In literature, an olive branch is commonly used as a metaphor offering peace and goodwill. River Falls track star Olive Halvorson's name fits her like a custom-made track shoe. 

Halvorson, a junior, handled her interview with a smooth and confident stride similar to the one she recently used to set the school indoor mile record. Her dark eyes were like a soft velvet blanket swaddling each question. Each response made the next question easier. The discussion was free-flowing, like the Kinnickinnic River south of the dam.    

The Q & A with her fellow teammate, Quin Andrews, however, was quite the opposite.

The Wildcat track and soccer teams were having practice at the same time on this sun-drenched blustery afternoon. As the interview with Andrews and his school record 4 x 400 relay teammates began, the senior palmed an errant kicked ball and starting spinning the soccer ball on his finger, his middle one to be specific. He had the attitude of undercover cop Billy Costigan in the Boston-based movie, "The Departed," a Southie soccer ball-spinning Globetrotter. If Andrews' symbolic hand gesture was accidental, the stare in his puppy dog-dark eyes looked scolded. Head down, his eyes were two wet river stones peering through his cattail-like bangs.

Someone’s initial appearance, though, can be like quicksand in 1980's TV shows; they may seem like the hour's biggest conflict, but the problem is easily solved when the story's hero receives a rope or an olive branch.

Olive Halvorson has dealt with anxiety her entire life and Quin Andrews really is a rough and tumble fun-loving nice guy.

Different people show nerves in different ways at different times.

"Quin is quiet when he gets nervous," said Wildcat Head Track Coach Kady Bauschelt. "He acts like he can't run and then when he gets done, he goes, 'oh yeah, I can do that and I can do more.' Everyone handles nerves differently."

"My anxiety was worse last year," said Halvorson. "Sometimes I'd freak out and have a panic attack before races, but I talk to someone (a sports psychologist) about it and she helps me. It's really just practice and forming a routine and learning how to keep nerves down before a race."

Halvorson's pre-race routine includes listening to music and repeating mantras in her head.

"I tell myself things like just do the best I can do today because that's the best I can do today."

Halvorson's best has been better than anyone in Wildcat track history in the indoor mile. Annie Frisbie's 2015 outdoor mile record of 4:59 will likely be falling soon. Megan Johnson's 20-year-old 800-meter school record of 2:21.93 is also well within reach of the olive branch. In Halvorson's first-ever outdoor 800-meter race two weeks ago, she won the Hudson Open with a time of 2:23.23. 

"Olive is super open, but sometimes very closed off," said Bauschelt. "When she figured out she's in charge, it's been incredible for her. She's breaking records and crushing life. Olive is something else."

There is a certain confidence and openness in Halvorson's voice. As she was calmly and eloquently giving her goodwill talk about anxiety issues, the boys' 4 x 400-meter relay team was 30 feet away wrestling on the green turf waiting to have their picture taken, floppy hair flapping in the wind.

"Do you think those guys over there have anxiety before a race like you do?" she was asked.

Halvorson laughed out loud and replied, "Not a chance. Look at 'em." 

The Wildcat 4 x 400 relay team has three seasoned seniors in Quin Andrews, Ty Bauschelt, and Jack Silloway. Jack Karnau is a junior.

Andrews holds two individual school records in the 400-meter and 800-meter races. Ty Bauschelt holds the school record in the high jump (6'6"). All three seniors will be running track collegiately next year; Andrews at perennial national junior college power Indian Hills, Silloway at UW-Oshkosh, and Bauschelt has his choice narrowed down to UW-La Crosse and UW-Milwaukee.

"Those three get along like brothers and they fight like brothers," said head coach and mother of Ty, Kady Bauschelt. "It can be equally annoying."

The three-headed band of baton brothers were part of last year's 4 x 400 school record team at the WIAA State Track and Field Championship. This year, a much-improved Karnau was added.

"Personally, I had a disappointing season last year," said Karnau, "so I put a ton of work over the off-season to be where I am."

“He (Karnau) knew that spot was coming open and he wanted it,” said Coach Bauschelt. “He’s wanted it for the past two years.”

"That should take off at least two to three seconds (adding Karnau) to what we did last year," said Ty Bauschelt, "and that puts us even closer."

Ty Bauschelt isn't referring to the 4 x 400 school record, something he’s had a hand in breaking and re-setting three times both indoor and outdoor. Nope, the tall slender peroxide-tinted chestnut-haired senior was referring to a much-coveted Wisconsin state record.

"They've probably been doing more math figuring their times for the 4 x 4 (400 relay) than actually at school. They’ve been thinking about it (state record), planning for it, and working for it," said Coach Bauschelt. "Each of them brings something to that relay that the other doesn't have as much of and it ends up being the perfect storm. It's beautiful to watch them run together.

"Silloway has a phenomenal start out of the blocks and he's so consistent," continued Coach Bauschelt. "He's like the racetrack rabbit and he'll pick everybody off in that last 100 meters with consistency."

"I didn't think Jack (Silloway) was going to be back until the conference meet," said Andrews as he re-spun the soccer ball for another middle finger spin.

Silloway tore his ACL in the first game of his senior football season in September.

"After Jack had the surgery, he just never stopped," said Coach Bauschelt. "He had this rage for missing out on his senior football season and he focused all of his energy into track."

The doctors gave Silloway a time-table return of seven to nine months. He was back competing on the indoor track within five months.

"I'm doing great," said Silloway. "I'm not having any pain."  

Breaking the Wisconsin state record in the 4 x 400-meter relay is not only going to take four parts maximizing every ounce of the combined team talent, but Andrews' scolded puppy dog eyes will have to turn into a dog on the track.

"Quin is a dog and that's what you need at the four-spot for a relay," said Coach Bauschelt. "He doesn't really need to know a time; he's just not going to lose. That’s a dog. A dog will fall face first on the track just to beat somebody. That's his job."

One of the more memorable lines from the movie "The Departed" is: "I'm the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy."

If a look could speak during an interview, that is exactly what Quin Andrews’ eyes were saying. Andrews doesn’t need to speak concerning track questions. He lets his track shoes do the talking for him.