Cedarville University Yellow Jackets

November 15, 2016

Fair warning: this is going to be long.

I believe that NCCAA’s is the hardest race that we run as a team. Physically, it is one of the only races we run the week after another race (not to mention that previous week being a 10K). College cross country races take so much out of you that it really takes a full week to recover physically (our 10K guys never run back-to-back weeks in track for this very reason). Mentally, our season builds to its apex at Regionals, which is our most important meet of the year. Refocusing all of your mental energy in one week is a daunting task. Combine that with a twelve-hour one-way drive to Mississippi and you’ve got this past weekend.

Luckily, there were plans for an open race and banquet on Friday so the team made most of the drive on Thursday, spending the night in Memphis, and finished the last few hours on Friday. Several of our freshmen ran in the open race on Friday and Alex Weber captured our third straight open race individual title. Saturday morning continued this year’s trend of odd weather, with race-time temperatures in the lower 70's and the sun shining. The course was dry and hard, with rolling hills passing through a few wooded stretches.

Pack running continued to be our strength, as six of our seven guys came through the mile together right around 5:00. Wyatt pushed the pace in the middle of the race and the pack started to break down as the guys pushed different paces. Everyone closed well, but Wyatt, Sully, and Alec had finishes to remember. Wyatt spent the entire race leading the chase pack and finally picked a couple of the leaders off in the last 2K and held off two Dallas Baptist guys who’d been riding his hip the entire race. Sully was sick all week and looked like he was having a rough go at it halfway through, but buckled down and pushed with Matt from 6K-9K before turning on the eco-boost to get a few more in the last 800. Alec was clearly struggling at 6K, but like he’s done so many times he kept himself in the race and was passing in droves at the end. As a team we finished second overall behind Dallas Baptist. Wyatt (new PR), Sully (new PR, first time sub-26), Matt, and Zac all earned All-American honors.

This wraps up yet another season for CUXC and three more cross country careers for our seniors. As a team, this may have been, somewhat paradoxically, one of our best seasons in my time here. I’d have to check to be sure, but nearly everyone ran an 8K PR, last week at Regionals we saw universal 10K PR’s, we retained our G-MAC title, and 26 of our 30 guys ran at full strength this year. We were disappointed to see four of those 26 go out at some point before G-MAC (still, 22/30 is a pretty good percentage for us at G-MAC) and would liked to have raced better at Regionals, but all-in-all it was a successful year.

As for our seniors, it’s been a bit of a different journey than we expected. We entered camp week our freshman year with six guys. By the end of camp week we were at five. Sophomore year saw just three of us plus one transfer. Junior year saw another departure and we were down to three, the three we have now. None of the three of us had our careers go the way that we thought they would. We have each dealt with great successes and seemingly insurmountable difficulties on and off the course. God used our time as student-athletes to shape us in ways that we did not and could not foresee.

Matt Pelletier joined us three years ago after spending his first two years at Miami University. I first remember racing Matt when he was still at Miami. I raced him twice in the steeplechase (we split, in case you were wondering) and talked with him after one of the races about him coming to Cedarville. I’m glad he did. Matt has been one of the most consistent runners I’ve known. He cares deeply about his running and it shows in the serious nature he brings to workouts and races. He prepares mentally and physically for each hard day and that preparation leads to calm consistency. When you watch him race, he usually doesn’t start at the front of the pack and then pushes and does his passing in the middle of the race, which is so hard to do. Mentally he may be the strongest runner on our team and we’re going to miss the steadiness he provides. For all of his focus on the course, Matt is an expert at having fun off it. He can flip the switch between serious and fun in an instant and knows when to be in each mode. He wasn’t the most vocal leader on our team, but through his actions he has set an example for the rest of the team to follow. I will cherish our friendship for years to come.

Wyatt Hartman, I don’t even know where to begin. Wyatt and I are the only two left from our original group of six. We’ve been roommates, classmates, and teammates for four years. He has challenged every one of his teammates physically, mentally, and spiritually for the last four years. Wyatt fought through a stress fracture during track sophomore year and came back to have his best season of cross country and track as a junior and then an even better season this year. He loves running and wants to be fast more than anyone I know. Like Matt, Wyatt is all business when it comes to workouts and races. He has been crucial in setting the tone for our entire team from the front of the pack day in and day out. He has a mental toughness to grind through hard workouts second to none and challenges everyone else to match his level of intensity and his work ethic. He’s put in thousands of miles over four years and is responsible for thousands more put in by other guys. Spiritually, Wyatt has grown into one of the biggest leaders we’ve had. He has been a huge part of leading Bible study for the last two years and has started so many other conversations on runs that have challenged us as a team to be more like Jesus. All things said, our program is better for having had Wyatt here and I’m a better man for having spent the last four years with him.

As for me, I think back on four years of cross country at Cedarville and I’m amazed at the things that I’ve learned and the ways that I’ve grown. My running career certainly hasn’t been what I envisioned it would be, no one dreams of being hurt for three years and not getting to compete, but it’s what God had for me. I’ve heard that college is a time of accelerated growth and Coach O, Bud, and 51 different teammates have served as my accelerators. They have stood by me and helped me through some of the best and worst times of my life. I don’t know what I’m doing after graduation, but I know that no matter where I go those 53 men have my back and will continue push me to be more like Christ.

For all of you (if any of you are still reading at this point), we cannot thank you enough for the support you give. Alumni, you created a culture and a program that is changing lives. Parents, you raised sons that have shaped my life for Christ. Everyone else, your prayers and support mean more than you know. I would say that I’m going to miss you all, but I know that I’ll be seeing a lot of you in the next few months and even more still after graduation. Until next fall (when hopefully someone who’s an actual writer will take over this thing), we’ll see you all on the track!

Remember that it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,

Tyler


November 8, 2016

Every team in sports has one day circled on the calendar; one day that can single-handedly make a bad season a good one or a good season a bad one. For us, Regionals is that day. Our entire season is simply preparation for this one day. No pressure, right? Luckily, our guys have proven that they run their best under pressure.

The weather cooperated all week and for the first time in my four years we were set up for a fast race at Regionals. The ground was firm, the air was crisp but not cold, and there was no wind whatsoever. Our guys took full advantage, running our fastest team average at a Regional Championship since we qualified for Nationals my freshman year. All three guys that had run a cross country 10K before (Wyatt, Matt, and Zac) PR’ed and Sully shattered his track 10K PR. Alec and Gatchell both had successful first 10K experiences and even though Jared didn’t beat his track PR for the 10K, his time averaged out to a near-PR in the 8K. We’d previously never put more than two guys sub-26 in the 8K; at the 8K split we had four sub-26.

Patience and competitiveness have epitomized our team this year and last Saturday was just another example of that. All seven of our guys are either very experienced or race like they are and they got out conservatively in the first 5K knowing that championship 10K’s get out fast and fall apart in the second half. Once we hit 4K, we started moving up. Matt led the pack through most of the race, with Sully, Zac, and Wyatt following close behind and Alec, Gatchell, and Jared locked into their own individual battles. Slowly but surely we began passing guys from 5-8K. At 8K, coming around the backside of the course for the last time, we dropped the hammer. Wyatt switched gears and pulled the others with him. He closed like a man possessed for the last ten minutes of the race. Matt showed some of his 24-speed and Sully put his eco-boost on display. Alec made a similar move when he hit the 8K. Without a doubt, we moved up a few spots in the standings in that last 2K because of the competitive toughness that drove the big kicks. In the end, we finished 12th. Not what we were hoping for, but we’ll take it all things considered.

Since we didn’t qualify for NCAA Nationals, our season will wrap up this week at the NCCAA National Championship in Mississippi on Saturday. Seven guys will race in the championship on Saturday and a few others will travel as alternates and race on Friday in the open race. As the reigning NCCAA National Champions, we’re looking at this as an opportunity to defend our title in a fast race in a championship environment. The quick turnaround is hard both physically and psychologically, but all of our guys experienced that last year, so this year should be even smoother. We’ll take this week extremely easy to ensure we’re recovered well enough for a good race.

HUGE congratulations to our women’s team for finishing second and qualifying for NCAA Nationals for the first time ever. They absolutely dominated the second half of their race and Carsyn, Olivia, and Kayla all finished All-Region. It’s gratifying to see all their hard work and perseverance paying off. It was great seeing Forrest Thayer and the Gatchell family out at the meet this weekend. We’ve been blessed to have friends and family at every meet this year, despite the amount of travelling we’ve done. Your support is truly appreciated.

Remember that it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,


November 1, 2016

Cross country is a unique sport in that its championships are decided on a single day. Sure, in other sports the idea of "on any given day" one team could emerge victorious is true, but it takes many of those "given days" to qualify for a national tournament or win a championship. In cross country, every team in the country goes to a Regional Championship. That means that every team has a chance of moving on to Nationals. This produces a championship atmosphere unlike any other. It’s like taking all of the excitement wrapped up in another sports’ entire conference tournament (granted, with a lot less fans probably), which probably consists of 10+ games played over two or more days, and cramming it into one 33-minute race. Now add on the fact that it takes an extra ten minutes to post official results instead of having a live scoreboard updating every time something happens. Suffice to say that it’s intense to say the least. That’s what we have this weekend, the NCAA DII Midwest Regional Championship in Evansville, Indiana.

So where do we fit in the madness? I’m glad you asked. We’re Cinderella. Every week the raters (whoever they may be) rank the Top 10 schools in each region and the Top 25 nationally. We have yet to be ranked in any of these polls. Realistically, we probably sit right around that back end range of the regional rankings. Ashland is ranked eighth, and we finished 14 points behind them at the All-Ohio. Michigan Tech is ranked tenth, and we finished one place behind them at Lewis. Time wise, these are teams we match up well with and can beat with a good day.

We’ve finished tenth at each of the last two regional meets and our goal is to do it again. We will be without Dan; earlier this week we got the results of an MRI that revealed that he has a stress fracture in his shin. Losing your fastest runner certainly puts a damper on things, but Dan being sidelined doesn’t change anything for the guys who are racing. Their job is no different: go beat as many people as humanly possible. We were without Dan when we lost to Michigan Tech at Lewis and he was nowhere near top form at All-Ohio when we lost to Ashland. With the roster we have, I fully believe that we can place in the Top 10 and after the grit and racing skills that we showed last week I wouldn’t be surprised if we placed even higher than that. The Top 5 teams qualify for Nationals. While I’m not holding my breath, I wouldn’t quite write us off. I don’t think that any of our top guys have really put together a race yet this year that is fully indicative of their training levels, so either I’m wrong or they’re due. And if they all put it together and race like I believe that they can, who knows? It may just be our given day.

Please pray for Dan. I can tell you from personal experience that losing a season to injury is one of the hardest things an athlete can be dealt. God has a reason He’s putting Dan through this, so pray that God’s purpose is fulfilled, but also that Dan can get healthy and back to racing. Pray that we’ll have opportunities to share the Gospel this weekend with the 1,000+ people that will be in attendance.

Remember that it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,


October 25, 2016

And one for the thumb! That’s right, we are the G-MAC Champions yet again (and in true GSMACK fashion if I do say so myself). We beat runner-up (and host) Malone by 16 points and put five guys in before their third. While the final results indicate a somewhat easy win, let me assure you that every one of those points (and many unseen points) was fought for tooth and nail for 26+ minutes. I cannot describe the elation I felt watching our guys finish, knowing that we had accomplished one of our biggest goals for the year.

On Friday at the course, we got our first taste of real cross country weather all year: mid- 40s, windy, and wet. Even our easy pre-race run churned up some of the course, which is just four laps of a 2K loop, into mud. With the women racing before us (they also crushed it if you didn’t hear), the course would be soft and slippery for our race. Friday night after the G-MAC banquet we all met in Coach’s room to hear some details about the meet and spend some time together as a team mentally preparing for the next morning.

As expected, we were greeted on Saturday morning by wet, cold, and windy conditions. Despite this, the race got out quick, 5:05 for the leaders, and the tone was set from the beginning that it would be a fight. The pack was led by Malone, followed by Trevecca, then us and D&E. We ran smartly and began moving up on the second lap. About halfway through the third lap, nearly all of our guys were in a battle with someone from either Malone or D&E, in many cases multiple guys. We weren’t running particularly well time wise and most us weren’t even feeling good at this point. But, the last lap and a half is where we laid it down. I can’t tell you exactly how many guys we passed in the last mile, but it was a lot. 1-22, our guys dug deep for every single place. It was beautiful.

Matt Pelletier ran an incredible race, missing out on the win by just three seconds. Sully pushed the rest of the pack in the middle of the race, Wyatt hung tough while hurting on the hills, Zac battled against his breathing and legs, and Alec dug deep to pass five guys on the last lap. All five finished in the top ten and Matt, Sully, and Wyatt finished All-Conference First Team. Avery came up big for us too, displacing one D&E guy and three Trevecca guys. I could go on about guys that passed guys down the stretch and guys that pulled teammates along, but I don’t have space. It was an inspired team race all the way around, from the first man to the twenty-second.

For a large portion of the team, this was probably their last race of the season. Two weeks from now is Regionals, where we can only run the top seven. But, the rest of the team will continue to train until the season is done for everybody. We’ll take some rest and then get some good taper workouts in this week in preparation for Regionals. If G-MAC was a battle, Regionals is going to be the war to end all wars, but I’ll talk more about that next week.

Thank you to those who came out to support us this weekend. I know the Vegas were there (I met both of Jared’s dogs!) and the Hartmans were as well. Others are escaping my memory, but just because you’re forgotten doesn’t mean you aren’t appreciated! Thank you all for the prayers you’ve offered up on our behalf and please keep sending them up. This part of the season is the end of the grind, so pray that God will help us through it.

Remember that it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,


October 17, 2016

Autumn. Even the word is awesome. Those who have spent any amount of time with me understand exactly why this is my favorite time of the year. The combination of hoodie and shorts weather, drop-dead gorgeous scenery (for real, Cedarville is Gorges this time of year), and the absolute golden season for sports (shout outs to the Buckeyes for pulling out a tough one this weekend (take that Alec and Vojtisek!) and the Indians for keeping the whole state of Ohio in euphoria) puts me in my happy place. But as much as I love watching the MLB playoffs, the start of the NBA, college basketball, and NHL seasons, full-swing football, and the close of our own soccer and volleyball seasons, I get to participate in the close of our own season. Regular season cross country is fun, but when the leaves start falling and the Saturday morning air becomes crisp and the ground is covered in a light frost, that’s when the racing gets real.

And it’s about to get real on Saturday. The G-MAC has been in existence for six years now and we’ve won the previous five fairly handily. This year will be different. With the addition of Malone to the conference, Trevecca’s consistency, and the emergence of Davis & Elkins as a legitimate conference contender, there’s no looking past the G-MAC this year. Personally, I’d have to say we’re the favorites going in. We’ve beaten both Malone and Trevecca head-to-head and we beat Alabama-Huntsville, who beat Davis & Elkins head-to-head, head-to-head. Did you follow that? Basically, I think it’s ours to lose, but it certainly won’t be a cakewalk; we need to run at or near our potential. So, if any of you are anywhere near Canton, Ohio on Saturday morning, we’d love to see you out at Malone (why they get to host their first year in the conference is a rant for another day) at 11:30 a.m. (the women run at 10:30 a.m.) to help us defend our title (an added bonus to showing up: Jared Vega’s dog will be in attendance).

But enough about next week, this week we were on Fall Break. Most of the team had the weekend off and took the opportunity to go camping, see family, etc. But several of us stayed here for a race at Wilmington on Friday. It was a great opportunity, as Wilmington boasts one of the best NAIA/DIII meets in the region and their course is one of my favorites. The evening was perfect and prime for a great race. Since there weren’t many, I’ll list the guys who ran. Gatchell led the way, PR’ing in 26:45. Kevin was next, becoming the fourth freshman of the year to break 27 in 26:28. Ford followed suit as the fifth freshman under 27 in 26:40. Luke (27:12), Lemez (27:48), Brendan (27:50), Alan (28:14), and Josiah (28:43) also PR’ed. For those of you keeping track, that’s eight for eight on PR’s. This is my tenth year of cross country and I have never seen that happen before! It was incredible, to say the least. Each of these guys gave up a weekend off to stick around and race and they made the most of it. They raced hard, stayed tough in the middle miles, and reaped the results of the hard training we’ve done in the last month.

Please remember to keep our team in prayer. We have several guys on the team dealing with personal losses and the injuries are always looming. We’ll also be getting into some pretty heavy stuff at Bible study this week, so pray that God would grant us wisdom in discerning what His Word says on Monday night. We look forward to seeing all of you in Canton on Saturday!

Remember that it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,


October 11, 2016

Welcome to my guest blog! My name is Kevin Gideon I am a freshman this year. At the beginning of the year Coach asked who wanted to do the team blog this year and no one volunteered, so Tyler, who had been doing it for the past couple years, is doing it again this year. I felt a little bad about this and talked to Tyler about doing a guest blog so he didn’t have to write it every week. So here we are, I hope to get some other kids on the team to do some guest blogs so hopefully this will become a “thing.”
 
This has been a little bit of an easier week for us. Coming off All-Ohio and having Lewis this week, Coach took it easier on us. Monday started off with mile repeats for the top guys and 1000’s for the rest of us. Tuesday was a simple recovery run. Wednesday we planned on doing a 400’s workout but Coach decided to cut that and do some 200’s. The 200’s were really fun because we got to let it loose a little and go fast. Thursday was another easy recovery run. Friday was the day we left for the Lewis Conference Cross-over. We were supposed to leave at 10:30 a.m. but of course people were late so we didn’t leave until 10:45. Within a half an hour of leaving Cedarville we were in stop and go traffic. It was awful. The meet is held at Lewis University, which is outside of Chicago, this trip that would normally take only about five hours took us 7 1/2 hours! The traffic was really bad and we had to stop multiple times for bathrooms and food. We finally arrived at the course at 6:15 p.m., when all the other teams were finishing practice and packing up to go get dinner.
           
We ran the course as a team; some of the guys ran here last year so they knew it well. But seeing how we have so many freshmen a lot of us didn’t know the course so we had to pay attention and learn it. The course is flat and fast, it is all grass around a big cornfield. You start on a soccer field and have a 150-200 meter straight start then go into the only big uphill on the course. It is pretty short but really steep, and then you go out to start the loop around the cornfield. When we ran this part as a team, Dan Michalski used this opportunity to pick a piece of corn. He decided he would give it to the top performer in his mind as an award. You do the loop around the cornfield twice then go back down the steep hill into the finish. That down hill gives you a really nice start on your kick to the finish. After we ran the course and did some strides we went to the hotel, showered and went to dinner at of course, Chili’s. Because what is better pre-race food than Tex-Mex. At Chili’s we were all so hungry between all 19 of us we downed about 10 baskets of chips & salsa before our meals came. Thankfully we didn't annoy the people at Chili’s too much and they brought us our food pretty fast.
 
Back at the hotel we had a team meeting talking about race day and all those logistics. Then it was off to bed, I roomed with Avery Traffie and Conrad Esbenshade. It was a sweet room; we didn’t sleep much.
 
Race day came the next morning and it was perfect conditions: 65 degrees, sunny and low winds, a perfect day to run fast. This meet is always pretty competitive, especially for it’s size. With a team like Grand Valley State you know it’s going to go out fast and stay fast. We knew coming in it would be hard without Dan, but the goals didn’t change; we wanted to get out there and take advantage of the great day God gave us. We had fast competition, perfect weather, and a fast course.
 
The gun went off and the race was on! Our top guys stayed back from the lead pack at the start of the race, and then slowly moved up as the race went on. Our Top 5 are always changing. This week Wyatt led us. He finished in 25:36, which was a PR for him. That trend continued for a lot of the guys on the team, a lot of PR’s and if they weren’t PR’s they were still good times. One really big performance was Jared Vega, he did so good that Dan saw him as the performer of the day and he was awarded the cornhusk. Jared continued to wield his cornhusk for the rest of the trip. Jared has been coming back from an injury and ran a PR of 26:39. Many of the freshmen ran PR’s with two studs breaking the 27-minute barrier, Alex Weber and Ryan Vojtisek. Overall a great day for the Jackets.
 
But wait…The trip didn’t end there! After a busy day of racing we all loaded back into our vans and drove into the Windy City. On our way we stopped for lunch at Portillo’s, apparently it’s a famous hot dog restaurant, I didn’t think it was that good, but that was just me. Driving into Chicago was chaotic but very pretty. It is a gorgeous city with lots of cool buildings. We stopped at the Bean and did what anyone does at the Bean we took pictures in it. For those of you who don’t know the Bean is a giant bean-shaped modern art piece covered in a super shiny metal so it’s like a giant mirror. After more city exploring it was time for pizza, real deep dish pizza. That was really good and really filling. I was only able to eat two slices. Ethan Sullivan got the award for most slices eating five full slices. With pizza heavy in our bellies we packed up in the vans and headed for home.
 
A very awesome and tiring trip. I was so glad to be able to go and race with the team. It was so much fun I am already excited for next year, if we go back. We still need prayers for injuries on the team, we have a lot guys unable to run right now. We have a full week of training in front of us. Part of the team will be running at the Wilmington Invitational this Friday the other half will have a week off from racing.
 
Remember it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,
 

October 4, 2016

I don’t know why, but God seems to dislike Homecoming, or as we like to refer to it, All-Ohio week. In my previous three years, we’d yet to have good weather and this year continued the trend. The women got in their race amidst a little rain (and they ran great, too) but we weren’t so lucky. About the time we finished our warm up they announced a 30-minute lightning delay. So we sought shelter in our bus (and in the storage compartments of Otterbein’s) and waited out the worst of it. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the best warm up afterwards since we didn’t know if there would be further delays. But, the beauty of competition is that no matter the conditions you are on a level playing field with everyone else there.

Personally, I still haven’t decided whether it was a good day for us or not. Alec ran a great race, PR’ing in the sloppy conditions and finishing first for us. Zac and Matt both ran faster than Friendship and Wyatt was only one second slower. We beat Malone and were only a few points behind Ashland. The open race saw many great races, including a whopping 35-second PR from Jared Vega! Ryan Orchard and Vojticek also ran big PR’s, 19 seconds for Orchard and 44 for Vojtisek. So overall I guess it was a good day. That mud was worth at least 30 seconds judging on times across the board. Beating Malone is a big confidence builder and being that close to Ashland (who is regionally-ranked) on a day that we didn’t feel was our best shows that we are in the mix where we need to be regionally to make it to nationals.

This week is our one quick turnaround of the year; we’ll take about half of the team to Chicago for the Lewis Invite. Lewis is great because it’ll (hopefully) be fast and we get to race a lot of good regional competition. The portion of the team that doesn’t race this weekend will travel next weekend to Wilmington where they’ll get a shot at a fast course.

We really need some prayer for health right now. The injuries are mounting and the quick turnaround this week will not help that. Thanks to everyone who came out this weekend, it was a great atmosphere. A special shout out to alumni Joe "Nemo" Niemiec, Evan Thayer, and Forrest Thayer for coming out, it’s great to see guys come back and support the team.

Remember that it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,


September 27, 2016

I have a lot of good memories from my time as a member of this team. There was the time Matt Brooker lost his wedding ring in a creek, the time that we rocked our van so hard in downtown Chicago that people came out of a restaurant to film us, and the time several of us drove out to Missouri to watch Ben Tuttle race at nationals. But some of my favorite memories have come at the annual Greenwood Family CUXC Cookout.

Every year my parents have the men’s and women’s teams over to our house for a cookout and campfire. My dad mans the grill and my mom and sisters bake the rest. Not to bash Chuck’s too much, but I think it’s safe to say that for just about everyone it’s one of the most anticipated meals of the year. Beyond the food, it wouldn’t be a trip to the Greenwood house without some athletic competition. In past years it’s been ultimate or volleyball; this year it was football (don’t tell Coach O). It turns out we have a lot of good receivers on our team…and a lot of terrible cornerbacks. We closed the night with some impromptu worship around the campfire.

Nights like this are my kind of night, the perfect way to relax after an intense week of training and classes. Most people understand the physical aspect of fatigue as it pertains to running; if you run 15 miles at a 5:30 pace the day before a race you probably won’t race well because you’ll be tired from the previous day’s run. What most people don’t understand is the psychological aspect of fatigue as it pertains to running. There have been times that I’ve been fully rested physically, but tired psychologically, and that psychological fatigue manifests itself in my running.

Coming into All-Ohio week, we needed an opportunity to relax. All-Ohio is one of the biggest meets of the year for us every year, so we want to be prepared physically and psychologically. Coach has taken care of us physically. We had three good workouts last week and will only have one this week. Our psychological state is up to us.

If any of you will be in the area, we’d love to see you out at the course on Friday afternoon. The women’s championship goes off at 2 p.m. with the men’s championship following at 2:45 p.m. The open races will then be at 3:30 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. As always, please pray for us as we represent Christ hosting all of the athletes and spectators who will be here on Friday.

Remember that it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,


September 20, 2016

Friendship. It’s a nice little meet. At least, our part of it still is. It’s a great place for the freshmen to run their first 8K. It’s a weird distance, not something you see anywhere except collegiate cross country. Almost all road races nowadays are 5K’s with the occasional 10K’s and marathons. You wouldn’t think that adding an extra 3K would change a race that much (at least I didn’t as a freshman) but it does. The 8K is a completely different race. When doing your first one, it’s nice to have a small race environment and a familiar course, both of which Friendship provides.

The weather is always a question mark when talking about racing in Ohio. Will it be absurdly hot? Absurdly cold? Absurdly windy? Rain? Sleet? Snow? All the above? (No joke that’s actually happened). We were concerned about thunderstorms coming into Saturday. The weathermen were predicting anywhere from 30-50% probability of scattered showers, which is the meteorological equivalent of saying that "it’s a possibility that maybe it might rain." God spared us, though. We got some light rain during one of the high school races, but other than that it was a nice day for racing.

Though a small race, we had some decent competition to push us. Alabama-Huntsville made the drive north and familiar foes Dayton (their B team) and Taylor also came in to challenge us. We did come away with the W, scoring just 36 points. Our top six all broke 27:00 and finished in the top fifteen including Dan taking the individual title, so we were led well at the front. Four of the freshmen broke 28:00, so it’s good to see them starting off well.

But that’s just the beginning. Our season is now in full swing and we have a big test coming up in two weeks. No matter how well or poorly each guy did this past weekend, he has to learn from it and move on to preparing for the next race. We’re doing that with our training, preparing for three hard workouts this week that’ll increase leg speed to help us get out quickly in the packed field at the All-Ohio. It’ll be a hard week as we also try to lighten our school load for next week by getting ahead in classes this week. All of the little stresses that we can take away from the latter portion of next week will make the race easier both physically and mentally.

As we continue through our season, please keep praying for us. The injuries are beginning to roll in, so pray that God would sustain our bodies for a few more months. In our Bible study, we are beginning to go through The Pursuit of God by Tozer as a team. Pray that God would use that book and the discussions we have about it to have an impact on our team.

Thank you all for coming out this weekend! One of my favorite parts of home meets is getting to meet with family and friends that came out for the meet after our race. Having you all there is a great encouragement to us and makes what we do that much more enjoyable, so thank you for making the effort to support us (and Mrs. Gideon, I didn’t get to meet you but Kevin shared some cookies with me and they were fantastic, just so you know).

Remember that it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,


September 15, 2016

Everyone keeps telling me that summer is over. I’d appreciate it if they’d tell the weather that. This past week was the first week we got to do some real speed: 1000's on Tuesday and then 300's on Friday (we also did some 2 ¼’s on Thursday). This week is always one of our hardest weeks of the year, as the mileage is still high and we couple that with the introduction of speed work. But this week was even tougher because of the heat. The heat index was well into the triple digits several days this week and we do our workouts on the course, where there is absolutely no shade. It was hard, but we got better physically and mentally.

Honestly one of my favorite parts of college cross country is that we only race once every two weeks. This allows us to go hard for a whole week without having a race on the weekend. We cram the week full of workouts and usually try to get ahead in classes, too, to make race week as easy and stress-free as possible. But all that stress during the week takes its toll, so we find ways to lighten the mood. This week it was pretty easy. We got to celebrate our very own Isaac Wheeler’s birthday on Thursday and then follow that on Friday with Dan Michalski’s birthday.

This week we are gearing up for the first 8K of the season. We’ll do more speed Monday and Wednesday and then rest up for the race. We don’t have many college teams coming, on account of us hosting the All-Ohio Championship two weeks later, but the high school meet will be the largest we’ve ever had - 2,900 runners are currently registered. That means a lot of work, but also a lot of opportunity.

Pray for us as we host all of these athletes, most of who are high school or middle school students, and their families. We want to represent Christ well in the way we compete and then in the way we serve them as they compete. Please continue to pray for our health. We have some injuries popping up here and there, so pray that we would be wise in dealing with those.

Remember that it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,


September 5, 2016

Last week I mentioned my irritation with the repetition of "welcome back" during camp/getting-started week. This being the beginning of a new year, everything is also a "first." The first chapel of the year, the first class of the year, and this weekend our first race of the year.

Being a senior, I’ve grown accustomed to most of these firsts. The first chapel and first class have lost their newness to me because they’re always the same, but the first race never does. Racing is why many (not all) of us run. To go without it for the summer months is to deprive us of the reason for which we train. The adrenaline that rushes as soon as the first gun goes off rivals that of a championship race. Combine that adrenaline with the fact that we haven’t done a single hard workout and you get uncertainty. No one ever knows what to expect from the first race. Some people come out and tear it up, some lay eggs. It’s not a problem to lay an egg, plenty of guys have done it and gone on to great seasons (Ben Tuttle 2015 outdoor track: 1st race was over 15:00 for 5K, 2nd was sub-15:00 for both halves of a 10K), it’s just a lot more fun when you tear it up.

This is our second year going to Dayton for our opening 5K. It’s nice because it’s a small meet, just eight teams, but has good competition and a fair but challenging course. Overall it was a really good day for us. We finished fourth overall, behind the three NCAA DI schools but beat Ashland, who is ranked 10th in the region (we’re unranked), comfortably in the combined results. Shout-out to Dan for finishing second and five freshmen (Ryan O, Kevin, Sholl, Avery, and Conrad) breaking 17:00. What really sticks out if you look at the results (and if you watch our workouts this makes complete sense) is that 18 of our top 19 guys (Dan being the exception) finished within 10 seconds of a teammate. That’s pack running at its finest.

We enjoyed the rest of the weekend as a team (we are officially a team, too, as the freshmen were initiated last week before the race). We had our fantasy football draft on Saturday night, many of the guys went for long runs Sunday, and we went out to watch the Cedarfest fireworks later in the evening. Monday we enjoyed the day off before another week of classes. No race this weekend means a hard week of training. We’ll do our first speed workout of the season on Tuesday and then one, maybe two, more later in the week. We’re really encouraged by our results from this past weekend; we’re more excited to start doing fast workouts and see how that takes effect for our first 8K in two weeks at the Friendship Invitational.

Remember that it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,


September 1, 2016

Welcome back!

I can’t tell you exactly how many times I’ve heard that phrase in the last 20 days, but it’s a lot. Despite my slight annoyance at the repetition of the phrase that accompanies the beginning of each new cross country season (and school year, I guess that’s starting up, too), it’s good to be back. And it’s good to welcome so many new guys, 14 of them to be exact. Yeah, let that sink in. Last season we had 19 on the team, this year there are 30 of us (as if we didn’t already cause enough of a ruckus).

Due to the large numbers, I’ll spare you the speed-dating version of introductions that we’ve gone through now twice as a team, once with the women’s team, and once with our sister unit. I’ll reference you to our roster on the Cedarville Athletics website where you can find a beautiful picture of all of us as well as individual mug shots and some basic information about us.

For those of you who don’t know me, though, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Tyler, a senior mechanical engineering major from about 15 minutes north of Cedarville. This is my third year doing the blog since I inherited it from Greg "JJ" Johnson my sophomore year. As my choice in major may suggest, I lack some of the writing prowess you might expect in a team blogger. I’m more inclined to quote the likes of John Wooden or Vince Lombardi than I am Henry David Thoreau or Edgar Allen Poe. I’m also operating under the assumption that if you’re dedicated enough to our team to be reading this blog, you probably already know how we did at our last meet, so I won’t waste time reporting results that you either already know or can easily look up on the Cedarville Athletics website (see how handy this thing is?). My goal is to answer the question "What’s on your mind?" as it pertains to Cedarville men’s cross country (I know for a fact some of you alumni got at least a chuckle out of that). I want you all to know what we are thinking about and feeling as a team each week.

All that said, I haven’t been this excited for a season of cross country in a long time. We’ve been on campus for two full weeks now and it’s been a blast. This group of freshmen is assimilating to the team culture faster than any I’ve seen and I can tell already that despite being the largest team we’ve ever had that this will be one of the tightest knit teams we’ve ever had. Because of some absences that have made getting the entire team together difficult, we’ve yet to initiate our freshmen, but rest assured that will happen very soon.

Running wise, our first race is on Saturday in Dayton (if you live nearby we’d love to see you out there!). Judging by the workouts we’ve had so far we’re in for some impressive performances from returners and newcomers alike. It’ll be a hot one for sure, but we are all excited to race again and start reaping the benefits of the mileage we put in over the summer.

Please pray for us as we race this weekend, that we would race for God’s glory and that He would provide opportunities for us to share the good news of Christ with those with whom we come in contact. Pray also for our health. There aren’t any glaring injuries right now, which is a huge blessing! We’ve been so injury-riddled in past seasons that to have everyone running at some capacity right now is truly remarkable. Finally, please pray that God would work in and through our team this year. We want to run fast, but we exist to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. He’s put us in a unique place where we can grow exponentially in our individual walks with Him. He’s also given us unique abilities with which to glorify Him and a unique sphere of influence in which to use those abilities to make manifest His glory. It’s my prayer that we won’t waste these gifts that He’s so graciously given us.

Remember that it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,


Tyler Greenwood is a senior from Springfield, Ohio and a Dean's List student majoring in mechanical engineering.