Who and What is the Goonsquad?


We sat down for about 30 minutes with 8 members of the Goonsquad: Hunter Krasa, Rylan Stubbs, Brarden Rasmussen, Connor Heron, Braedon Palmer, Will Ryan-Johnson, Thomas Cain, and Noah Creighton. We found out many things about this tight-knit group of distance runners and what makes them tick.

Who are the Goonsquad?

The Goonsquad is a bunch of about 30 distance guys, primarily from Arizona, who run both in high school and in college.

Why the name Goonsquad?

Pretty much a goof of a name based off of a nickname the rest of the group in good-nature gave to one of their members; but became their NXN team name back in 2017.

How many guys make up the Goonsquad?

About 30 guys throughout the U.S. now, who mostly originated from Arizona.

How did Goonsquad start?

Back in 2017 a bunch of distance guys were trying to put a group chat together to help each of them run 9:00 in the 3200; while the running plan failed miserably, they all became good friends and started chatting about track and field regularly.

Best part of the Goonsquad?

What many said was the camaraderie they have and the ability to share ideas about running, but also life in general.

Goons or Good Guys?

It was a fun talk with all of them and it was great to see the true meaning of sportsmanship within each of these guys. While many of them at one time or another were competitors under the Arizona track and field sun, they all seemed to pull for the other and were excited to see the top performances from their Goonsquad brothers. In a world with so much fractured discourse nowadays it was refreshing to see that the competitive spirit doesn't necessarily mean you still can't have genuine admiration for your rivals, who in the end may turn out to become some of your best friends.