school with your sister in drawing you to Macalester?

GG: At first I was not considering Macalester because I did not think I wanted to go to school with my sister. Ingrid really wanted me to apply so I started considering Macalester. Once I had to make a decision about where to go, I began to think it might be nice to go to school with my sister. I did not realize how much time I would end up spending with her or how lucky I was to get to spend two more years in school with her. After she graduated high school, I did not think I would get to be teammates with her again, but it has been so great being teammates for two more years [in track].

Ingrid Greene ’15 and Gretchen Greene’17 racing side by side down the home stretch of the 1000 meters at the home indoor track meet last year. Photo courtesy of Macalester Athletics.
Ingrid Greene ’15 and Gretchen Greene’17 racing side by side down the home stretch of the 1000 meters at the home indoor track meet last year. Photo courtesy of Macalester Athletics.

TMW: Dream superpower?

IG: Super strength!

GG: To fly

TMW: What is one memory from growing up you won’t ever let the other forget?

IG: The time she and Sylvia decided to play doctor and Gretchen pinned me down on the couch and Sylvia threw hot wheels cars at my face. I got a goose egg on my forehead. [Sylvia is the youngest Greene sister — Mac’20?!]

GG: I won’t let Ingrid forget the time she tried logrolling. We have some really funny videos of her falling right into the lake. [Gretchen is a world class competitive logroller. It must not be genetic.] Also, there was one time that she broke by finger when we’re playing catch.

TMW: Describe your sister in 3 words.

GG: Strong, funny, happy.

IG: Smart, funny, passionate.

TMW: What will you guys miss most when Ingrid graduates?

GG: I’ll miss having dinner with her, having sleepovers together, running together, studying together, watching her play soccer. It’s really nice to always have someone close who will hangout with me or keep me company studying. I will also miss sharing clothes with her.

IG: I will miss seeing Gretchen every day and working out with her in the LC and doing homework together in olin rice. I have been so lucky to have her as a teammate the last two years. She has been a huge inspiration for me to work hard and push through every workout. Whenever I need motivation on the soccer field or the track I think of her. She always reminds how lucky I am to get to play and race. Most of all I will miss her telling me where all the good food is on campus is.

TMW: Favorite Mac memory together?

IG: Racing the 1000 meters together at our indoor home meet last year.

GG: And racing together on relay teams.

Alese Halvorson ’15 and Mara Halvorson ’17, have been swimming together since they were toddlers. The sisters are from Maple Grove, Minnesota and attended Wayzata High School. Alese is majoring in Applied Math and Statistics with a minor in Biology and a concentration in Community and Global Health. Mara is majoring in Anthropology. Bright eyed and smiling, the Halvorsons were excited to share a little about their experience as sisters and teammates at Mac.

TMW: How is it being on the same team?

MH: It was really easy for me to join the team my freshman year because I had already gotten to know them through Alese. It was really fun. Everyone knows us separately, but we’re also a unit which I like. Sometimes one of us will say something and someone from the team will be like: “That’s very Halvorson.”

Alese Halvorson ’15 and Mara Halvorson ’17 have ensured that their family left an indelible mark on the Macalester swimming program. Photo courtesy of Mara and Alese Halvorson.
Alese Halvorson ’15 and Mara Halvorson ’17 have ensured that their family left an indelible mark on the Macalester swimming program. Photo courtesy of Mara and Alese Halvorson.

AH: The situation of Mara coming to the same school worked out really well because I was abroad in Singapore the fall semester that she started so the team got to know Mara as not my sister, but as an individual. It was a worry, at least a little bit, that [Mara] would always be associated with me, but the situation was perfect.

TMW: Alese, were you apprehensive about Mara joining you at Mac?

AH: Not at all. I was the one who was pushing the most for her to come here. I didn’t want her to go anywhere else. I didn’t think anywhere else was good enough. My family came for the conference meet my sophomore year and I remember my mom saying afterwards: “Oh my gosh, Mara just couldn’t stop saying how much she wanted to be a part of that team.” I think the community aspect is a huge deal here at Mac and that’s what set us apart in the end…I found out [Mara] was coming when my family was visiting and she handed me an envelope. In it was a copy of her commitment to Macalester and I just freaked out. I hung it on my door for the rest of a semester with a sign pointing to it that said “My sister’s coming to Mac!”

TMW: What are some of your favorite memories from swimming or Mac in general?

AH: All of the times when I don’t have anyone to go to a meal with and I just text Mara. It’s just really nice to have a constant person here.

MH: I remember there was a funny story because one of my friends didn’t know Alese and she was like ‘wow, that girl looks a lot like Mara’ and then my friends were like “Yup, that’s her sister.”

AH: There are a lot of moments when we’re acting like sisters and then we realize that someone we’re with doesn’t know we are and then we have to explain it to them.

MH: One of our quirks is that when we see each other from across campus we tilt our heads really far to the right.

AH: I think we’ve actually gotten quirkier since being at Mac, because people don’t really care so we do it more publicly.

TMW: Mara, looking ahead to next year when Alese will have graduated, what are you thinking?

MH: It’ll definitely be different. In general, Alese is a really big figure on the team. It’s going to be harder for me in some ways because [Alese] is definitely my best friend on the team. It’s those little things like when we order dinner and get two different things and share them. We don’t even have to ask. I’m hoping she’ll stay close by.

AH: You can’t get rid of me…I feel like I’ll be that alum who’s at all of the meets.

MH: I hope so.

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