Cedarville University Yellow Jackets

May 1, 2014

As the sights, smells, and winds of spring finally begin to appear, it is sad to see the season end. For many the last meet of the year was this past week, and for all but a select few (DII National Competitors), the season concludes this Saturday at the Indiana Invitational or graduation. Every senior on the team exemplifies the hard work and passion of student- athletes. I wish all the seniors many blessings in their future when they finally enter… "The real world."

For all of us returning to Cedarville next year, we will be stuck in the Cedarville Bubble, training and fellowshipping daily with one another. Some view the Cedarville Bubble as a negative to the college experience, but any time I am constrained to an area with folk on the track team, many unforgettable experiences occur. Team friendships have been created this year, and I am sad to depart from this coalition of brethren.

"thou dearest trackies"

upon departure to thy city of birth, one may lose sight of the endeth goal. fudgeling will not lendeth to improvement, and thus i wilt addresseth thou one lasteth timeth. ultracrepidarians will tryeth to p'rsuadeth thou about gains in the weight cubiculo 'r on the track. doeth not listeneth to such men but rath'r thy owneth heart. traineth until thy heart giveth out and thou will yield much success. summ'r shall not be timeth to f'rgeteth the hard w'rketh we all hast pour'd out. and thus i sendeth thou onward toward a summ'r fill'd with less reading, moo sleepeth, but still vig'rous training. haply not as intense as coacheth scott juni'r, but that is not too troubling as his training hath leadeth to multitudinous injuries. f'r all who art injured, be safe and acquireth much rest to starteth next season strong. leteth us all enjoyeth the breaketh and returneth to the ville with much diligence and focus to surpass our current bests.

With that being said, it has been a privilege to write the track blog for yinz each week. I hope my Pittsburghese or newly acquired Shakespearean dialects have not been overwhelming, but shortly you can return to your native accent.

I want to thank all of the coaches one last time for all of the hard work they have poured into the track & field team. Without their knowledge and passion for the sport, there would not have been such great results this year. Both Coach Scott’s have been great additions to the team, and I know that next year they along with Coach Bolender will continue to invest in our athletes on and off the track.

Finally I want to thank Horace Mann. Many of you do not know my friend Horace, but he was the first person to "invent" summer breaks from school in 1840. Everyone say "thank you Horace"! Hopefully you appreciate this man and this last fun fact of the year during your time off from school (not training) this summer.


April 21, 2014

The weather for the G-MAC meet this past Saturday was almost perfect. Birds chirped as I exited my dorm and walked toward the track, the sun glistened through the clouds and warmed the competition areas, and the wind…almost knocked me off my feet, which is why I said "almost perfect" weather conditions. Even though I am a member of the track team, the wind at Cedarville makes me feel un-athletic. On multiple occasions the wind would blow my one foot into the other just as I was about to step forward, causing me to stumble and look like I "had a bad cat’s pizza," according to Coach Scott Senior. Hopefully I am not the only athlete, let alone person, who this has ever happened to at the ‘Ville! Anyways…let’s get back to the meet.

Meanwhile…back at the meet and the wind is still howling! My little, but not so little, brother (6’2" and a week over 15 years old) told me that the temperature was 60 degrees. As goosebumps began to form on my arms I doubted his declaration, but I understood that the weathermen had won him over and convinced him of their lies. He was still young and naïve about the Cedar Lake effect, but would learn in time it procreated the fiercest winds and storms in all of the Midwest.

Speaking of the Midwest, a fun fact of the day can be the meaning of G-MAC, since I did not learn this until awards were given out at the end of the meet. G-MAC stands for Great Midwest Athletic Conference, but I’m sure all of you "smart people" out there already knew that, so I will find another fact worth calling fun for "yinz" at the end of the blog today.

Almost everyone at the meet was exploring the unfamiliar ground of many new or unfamiliar events, so there was not time for additional exploration outside of competition – it was down to track business for us all! Since this was a championship meet, many athletes, including myself, competed in many events to attempt to score more points for the team. James almost returned to his decathlon days as he competed in at least six events, Corey returned once again to the high jump days of high school and the dreaded 400 meter hurdles, and many sprinters and distance runners ran as much as their hamstrings could handle.

Speaking of hamstrings…the trainers almost ran out of ice on Saturday. In less than five minutes, three hamstrings on the team had been pulled, and a couple more followed throughout the day. Even though it was a tough day for hamstrings, there were still some amazing performances.

I am not even going to try to list everyone that won an event, placed in the top 3, or had a PR. There were so many great performances that I would do no justice to the team if I attempted to list people who performed well. Therefore, I recommend for everyone to check out our team’s page on Cedarville’s website to read about all of the great performances. Even though I can’t remember all of the individual performances, I can remember how it felt when they announced the Cedarville Men’s Outdoor Track team as the First Place winners of the G-MAC…awesome! All of the outstanding performances and people sacrificing their bodies (hamstrings) for the team led to a first place finish in the G-MAC. I’m so proud of everyone who came out and gave what it took to win the meet and honor God in the process.

The season has begun to wind down, and there are only two more meets remaining. They were both meets added after our initial schedule due to conflicts, but will be more opportunities for members on the team to surpass their current bests. This weekend we have a meet at the Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, which starts at 11:00 a.m. I hope you will come out and support the last couple meets we have because I know we will have many more incredible marks. Finally, I want to personally thank all of the coaches for their help with the G-MAC meet on Saturday. Without them the meet would not have been possible and I greatly appreciate all of the hard work they put into setting up and running the meet.

Alas, I cannot think of a relatable fun fact for everyone so I leave you with a fact about records, since so many have been broken this season. Did you know that the Guinness Book of World Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from libraries? It’s probably because the book is like $150 and is heavy enough to beat someone with if they try to stop him or her from stealing the book. Well, that is a useless fact for the day, but come back next week when I give some more meaningful facts about the performance of teammates at the meet at Miami!


April 16, 2014

It was 9:55 am...5 minutes until men's javelin started. Tim De Jong and I had a mission, which Tom Cruise would say was impossible, but we begged to differ - get to Coy Field to watch Jor-El Sanchez throw a javelin. You may be thinking Tom Cruise or any ordinary individual could complete this mission with relative ease but I forgot to mention that Coy Field is 1 1/2 miles away and to us the location is unknown. A five-minute mile and a half would be the next shot heard around the world, and it would also break my PACL record in half. The glistening American flag waving in the wind and the heavily pollinated air had my eyes watering. I couldn’t have asked for a better day to break some records.

We dashed through the gates at record-setting speeds toward the first obstacle in our journey...the unknown road. We had a 50% chance of guessing the correct path for our travels, but as I turned back to Tim a sign caught my eye. "Shuttle to Coy Field," stopped us in our tracks. We had been on pace to break records during that first 100 meters, but my gut was already telling me that it would not make the additional 2300 meters, and neither would those hard boiled eggs. Plan B - the black van aka the shuttle.

I recalled Jor-El inquiring about the travels to Coy Field, in which coach said a big black van would shuttle people to the destination. As we stood there, suddenly a black mini-van pulled into the circle, and I was about to hop in when I noticed it was just a family inside of a black mini van...not our shuttle. This foreshadowed the most painful 20 minutes of the meet, besides my sunburn of course. We waited and waited and finally "There it is!" I yelled. Another black mini-van pulled into the circle, but our hopes were crushed as another family unloaded.

"Should we run or wait?" I asked. After five minutes of asking the same question over and over, Tim had enough. He was about to throw in the towel and return to the hernia- inducing bleacher seats when an actual shuttle emerged from the horizon. It came closer and closer until it failed to turn into the circle, as we became a dot in its rear view mirror. Unwilling to accept defeat I sprinted after the shuttle and hurled my body in front of the vehicle as it came to a screeching halt. "Are you my shuttle?" I asked the horrified driver who sat there motionless. She shook her head, and I proceeded to ask her if she could be my shuttle. I explained the situation and our mission to arrive at Coy Field in record time and surprisingly the shuttle doors flew open.

The next thing I knew Tim finally caught up and we climbed aboard a random shuttle in the city of Cincinnati. We still knew relatively little about the location of this field and the only thing I remember hearing Coach Scott say was that it reminded him of the baseball field in The Sandlot. I relayed this information to the driver but unfortunately she had not seen the movie. We started driving and the driver proceeded to yell out her window at every civilian in site, demanding the location of "Cory Field." I explained and even spelled the name "Coy Field," multiple times but she continued to yell the name of our very talented hurdle runner on the team.

At last, a glimmer of hope emerged. After driving around in circles we found ourselves back at the stadium. I jumped out and asked an official the location of the field and he explained a shuttle would take me there...little did he know it had been twenty minutes and the actual shuttle was still not at the circle. Our driver didn't care though as she slammed on the gas after hearing the field was located near the hospital (where she was actually supposed to be shuttling people to). We drove through the city and onto a back road where we stumbled upon Coy Street. This was our ticket to the javelin show, as we darted off the bus, thanked our driver, and wished her a bountiful life. Running down the street a local told us where the field was located...
Finally – in someone’s backyard (after passing through a bamboo forest), we found Coy Field and that was all that mattered...well sort of.

Passing beneath the canopy of bamboo, I heard an epic man-grunt as a javelin whizzed into the air and crashed to the earth around a sign labeled 190-feet. Either Jor-El ate three boxes of Wheaties for breakfast or the grunt had come from another athlete. Tim and I half-jogged over to the competition area, searching for Jor-El among the others. We stopped and did a double. Jor-El was nowhere in sight. An official explained this was finals for javelin and that "our guy" had blown out his elbow. Tim and I looked back at each other and just started laughing, not about Jor-El of course. We had done everything in our ability to locate this Coy Field, which Tom Cruise definitely would not have found, and our efforts had been in vain.

We walked back through the bamboo forest and were determining how we would find the stadium, when we came face to face with the smoke monster from Lost...well not really but it was close. That big black van aka the actual shuttle idled nearby, taunting our failed efforts to watch our teammate compete. We looked at each other, climbed in, and sat in silence on the ride back to the stadium. Upon arrival we exited, did not thank the driver, and returned to those awful bleachers to find Jor-El icing his elbow. In the end, I think Tim would agree that our mission was a partial success. A success in that we made it to Coy Field and avoided sitting on the bleachers for another agonizing hour.

There were many events besides javelin that occurred during this two-day meet at the University of Cincinnati, which I mainly watched from my favorite bleacher seats. As a skinny guy I don't have enough meat on my bones to enjoy the events from a seated position. Whether I was standing or sitting, there were many athletes on our team who brought their A-game to another D1 meet. We had many Top 8 finishes including Andre in the 100 and 200, Gus in the 1500, and Niemiec in the steeplechase. I know others placed in the Top 8, but I either missed them compete while on my adventure to Coy Field or due to my loss of consciousness from sitting on the bleachers too long.

Overall it was a great meet and only one of our bus drivers arrived late to Cedarville, which is an improvement from our prior bus experiences. If only all of our bus drivers could be like our friend driving the shuttle around Cincinnati! At least our meet is at home this week so we don't have to worry about being an hour and a half late to the meet. This Saturday is the G-MAC Outdoor Championship meet and I hope that everyone reading this either attends as an athlete or a spectator because you will be sure to witness some incredible performances!
Until next time, I leave you with a short fun fact, as my short novel must conclude.

I'm a pasty white guy, which is partly due to my Swedish heritage. At the meet on Friday, but more so on Saturday, I got extremely sun burnt. However, the funny part is that I sat in the shade the entire time except when I competed for about a half hour. When I was sitting, a building was even blocking the sun! I know you can still get burnt on a cloudy day from experience because those UV rays pass through clouds, but I couldn’t even see the sun! Whatever the case may be I will be bathing in sunscreen before the meet this weekend, and I urge you to take the same precautions.

Sunscreen fun fact - "Top Secret" military research was done in the 1940's for the most effective sunscreen for U.S. Army and Air Force soldiers.

I may not be in the Army or Air Force but I need this sunscreen! SPF 100 doesn’t cut it for the tall and lanky Swede anymore. Maybe the little girl on the Coppertone bottle knows where I can find this screen from the sun.


April 8, 2014

Arriving at Miami University of Ohio, I was pleasantly reminded that we were competing at the past home of a fellow Yinzer. For those of you who may not speak my Pittsburghese, a Yinzer refers to the use of "yinz" as the plural of the second person pronoun "you." Thus, a Yinzer is a term used to indicate those who identify themselves with the city of Pittsburgh. Ben Roethlisberger aka Big Ben, is said Yinzer. For everyone who does not follow great sports teams, Ben Roethlisberger is our QB for the Steelers. Big Ben’s presence foreshadowed the great competition at the meet.

But first, some quick fun facts – My grandpa taught me how to spell Roethlisberger when I was in 4th grade when the Steelers drafted Big Ben. Even though this was an impressive word to spell, it did not appear in my Spelling Bee, which I lost by the way. Also, another fun fact is that a sandwich shop in Pittsburgh called Peppi’s sells "Roethlisburgers" at a great price of only $7.95. Now that you’re hungry for some "meet talk," let us begin.

After our bus departed 30 minutes late, surprisingly we were still one of the first teams to arrive at the meet. Thank goodness Coach Bolender is always prepared because this allowed the throwers and Abbey to get to the meet before they needed to check in at 10 a.m. for their events. Also, this allowed some of us time for exploration.

Climbing to the top of the stadium bleachers I found myself both exhausted and in awe of the scenery’s grandeur. A couple of us sat there and admired the view while mentally preparing for the meet. Then as soon as the girl’s soccer team left the field, we physically prepared for the meet by tossing the pigskin around. More of our athletes joined, which eventually led to a game of jackpot. Don’t worry NCAA, we were not gambling or betting with one another. For those of you (and the NCAA) who may not know, jackpot is just a game where you toss a football and whoever catches it gets a certain amount of points. This game ended with the realization that we had to properly warm up before our events started on such a cold day.

Despite the frigid weather, there were many notable performances. Jor-el Sanchez decided to pick up a javelin for the first time at a meet and heave it to 4th place. Corey Caldwell, Ryan Gustafson, and James Blackwell proved they could hang with D1 athletes, as they placed 1st in their respective events. Andre Klaassen dashed 100 meters in only 10.8 seconds to finish just shy of 1st place. There were many other great performances at the meet and I encourage you to visit our website because my limited memory does not do the team justice.

After a great day of performances, we ended with an even greater feat…finishing a Quesarito at Chipotle. I already listed a couple fun facts above, but this is notably the most life changing (unless you visit Pittsburgh). There is a secret menu item at Chipotle called the Quesarito, which very few know about. If you can muster up the courage to order the behemoth and face the wrath of all the employees who despise making this item, you will struggle to finish the beast…well unless you just competed in a track meet. By definition on the secret menu, the Quesarito is a "burrito in which the shell of the burrito is a cheese quesadilla." There were at least four brave enough on our team to attempt the feat and to my knowledge they all made it home safely.

Neither of the Coach Scotts attempted the achievement as their previous half-gallon challenge days have left mental and physical scars, which ultimately gave them insight on the dangers of such experimentations. However, for everyone else I suggest trying the Quesarito or the Roethlisburger at least once…it will make a Yinzer proud.


April 1, 2014

This past weekend six new school records were broken, 23 personal records attained, and I have a perfect bracket so far in March Madness. April Fools!

I am sure there were school records and PR’s achieved this past weekend somewhere in the world… and we won't talk about my bracket. Mark Twain once said, "The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year." My mom reminded me quite early in the morning that I indeed could be a fool, by stating that I owed money to the government for taxes! This was not my preferred alarm to wake me up, but it did better than a cup of joe.

This past weekend our home opener turned out to be or not to be...our home opener. That was thy question and thy answer came in form of an executive decision to cancel the meet. The deciding factor came from the weathermen, who predicted winds that would toss our high jump and pole vault mats further than the athletes competing would jump. Even though the weathermen disappoint me time after time with their predictions they were, as Coach Scott Senior would say, "right on." It was a shame our meet was canceled, but I knew it was the right decision when I saw the snow begin to flutter right around 2 o’clock that day. The initial snowflakes turned into a blizzard that lasted for several hours! Needless to say, there most likely would not have been six new school records and 23 new personal records accomplished in our meet.

Our new season opener is now this Friday and Saturday at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Hopefully at the meet we will attain all of the records listed above, but more importantly that we will glorify God with our talents and performances. I have not checked the weather yet for this weekend, and I don’t think I will.

Fact – April Fool’s Day began under the Roman reign of Theodosius I when Olympians were gathered to compete on April 1st. They had trained years for this meet, and were told upon arrival that specific attire would be required. An uproar broke out, as the competitors were accustomed to the aerodynamics of the birthday suit. As a result, the athletes looked and acted like fools, struggling to compete in this constrictive clothing. The events that transpired were etched in stone tablets, which were later discovered by rapper Ludacris, who used them to write his hit single, "Act a Fool." Today we celebrate April Fool’s Day as a reminder of what can happen when modifications to the dress code (especially at Cedarville) are implemented.

Truth – I have lied to you in the above paragraph, but we still have a meet this weekend. Let’s go Jackets!


March 27, 2014

Two weeks ago, two of the men on our team were able to travel down south for a little extra spring break weather. In between their breaks of sun bathing and lounging beside the pool, they stumbled upon a track meet that was nearby. It turned out to be the NCAA Division II Nationals! Of course these two men happened to be the most talented guys on our team this winter, and both agreed they could sacrifice some of their tan in order to compete in this last indoor championship meet of the season.

I have to admit, it took more than just finding the location of this meet to actually compete. These two guys, James Blackwell and Matt Brooker, had some incredible performances this indoor season and were the only athletes on our team who qualified for D2 Nationals. However, I am sure they were still able to get a little sun while they were down south for three days.

At the meet, Brooker finished 12th in the 5K with a time of 14:39.41. This was the first time he competed at indoor D2 Nationals and proved his athletic ability among the best in the nation. James on the other hand was returning to this revered track but was competing in slightly fewer events this year - six to be exact. Last year James competed in the heptathlon, but due to an ongoing injury, his feet would not allow this feat. This was no problem for James as he decided to break records with just a pole this year, and ended up placing 9th among 17 other pole vaulters with a vault of 16 feet 0.75 inches. I cannot believe we have such amazing athletes here at Cedarville, and I look forward to seeing what everyone can accomplish during the outdoor season.

Speaking of outdoor, our schedule may say it is time to move outside, but Ohio begs to differ. This past week we lugged all of our mats, gear, and implements to the outdoor track. Coach Bo tried to schedule this event on the warmest day, but it ended up being quite nippy. I do not blame Coach Bo but rather the weatherman. As my grandma always says, "Meteorologists are the only people who can be wrong 50% of the time and not lose their job." So for anyone out there struggling in his or her classes…maybe meteorology could be for you.

Now that we have transitioned to the much more forgiving outdoor track, hopefully the training room should not be bursting at the seams. The much-dreaded shin splints and other related injuries should disappear soon enough. Unfortunately, not all problems will be solved in the great outdoors. We will shorten the list to weather…and more specifically wind. This will present new challenges, especially for our first outdoor meet this Saturday March 29. We are hosting this meet, and I hope that many people will come out to see our hard work and training pay off.

Moving outside and relying on the double-crossing weatherman, I leave you with some alliteration and a fairly fitting fun fact for future factors.

When faced with the uncertainty of temperature, you can take the amount of chirps a cricket makes in 15 seconds and add 37 to that number to arrive at a more accurate temperature than meteorologists report. I hope this helps you dress accordingly for our home meet this Saturday. Maybe we should change our name to the Cedarville Crickets…they’re probably more intimidating than yellow jackets.


March 4, 2014

Despite the frigid below-freezing temperatures, this is considered Spring Break. Back home in the Burgh, Weather.com tells me it’s the same temperature in Cedarville, but I know they are lying because that Cedar-lake effect is brutal! I am jealous of all of my trackmates (I’ll mention this word to Webster) who were lucky enough to travel down south for this week. Also, I feel bad for Matt’s parents as a couple trackies (another on the Webster’s list) decided to crash at his abode in Florida. Regardless of where we are all spending this week, I am just glad we have a break!

Even though this is technically a break, do our bodies get a break? Did I seriously just think that? Of course they don’t! We had our training e-mailed to us before departing so that we would not get the idea of rest in our minds. However, continuing to train is extremely important at this point in the season. Believe it or not, we will be transitioning from indoor to outdoor so now is not the time to be slackers. We have worked too hard!

You may be unaware that our team actually had a track meet this past week. On Saturday, the first technical day of our break, a partial team traveled to Anderson, Indiana for the last indoor meet of the season. Unfortunately many on the team, including myself, could not attend the meet because we did not have a ride home and would have been left stranded in Cedarville for over a week. I wish I could have gone to the meet not only to compete, but also witness another record that was broken.

Yes, Andre has done it again. Setting his second official school record this year, he ran a time of 22.76 in the 200 meter dash. He has had an incredible season so far and we haven’t even started outdoor yet! I can’t wait to see what he, along with the rest of the team, accomplishes this outdoor season. There were also some other great performances at the meet from James Blackwell winning the pole vault, Tyler Greenwood finishing sixth in the 3K, and Philip Dannelly finishing fourth in the 800 meters. Overall it was a great meet and the guys ended up finishing ninth, which is good considering many athletes could not make the meet.

Here we go…it’s time for the Fun Fact of the Week. I thought that it was appropriate to include something dealing with the Burgh, since I am feeling all this reverence of my homeland this week. Did you know that in 1982 Scott Fahlman, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, was the first person to use the smiley emoticon? You’re welcome :-) How else would you express your emotion to your significant other? Oh yeah - spring is March 20th!

In the meantime, stay warm, and I will see you guys back in the ‘Ville ready to train next week.


February 26, 2014

Nationals – when all the best athletes from around the country gather in one place to compete and discover who can handle the pressure and finish on top.

I am proud to write about two individual guys on our team that took first place in their events at the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) meet this past weekend. Those two individuals are Matt Brooker and Ben Tuttle. They both had incredible performances with Brooker running an 8:35.68 3K and Tuttle running a 14:54.78 5K. I think it is awesome that these two guys are the best in the nation! I’m sure there are some D1 athletes out there who might try to contest them, but they would be crazy to try to take on our Yellow Jacket All-Americans. It was a job well done by these guys, as well as many other impressive Top 10 finishes from James Blackwell, Clay Watson, Joe Niemiec, Matt Cheney, Corey Caldwell, and Ryan Gustafson.

But we are a team, are we not? Yes, and as a team we finished in fourth-place among 21 other schools that had athletes represented at the meet. I think that is pretty impressive! We achieved this fourth-place finish with other reputable performances from the 4 x 4, 4 x 8, and Distance Medley Relay (DMR) teams. Cedarville, what is your profession? After the meet, we would reply as the Spartans did in the movie 300, but since I can’t type out their manly grunts you will have to imagine what it sounds like. For anyone out there who hasn’t seen the movie I guess our profession would be a current student.

After the long two-day meet, our qualifying Indoor Christian National Athletes have returned home to continue the grind. The success of our athletes is by no means luck, but directly correlated to their hard work at practice. It is crazy to think that March is just around the corner and our outdoor season will be starting soon! I can’t wait to start training outdoors and see what our team can accomplish breathing that good old fresh Ohio air. With that, I leave you with the Fun Fact of the Week, which requires a little back-story.

Recently in my Web Analytics class we were looking at what keywords people typed into Google to arrive at Cedarville’s website. As you probably guessed, most of the keywords consisted of the word "Cedarville" and other various attempts by those who didn’t make it to the Spelling Bee championship. However, we wanted to find out what un-branded keywords people were typing in Google, and still coming to our website. The un-branded keywords would be those without "cedar" in the search. We applied the filter and… the second highest un-branded keyword was "pole vault world record." That means that people were typing in pole vault world record in Google and arriving at Cedarville’s website. I don’t know if Coach Scott is hiding something from us or it’s a sign that James is going to be competing in the next Olympics but I found it pretty cool.
Well, that’s my fun fact for the week! Now, I will return home to the ‘Burgh for some slightly better than Ohio spring break weather.


February 19, 2014

22.68 seconds. 10 minutes 12.16 seconds. 41-feet 3-inches. These were all Cedarville school records broken this past weekend at the Indiana University Hoosier Hills track meet. In addition to the new records set on Friday, we had new personal records and multiple top 10 finishes, which all prove our team’s ability to hang with the big dogs (D1 schools).

I would like to point out the talented individuals who broke the school records listed above. Andre Klaassen broke the 200-meter dash with his time of 22.68 seconds. The Distance Medley Relay (DMR) team of Ryan Gustafson, Tim De Jong, Tyler Greenwood, and Wyatt Hartman ran a combined time of 10:12.16 seconds. Finally, Anna Pomento broke her own shot put school record, previously set at the home meet on February 7, with a throw of 41-feet 3-inches. Wow – the record breaking happening this season speaks of the amazing talent on our team!

I did not travel to the meet on Friday, but I heard a few of our athletes had a slight delay in their warm up routine, if they even had time to warm up. Apparently there were multiple accidents in the middle of the highway, which caused an additional two hours of travel time going to the meet!

Arriving 30 minutes after the meet started, Valerie Kirk aka "Captain Kirk," motivated the team by stating, "There’s only one kind of woman…or man, for that matter. You either believe in yourself or you don’t." With that she sprinted off the bus straight to the 60-meter hurdles where she jumped in her heat and PR’d with a time of 9.45 seconds. Okay…maybe she didn’t quote The Captain James Tiberius Kirk before her race, but since I wasn’t there maybe she did. Regardless of her exact words, Val still went on to PR and finish fourth in her heat with hardly any warm up, which is downright impressive!

Back at the ‘Ville, I woke up Saturday morning for a workout at the gym. Surprisingly, I found some of the meet competitors in the gym as well. I was even more shocked after I found out from Beth, who finished in the top 10 in long and triple jump that they got back to Cedarville a little after 3 a.m.! A little less than 7 hours later she along with other track members were in the gym working out. That is true dedication to say the least. Overall, I cannot believe we had such incredible performances on Friday at the Indiana University meet. I wish I could have been there to witness all the new records, PR’s, and bus ride conversations!

Oh yeah, and one more thing. I recently recalled that in a previous blog I promised a Fun Fact of the Week…well I sort of forgot. My apologies, but since the Winter Olympics are happening now, I thought this would be an interesting fact. Did you know that a record of 88 different countries qualified to compete in this year’s 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi? However, even more shocking is that of those 88 nations, 18 have just one athlete competing in the games. Hopefully you found that interesting, and I will try my best to remember a new fun fact…each week.


February 12, 2014

This past weekend, we had some incredible performances at our home meet. NCAA provisional marks were made, races were won, and new records were made. This along with an overall solid team performance yielded a first place finish for our team! I loved watching all of our talented athletes compete this weekend, and we were joined with some new faces at the meet.

Besides the past weekend being our first home meet of the season, it was also the Cedarville high school indoor meet on Saturday. After our meet was over, we packed up and got ready to host the high school meet on Saturday. This is a huge event for our team because as a whole we basically run the meet (except for the hired officials). I want to specifically thank Coach Bolender for all the time and effort he spent to host the high school meet. Without him, the meet would not have been possible and his effort is greatly appreciated!

Recovering and tired from our meet, many of the A.M. volunteers on our team joined some of the high school students before their big meet. This was another time well spent relating and encouraging each other, while really getting to know some of the high school kids as they were experiencing the pre-meet jitters we had the day before. Watching them later compete had to be my favorite part of the weekend. The amount of talent these kids have is amazing!

As I talked to other high school athletes during the meet, I found that many were considering competing on our track & field team. All I can say is awesome! These talented individuals would make a great addition to our track & field team, and I hope they all consider joining us next year as we continue to give our talents to God.

Each meet, I find our team improving on a physical and personal measure. We have really grown a lot as athletes and friends since the beginning of our fall training, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for the rest of the season. This upcoming weekend we have a meet on Valentines Day (the 14th for those of you like me without a significant other), and it will be at Indiana Hoosier Hills. For the qualifying athletes this will be a great meet, as we will be competing against many NCAA I schools.

Now I leave you with a Bible verse that we had on the back of our t-shirts last year, but it should remain as a goal and motto for the rest of the season.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." - II Timothy 4:7


February 5, 2014

Everyone loves getting free stuff - especially clothes. However, with the track & field team being so large, apparel is something that doesn’t come very often…until now. This past week the team received two t-shirts to add to our collection of Cedarville track & field apparel. Not only are we grateful for receiving the free clothing, but these t-shirts also build our team spirit and possibly the spirit of others.

You may be wondering how a t-shirt can lead to spirituality? I recently discovered that Coach Scott Junior has a t-shirt ministry. He wears different shirts with sayings like "I run for Christ" or "I compete for Christ" labeled on the front of the shirt to track meets. He has now enlarged this ministry to include the Cedarville track & field team. One of the t-shirts we received this past week had one of the two sayings above. As Christian athletes, we hope that by wearing these shirts to meets we will be able to witness to other schools and create a positive image for Christianity as a whole.

It is so cool to see other athletes on our team glorifying God’s name and providing a good testimony. A specific example of this came at the Youngstown State meet, where I witnessed a group of girls on our team huddled in a circle praying in the middle of hundreds of athletes and spectators. Awesome! They didn’t care what other people thought of them and really stood out as a fellowship of believers. I also noticed many people glancing over at them while they were praying and thought this was the true definition of team spirit: spirit with each other, but more importantly with Christ.

Anticipating our meet this weekend, we have been training hard and waking up early. The dreaded morning practices have returned! Even though it is hard to wake up at 6 a.m., the discipline and extra practice is worth it in the long run…especially for the distance crew.

This week we have our home meet on Friday, February 7 and then the Cedarville/Richey high school meet on Saturday. With the great team spirit and our new t-shirts, our team will be hoping to represent Jesus well this weekend! Now for everyone on the team...my hope is that we can lay everything on the track this weekend and give our best ability while honoring God as a united team.


January 29, 2014

A quiet bus filled with track & field athletes may seem odd, but at 6 a.m. breaking the silence is frowned upon. As the majority of us slept on the long four-hour bus ride to Youngstown for our meet, Coach Scott Junior suddenly broke the silence. "Who wants to do the half-gallon challenge?" Immediately I was wide-awake anticipating this new event.

Now for those of you who do not know what the half-gallon challenge is…beware. It is the most rigorous and painful event ever to be endured by a human being right behind its big brother – the gallon challenge. Those who run the 400 (the hardest event in my opinion) are no match for this new challenge, and any of their conditioning is deemed useless. Outlawed in all states but Ohio, we were pushing our limits as we traveled close to the Pennsylvania border to the Youngstown meet.

Well, maybe it’s not outlawed in any states but it sure seems like a crazy thing to do. The half-gallon or gallon challenge is for an individual to drink a half-gallon of milk in 30 minutes or a gallon in an hour. Why any person would do this I do not know, but apparently Coach Scott Junior had the answer.

As I turned my attention to Coach Scott sitting in the front of the bus, he did not have any milk, the only required material to complete the challenge. It turns out that coach was not challenging anyone at the moment but telling everyone a story of his past experience. Relieved but disappointed that I wouldn’t see anyone attempting this challenge, I caught the end of his story.

Years ago, Coach Scott Junior was very thirsty after competing at a track meet. Now, this is normal for any athlete, but instead of turning to water or Gatorade, coach chose chocolate milk as his quenching beverage. To sum up the story, Coach Scott Junior and Senior were challenged to partake in the half-gallon challenge on the ride home from a track meet. They, along with other athletes, decided to accept the challenge and immediately started chugging the milk. Let’s just say that the milk likely tasted a lot better the first time around than it did with their heads out the window or pulled over on the side of the road!

These types of stories are what make the track & field meets such an enjoyable time. Most people would dread a four-hour bus ride to compete in a single day meet, but on the track team I look forward to the time spent with my fellow athletes.

Also, I am grateful that I was not on the other bus, as we found out their heat was broken (sorry guys). I’m sure everyone bonded just as we did, and the increased cold probably brought yinz even closer together. Speaking of yinz, that reminds me of the fun fact of the week. Did you know that at least five people on the track team can solve the Rubik’s cube? I found out at Youngstown that two additional people can solve the puzzle. (I need to discover if there are any other Rubik’s Cube fanatics out there on the next road trip.) Evidently fast legs correspond with fast fingers as 4 of the 5 can solve the cube in under a minute! Maybe we can come up with a new event for the Olympics. Speed Cube Walking anyone?

Our day ended how it started – on a bus traveling with our teammates. The team bonding during our travels is always an unforgettable experience. I even heard Coach Scott Junior again mention something about his half-gallon challenge in the wee hours of the night on the bus ride home.

In the end the meet technically was a two-day meet, as the last event finished just before 1 a.m.! Even though at this point our snacks were depleted and everyone was exhausted, the long bus ride was well worth it. I hope you take a minute to check our Yellow Jacket website for the meet details. There were around 50 teams participating in this meet and we had some awesome accomplishments! I’m proud of everyone who competed and gave his or her best efforts to God this past weekend.

Back at Cedarville we try to get some sleep and begin to focus on accomplishing even greater things for our next meet at home on Friday, February 7. To push beyond expectation is our goal for the season as we continue to train hard and give glory to His name.


January 23, 2014

The frigid -30 degree temperature may have frozen campus life for the first day of the second semester, but our practice that day helped rekindle the fire for a heated season. Practicing indoors, this glacial weather was still a rude welcome back to campus. Those who returned from the south experienced a 100-degree temperature drop!

It’s always a nice surprise to find that our track team suddenly doubles in size once we return from Christmas break, and I don’t mean in girth from eating too many cookies and cake. I’m referring to the addition of the very talented and humorous cross country team. The guys and girls on the team add a lot of talent as well as evidence that running can be fun - well at least for their sake I hope so. Also, this year they debunked the scientists who said you would get frostbite staying outside on the days of those record-setting lows. If you give me the best weather conditions ever chronicled, I still wouldn’t be able to run as far as they did on those days. Running around 100 miles a week despite the weather conditions is pure evidence of their diligence.

Regardless of the weather conditions, this year we strive for a successful season that will consist of new school records, personal bests, lasting memories, growth in our faith, and of course, listening to Coach Scott’s interesting variety of music on our way to the meets.

Speaking of coaches, we actually have two new additions this year for the track & field team: Coach Scott and Coach Scott. Yes, we have been unable to think of any names to differentiate between the father-son duo, but we will resort to junior and senior for now. We have been blessed with incredible coaches at Cedarville and the Scott’s are no exception. Junior provides us with an example of what hard work and training under a spiritual basis can lead to. He also gives us an example of the dangers found in intramural sports, now confined to a boot for his ankle injury. Senior, on the next branch up in the family tree, provides a plethora of knowledge in every event as well as the most unique sense of humor I have ever experienced. Together they make great additions to the coaching staff!

Now the question is, are yinz ready for a great season? My Pittsburghese is probably foreign to most of you but I thought I should give a little background info on myself considering you’re going to have to become accustomed to my vocabulary for the next few months. Well as you may have guessed, I reside close to the Burgh of Pennsylvania (Steeler Country), living in a suburb thirty minutes away. I study Broadcasting and Digital Media with a minor in Business Administration. On the track team I’m that guy trying to jump over a bar backwards doing the Fosbury Flop, also known as the high jump. Well I hope you know a little more about me now, and yinz will be our vocabulary word/fun fact of the week. The pronoun yinz means you all or y’all for those down south.

With that out of the way it is now time to focus our attention to the meet this Friday at Youngstown. This will be the second meet this season for the team, but the cross country runners will be experiencing the cold feet we felt a month ago during the first meet for the team. They probably had cold feet back in December from running outside, but the meet this Friday will be the opening to their track season.

The bar has been set high for this meet and everyone’s hard work and training will be put to the test. The first meet at Findlay on December 7th yielded two new school records. Laura Farleman shattered her old pentathlon record finishing with 3,153 points and Andre Klaassen showed up to his first college meet to break the 60 meter dash record with a time of 7.11 seconds. I am extremely proud of them as well as all of our other athletes who competed in the first meet. I can’t wait to see what our team does this weekend!

As the introduction to our season begins, I hope yinz are ready to leave our mark in Cedarville’s history this year and to strive toward competing for God’s glory regardless of the circumstance. Let’s give our best efforts to Him this weekend, and I will leave everyone with this quote from Doris Brown Heritage, the first woman to run a sub-5 minute indoor mile.

"Running is a road to self-awareness and reliance - you can push yourself to extremes and learn the harsh reality of your physical and mental limitations or coast quietly down a solitary path watching the earth spin beneath your feet."


Ryan Sanderson is a sophomore high jumper from Pittsburgh, Pa. He is in his second season with the Yellow Jackets and is majoring in broadcast and digital media.