Cedarville University Yellow Jackets

November 14, 2011

This is my final HI to you faithful readers! Thanks for stickin’ with us throughout the season. It was one of great adversity, but great success. We battled blazing heat, deep mud, crazy wind, cold rain and more, but still walked away with some PR’s and a top five finish at NCC nats this past weekend.

First, wanna give a big CONGRATS to our little beast, Miss Hannah Lamos for being the 2011 NCCAA Champ! This was an outstanding performance on her part.  Hannah sat second and third throughout the race and I kept watching and wondering, “Is she gonna win it?”  I knew the answer to this question as I watched her curve around the 600 to go mark and head down the hill to shortly finish. This girl had a look of intensity in her eyes that gives me joy to be a runner. It was all over her face… she wanted it! And by golly she went after it! Down the straight away, this girl’s 200 meter kick was better than her top opposing runners, and she pulled off the victory! Hannah has had a great season; she’s been the number one runner at every race, winning the NCC title as well as the Friendship Invite Title, was runner-up at OIC, and pretty much beasted every race she ran. But one of the things I love most about Hannah is her work ethic.  She puts in tons of miles, eats right, and does all the little important things like icing, core, stability drills, and way more! This girls is doing all she can to be the best she can be, and she’s a great role model as a number one runner. Great season Han :D

I next watched Meghan come in with a beastly kick and season PR of 18:55.  It’s awesome to see her come back strong after taking the first few meets off! She received All-American honors along with Hannah.  Great Finish Meg!

Also coming back from injury was miss Caro Case, finishing at a 19:56. Also great to see her still pushing through injury!

I next witnessed my favorite kick of the day from Miss Jen Hollander! This girl flew in at 20:12, literally weaving through girls at the finish. I love this! A lot of times, us runners (or should I say, I) get in the mind set that the places are set in stone, but Jen knew every point counts, and passed at least four girls down the straight away. It was awesome! Jen ran her last collegiate race and ended it the right way… giving it all she had! Thanks for all you’ve done for the team, Jen. From your talent to your motherly tendencies and photography ability, your spot will be greatly missed.  We love you Jen! :D

Flying in next was miss Abby at a 20:19, who ran through some pain issues this met. A sec after her was senior Jess Smith, also running her last collegiate race. Gosh will we miss her too!  Seeing her progression over the past two years has been a huge motivation for me to reach my goal of making varsity by my senior year. This girl inspires me to achieve that goal, and will be greatly missed on the team. You are awesome Jess! We will miss you!!!

Roundin’ up the top seven was A-TABBAY! Moore. Though she felt her 21:15 was inadequate, I’m proud of her progress over the season, and to have been able to train with her. She’s a beast :D good job girl :D

Backing up to Friday, I am very pleased to announce we had some PR’s from my teammates!!! Senior Katie Lanphier ran a 20:25 (ish) during the open race on Friday! Yeah girl! It’s so awesome to be able to run your fastest at the last meet, and she did just that! Katie just started running cross at Cedarville her freshman year and has made made leaps and bounds since then! I will greatly miss Katie for her leadership to our running group and as a team captain, and also for her encouraging, positive attitude at every single practice. Katie is awesome and will be greatly missed next year. I love you Katie!

Now I didn’t get to hear everyone’s times, but I do want to showcase my girls for a second!  Joanna Wheatley and Elisa Cherry both had awesome races, Joanna being two seconds from her lifetime PR (which I think puts her at 20:32?) and Elisa running a lifetime PR of 21:09.  GOOD JOB FRIENDS!!!

Awesome that we sat three of our varsity this weekend and still placed fifth overall.  (Grace, Neola, and Rachel didn’t run this weekend) bummer that beastly Rachel Wong didn’t get to run her last collegiate cross race; however, this girl still shines God through her despite her new injury - a stress fracture. This girl limped that boot around the whole course, cheering on her teammates and still keeping high, encouraging spirits. I don’t think I’ve ever heard this girl complain, and it’s an awesome example to our team. Rachel will be greatly missed for her awesome leadership ability, both in her running work ethic and spirituality. This girl is on fire for God, and shows it through her love for her teammates. We love you Rach. I’m gonna miss you soooo much!!!

Also proud to announce all the girls who received NCCAA Scholar-Athlete awards (gpa of 3.4 and up). These girls were:

Carolyn Case, Jennifer Hollander, Krista Johnson, Hannah Lamos, Katie Lanphier, Neola Putnam, Meghan Terrell, Abby Wong, and Rachel Wong.
Good job girls!! It’s tough being a student-athlete, but these girls work hard to do so! So proud of you guys :D
I had a ton of fun writing the team blog this year.  There were so many awesome moments on our team and I hope you enjoyed being a part of them. I know I sure did :D 

I’m so blessed to be able to be on a team like this one.  Here’s some reasons why.

1. Our team is full of pretty girls!! They are so pretty!! Not one girl on our team is ugly! They are smoking from our first to last runner!
2. Haha on a less shallow note,  all are great encouragers and spiritual leaders. It’s really cool to be on a team with all believers, who love God and running in a similar way you do.  It creates a really awesome bond I love being apart of.
3. Our coach is awesome!!! There is no college coach as good as Coach Bolender. He puts so much time into our program, from organizing meets and crazy fun destination meets, to writing workouts, to caring about each athlete and teaching us a lot about life. Coach Bo is the man and we are so blessed to have a coach like him. Thank you for all you do coach!!!!
4. I don’t know if you noticed, but our girls are FAST! :D and they work hard! It’s so good for me to develop work ethic and discipline, and these girls help me to do so!

I could go on and on, but I’ll spare you. :D I’m pumped to be a part of this team, and it’s been a joy to bring you the news this season.  We’ll be taking a little time off (hopefully… rest your bodies girlies!! Hannah I know you’re gonna get antsy :D) and then hittin’ the roads and gettin’ back down to business… track here we come!!!

Thanks for your time and prayers. It means a lot to us!

Jasmin out! :D 


November 7, 2011

HIYA!  Hope you all had a good weekend. I sure did.  I got to go watch my sister and her team win the Ohio Division III STATE CHAMPOINSHIP!!! Now if that doesn’t pump you up to be a runner, I don’t know what could!

Got some good news for you readers who can’t focus for more than five minutes; this blog is a short one. Coach scheduled two practices this week and let us run on our own the other three, and the two days we had practice I had class. I finally got to be with the whole team again on Monday, and was once again reminded how awesome it is to be on a team of people who love to run as much as you do. I  love me team :D

The only XC highlight I was a part of this weekend was Sundaes on Sunday. YU-MMY! Always the perfect way to round up the weekend and start the week; this one was also fun because we told corny kids jokes that were pretty hysterical. Hahaha wow… corny jokes was the highlight of the week…. That’s pretty pathetic.

But we have a big week coming… our very last one! AHH!! The season has blown by, and its already time for our National Christian Championships, or NCC’s. There will be an open race on Friday at 4 p.m. for the girls, and on Saturday is the championship, girls at 10 a.m. and boys at 11 a.m. Or is it the other way around? Anyway. COME ON OUT! There’s gonna be at least 35 teams there… it’ll be a fun race to watch!

This week we’ve tapered our mileage in hopes to peak, or run our fastest times, this weekend. We are hoping to walk away with a victory, which will take us beating the powerhouse Malone, who we got second to a week back. But we keep creepin’ up close to them, and were hoping to fly by them this weekend! Your support could really help us do that! So come out okay? :D Yesterdays speed workout really helped me and many others to get focused on our race and feel our legs light and ready to go fast.  I have a feeling it’s going to be a good day for CUXC. Come be a part of it :D

All our training is coming to a close this weekend. But what a fun journey it’s been. Even despite there not being a Nationals we were allowed to compete it, we still have a talented team who raced their best at every race. This might just be a transition year, but a great growing and bonding year for CUXC. Come be a part of the final chapter! Have a great week!


October 31, 2011

Well hi again! I'd like to start by thanking you, you faithful reader, for your interest in our women's XC team. Your support means a lot, and I am happy to keep you updated on our weekly happenings! Could you pray for our team please? It's nearing the end of our season, with just Christian Nationals to go, and we’re hoping to do our best and to end this season sucessfully. But we do have a few teammates who have had injuries and sickness who'd hope to end the season on a good note. The past week, our team was feelin’ a little tired, and an encouraging pick-us-up prayer would mean more than you know.

On Friday, the Jackets headed to North Canton, Ohio to prepare for their first and last visit to the OIC, or the Ohio Independent Championships. Since we are transitioning from NAIA to NCAA DII (which is sweet) we have a transition year, where we are unaffiliated with either. We won’t be competing at a nationals or a conference meet, so other lonely schools in our boat decided to get together and make up a conference. Like young children, our teams are ones in need of constant stimulation, so we watched the movie Despicable Me on the way up. Good laughs are a good way to cure nerves, and our team does a good job of making me laugh! The bus ride was and always is enjoyable, and those four hours were ones enjoyed.

This year has been one of weather adversity; we arrived at Walsh's cross course to find yet another muddy mess. This course was pretty flat and had some fun twists and turns, but had two long stretches of mud ankle deep, providing a difficulty to PR. Also, our teammate Grace Campbell has been having some breathing problems and had to be taken to the hospital. The weekend had a bit of a rough start.

Things did soon pick up. The neat thing about our program is the fact that there are both guys and girls together, bringing an interesting dynamic. We get good time to bond with our separate gender teams, but dinners and some trips bring the two different groups together and one fun, rowdy bunch. You can never get bored on a Cross Country Charter Bus, so as soon as we were finished with our running/care for Grace, we were off to the hotel and would soon after fill our bellies with some yummy Italian food.

And man was that place good! We headed back to the hotel with bellies full of meatballs and assortments of pasta noodles, for some chill team bonding time, relaxation, and team meetings.

This past weekend we had a special team meeting, one where seniors get to take change in. It's tradition that on our last travel meet, XC seniors pass down their words of wisdom from their college experiences to us lost and confused underclassmen. This was my first time experiencing this meeting, and it was one I greatly enjoyed. They reminded us of how fast this time will pass, and how we are to enjoy it in the way our Lord would want; staying focused on prayer, always looking to spur on our teammates, and the importance of our relationships to each other and most importantly our Father. Coach Bo said it best when he said life is all about relationships, we are just wired that way. And it's a beautiful thing! I love resting my eyes on those long charter bus rides (if i don't i get bus sick :D) and listening to the encouraging conversations, and loads of inside jokes and laughs. It's been a huge blessing for me to be a part of this team, and it's awesome to know that the seniors feel the same way as I and the others do.

Rachel, Katie, Jen and Jess- WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Thank you for all you put in to this program. You all bring such a great piece to this team, weather it be your God-given running ability and intensity, wisdom, words of encouragement, motherly love, or hilarious sarcasm. I don't wanna get too sappy oh ya....you still got some time before you guys are gone....we don't need to think about that right now :D But thank you so much for all you've done for us. You will be greatly missed!!!
Soon after the team meeting, it was lights out, in hopes for an awesome race in the morning.

And that it was! CU placed second, just eight points behind the powerhouse Malone University. This team is stacked with talent, and knowing we were just a few runners behind was an encouragement to me. It's always fun to run against competitive teams; It’s good for us to learn friendly competition, and it helps to make both teams better. Our girl Hannah was runner-up for the meet (awesome!!) with Rachel Wong right on her tail. I'm excited to tell you that Meghan Terrell and Abby Wong both finished in the top 15, and all four of these girls got sweet medals. Coming in the 16 spot was Carolyn Ccase; this was her first race back after some time off and we are PUMPED she did so well!! Great job girl :D Just behind her were Miss Jenn (18), Neola (19), and Tabby (20). The pack was a tight one, and we were all proud of our team from top to bottom! It wasn't a week of PR’s, but it was one of good placing. The meet was a success.

We soon after cooled down and headed to clean off all the mud that was covered from toe to top. We had a four-hour ride home, and no amount of laughter and fun can block out the stench of stinky, muddy runners! We cleaned up, loaded up, and started up the movies to distract us from our hungry tummies.

We soon arrived at this really neat Amish buffet, where we ate mashed potatoes, shredded beef, buttery corn, fluffy thick homemade bread for linner, (lunchish dinner) and more. Saturday was also Eli Pyles 20th birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!) and Coach O's for the third time this year, so the two were brought out some yummy ice cream and were sang to obnoxiously by our team. After eating and playing with the sweet Amish souvenirs, we were back on the road to CU. The time passes quickly as we enjoyed THEEE best movie from our childhood, The Lion King. AAAHHHH!!!!! CHI CHEN YA!!!!!!!! :D The singing and commentary put this movie in a version I hadn't experienced, but it was one I greatly enjoyed. Our team would make a great choir/comedy TV show.

We were quick to get off the bus to get ready for our annual CROSS HALLOWEEN PARTY! As people filed into alum Josh Wiseman’s house, they modeled their unique outfits, and we had a good time learning some new popular dance moves. Who knew cross runners had coordination? Afer a while some left to get food in Springfield, then went to a haunted corn maze! I am one who isn't scared of fake scarry things, so this was a comical experience for me. Who knew boys were more terrified than girls? (You know who you are :D)

The weekend was one full of cross country fun. So sad to think the season is almost done :( But these next two weeks will be two where we run, in hopes for PR’s for everyone!!!

Happy Halloween everyone! :D


October 24, 2011

Looking back two weeks ago, we had some great fun with our team. However, I know that the instant I got back to my room, the adrenaline from the weekend settled, and both my legs and eyes were feeling pretty heavy. We had a busy weekend and a raced though mud six inches deep; our bodies were tired! We didn’t officially have practice on Monday, so we met up to meet and run with people on our own; I could definitely tell my body was still recovering from the hard weekend we had. I felt like I was walking! This leg heaviness even carried into Tuesday, where we did 600 repeats; a workout I thought would be pretty simple, turned out to be one of the most challenging ones we had. These were at a quicker pace than normal, so it was what I would call a long speed workout. I was sore on Wednesday’s recovery run!

Lucky, after our short, rainy practice, we got to clean up and head over to the Mark’s house, two runner Alum’s who blessed us with their hospitality and DELICIOUS FOOD! The Marks prepared a scrumptious meal for us, including chicken alfredo, mac and cheese (this is not ordinary mac. This is literally the best homemade mac I’ve ever tasted in my life) salad, veggies, grapes, yummy bread and muffins, and little candies and awesome chocolate/peanut butter brownie muffins for dessert. WOW IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! Being athletes, we don’t get to go home much and enjoy mama’s cooking; but this family blessed us with an awesome meal and time of fellowship. It was nice to get away from the school business and have a yummy meal and enjoy some team time. Thank you to the Mark’s family for making this possible!

The workout that sticks out most to be this week was Thursdays. A combinations of 8’s and 2’s, two of my favorite things, was made challenging, to say the least, because of the crazy CU sideways wind/rain combo. There were a few points where Tabby and I were literally struggling to stay on the track. But honestly, it’s days like these that I appreciate when I look back on that. Here in Cedarville, you know we can get any type of crazy weather, and also in very short amounts of time. Because of this, we can go into any kind of race, despite the weather, prepared and confident we can do our best. It reminds me of the first chapter of James, where it states: “(2) Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, (3) because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (4) Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” We can push through these days and gain perseverance, and be prepared for whatever conditions come our way.

Next, I would like to give a shotout and a big ol’ THANK YOU to my awesome secret sister!!! On our team, we each have a “Secret Sister,” who we can anonymously send encouraging notes, prayers, and yummy goodies throughout the week and before races. Today my sister sent me some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and a note in the mail, and it made my day! This is one of the things our team does that I really enjoy; I’m what some would call a “mental runner” where I over think pre-race and get myself pretty nerved up before I race. But little notes from my sis really help to calm my nerves and remind me why I race, not for myself or my own gain, but to give my Father great pleasure. Also, the yummy chocolate she gives me is something to look forward to after. :D Thank you, Secret Sissy! :D

And that’s all I have to say. I think. Except, this week, we start TAPERING!!!! This is my favorite time, because we really get to see the fruits of our long, hard labor.

We’re racing on a fast course this weekend with fresh legs… good things are coming our way! Tune in next week for details :D


October 17, 2011

WARNING: This blog contains words that might exceed your desired amount of reading. Please set aside 60 minutes to read the coming information.

Okay, so maybe not 60 minutes, but I can assure you I have a lot to say! Today is Thursday, and right now I am on a bus with the team, on our way to Historical Gettysburg! For those of you who aren’t from Ohio and your idea of Ohio is just Cedarville, I can assure you there is more to it than corn, beans, and more corn. Aside from having our girl chatty time, eating, and sleeping, I’ve been gazing out our big, charter bus windows at the beautiful rolling hills of Ohio. The fall colored trees and grassy, hilly pastures and quite the site to see! Also, didn’t know if you all knew this, but Ohio skies are the most beautiful of all. It’s true...the sun shines better here! Point being, next time your traveling home or through Ohio, take some time to look out the window. You’ll appreciate my state more!

Okay I’ll stop being all sentimental now and give you some sports updates. In order of ocurence:

MONDAY= MILE REPEATS. WHOOAAA BABY!!! Monday was a tough day for us.  We had 2-3 mile repeats at race pace. I know for me, this workout was a toughy. The past ten days have been pretty intense for our team, with a change-up of workouts, harder lifting, and less recovery days.

Despite our race this weekend (which is a 6K instead of a 5K) we had two challenging speed workouts. The other was alternating 1600's and 400s, the 16's being at steady state pace (a minute slower than our mile pace in a race, working out aerobic system) and 400's at faster than mile race pace (working out aerobic system) between the sets we would to active recovery, aka, jog. This workout was one I would call a variety workout, with a change of pace and change of terrain (we did the 400's on the track and 16's around the golf course.)  This workout was a success for the teach, and a perfect confidence workout for race to come. After running and team dinner time, a group of us went to Ethan Blagg’s house to watch a movie. Let me try and name everyone so they feel special!

Elisa “Chaquesha” Cherry, Ryan “Gust-of-Wind”, Greg “Pre, JJ” Johnson, Joseph “I enjoy long walks in the dark, alone” Nemo, Trevdog Bryant, A-Tabby "laugh at my jokes" Moore, Rachel (our new recruit that we stole from the track team who’s last name I don’t know,) Melanie “I’m so annoying” Redfield, Dusty Dalton (did I spell it right?) and his girlfriend Erica Johnson, Carolyn “Organic food is not for people who hate themselves” and “I ate dinner with the actress in this movie” Case, Clay “bottomless pit” SWATson, Feefan Blag, and those two people he lives with whose names I don’t know. All was fun and laughs until Neil “seashell necklace” Klinger showed up, then everyone left. Thanks Neil.

Some parted to Wal Mart, some went back to pack, but we said our goodbye’s and were off to bed, soon to wake up for our fun trip to Gettysburg, PA.  While the 23 guys are crammed into the 24 passenger varsity bus, headed out west to the Chile Pepper Fest in Arkansas, were peacin’ east, on a 50-some-passenger charter, relaxing and enjoying the beautiful PA hills.
Okay, I’m feelin’ car sick, and this Subway sub and fruit is dying to enter my tummy. More updates to come.....
Well, time to get car sick again!

Coming back from our long weekend in PA, and let me just say, it was a SICK NASTY TRIP! Let me rewind my thoughts to Thursday and give you our trip time line...

Our first pit stop of our journey was in a town called Shanksville, PA at the Flight 93 Memorial.  This is a memorial of the 33 passengers who died in result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Though such a horrible disaster, it was one of great courage from the passengers, who prevented this plane from flying into the White House, which was in session during the attack. The sobering experience was one that we remember vividly from the day it happened. 

At approximatly 5:03 Thursday evening, our big ol’ charter bus rolled onto Campground Road into the little town of Dillsburg, PA, into the driveway of the Wong family. After being used to stuffing ourselves in a 10 x 15 room and a 10 x 80 bus, walking into the cute, green-roofed, barn style house was one that felt like home to us all. After a quick tour of their cozy home, we had to leave our awaited supper to do what we came to do: run! We went a range of 4-8 miles, and a group of us stopped at one of Rachel’s favorite spots, a small lake with still water surrounded by trees. It looked like something straight out of Pocahontus, which is appropriate for this Wong! Our five mile group used this as a turning point to head back to the house; we realized that the whole way there was uphill, and flew back running 730 miles... it was pretty fun!

I’ve repeatedly told you the Wong’s are fast....and I finally got to experience why! It IS the food! For dinner, Mrs. Wong made us grilled chicken, corn casserole, soup, home made bread, a sweet cooked fruit in a pumpkin, cinnamon rolls with cooked apples, a full salad bar, and more! Today, we remembered what it was like to eat good. My tummy was extremely satisfied and full! After we all ate 10 pounds of goodness, we sat around and told stories of our childhood, particularly of our parents style of discipline. We learned some funny tendencies of our fellow teammates, and shared some awesome laughs!

Okay I’m getting sicky again, and I’m gonna have my muddy friend Miss Joanna “I keep Jasmin focused” Wheatley take over the typing portion of this blog while I audibly bring forth the message to the people.

8 a.m. Friday morning -- It was time for us to meet our place of race. We arrived at Gettysburg University to meet a long, confusing, messy scenario of obstacle. We got to the starting line to run the course, shortly realizing we didn’t know what the next ten steps were. We confusingly ran around for approximately ten minutes wondering where to go and sunk into the spongy, muddy ground in the process. The muddy confusion frustrated me at first, because I was automatically thinking our times would be slow. But I then remembered that everyone would be facing these conditions and nothing besides ourselves was stopping us from racing. And then squish through a sappy puddle of mud and laughed; tomorrow was going to be a messy, fun day.

After wiping off our muddy legs, we jumped on our bus and discussed shower plans to get us clean, fed, and back on the bus in 40 minutes (can be a challenge when four girls are sharing one shower...). But with God all things are possible and we left prompty at 10:02 a.m.

After a short trip we pulled into Gettysburg Train Station to greet Bruce Rice our Civil War Tour Guide at Gettysburg National Military Park. This must have been comical teaching history to a bunch of naive nurses and trickable teachers. But this was a great experience for all majors. We started on July 1, 1863 on General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate stomping ground and worked our way through three days of battle. At our first stop we stepped into the pouring rain overlooking on Confederate side looking at Union lines where we coincidentally met Coach King and Mrs. Coach! It really is a small world!

We traveled chronologically through important pieces of the plot, driving by the peach orchard where Confederates almost took over Union soldiers on day two, and passing Devil's Den. My favorite part of the tour was when our team cheerfully stepped off the bus to stand on little round top where we could overlook the place where Union soldiers could be in ideal position to win this battle. Even the pouring rain made this a breathtaking view, and was a sobering vision of what our men had to do to reunite our country. Just earlier we drove by the Wheat Field where on July 2, 1863, 4,000 men laid dead and wounded. Through all these facts, I was put into perspective to think about what life would be like with my brothers, uncles, and fathers fighting around me to defend our country. It’s things like these we always need to appreciate because without them, who knows where or who we would be.

Though leaving the 1863 battle, we stayed in this time period by eating in Gettysburg’s oldest, most historic house built in 1776 (familiar date?!) the Dobbin House Tavern. Here our waitresses and waiters were reenacting civilian life in the 1800s (cool!). (**NOTE: parentheses are Joanna throwing in her two cents) This house isn’t just special for its age, but for its contribution to this time period. Featured in “National Georgraphic” the Dobbin House was a station for runaway slaves taking the Underground Railroad to their future freedom. While awaiting our dinner, we toured this stoned walled, hand-carved woodwork house, to see secret crawlspaces and great historical character. Fun fact! The Dobbin’s had 19 children, (the 19th century “Your’s, Mine and Ours”) and their 19 beds still stand in the second story of the house serving as canopied dining tables for weddings, meetings and everything in-between. Runners enjoyed meals ranging from duck, salmon to my personal favorite, New York strip steak (mmmmmmMMmm). AWWE YEAH! We shared fudge brownie ice cream and headed back to our sleeping place, it was time to get in the zone. Aka! TEAM MEETING!

Through all the fun and learning throughout the trip, we take a few breaks remind us what being a team is really all about and why we are here in the first place. We are so thankful to have a coach like Coach Bo who is intentional about giving us an enjoyable trip, but reminds us of how we should act, and uphold Christian character in all things, especially through our running. This trip was an absolute ball and wouldn’t have been possible without our fearless leader, Coach Bo. Thanks a bunch Coach!
Team meeting was over and it was time to nestle into our beds for the real reason we came to Gettysburg, to run for HIM. Soft giggles soon turned into room prayer, putting our minds at peace for our obstacle course that awaited us in the morning.

Out the door at 9:00 a.m. on a beautiful, 60 degree day in PA, we were ready to conquer the mud-swamped wind tunnel. We knew going in that times might be a little slow, but that didn’t mean it was a day for excuses; we were still here to race. And that we did! Miss Lamos rolled in the 400- person race in fourth place! Holy moly! We had three girls that got awards for the team, finishing in the top 25 of the race, Miss Ray Wong finished 13th! I am also pumped to inform you that Miss Meghan Terrell came in third for the team, and finished 25th in the race. It’s awesome to see her back in the game! Next for the team was Neola, followed by Jen Hollander, Tabby Moore, and Jess Smith. Coach informed me that Miss Tabby Moore had her gameface on today, racin' over the mud and throwing some ‘bows and blow by the competition. Tabby and I have been running together on Tuesday and Thursday due to our conflicting practice/class schedules, and I attribute our quality time to her toughness. Jusy kidding. Tabby's been beasting the speed workouts and it was awesome for me to see her pop a good one on Saturday.  I KNOWW HERRR!!!!

The race and awards were soon over and it was time for a long, yet crazy fun bus ride home. We started by watching the team's new favorite show Dr. Quinn, and later moved to the movie with the BEST Disney princess everr, Aladdin! We reminisced about our childhood and the team jointly created a new, better version of "A Whole New World," the song Aladdin sings with his BEAUTIFUL, SMART, WITTY, DAZZLING Princess Jasmine. Must be the name! I’m finishing this up, a few miles from our temporary home in CU, with the background noise of sleepy snores and silly giggles. This trip was my favorite that our team has gone on so far, and I’m so blessed to be a part of a team who knows how to have some rowdy, God-honoring laughs and fun.  GREAT WEEKEND FOR WOMENS XC!!!


October 10, 2011

Good evening! And welcome to Monday Night News, XC style. I’m here again to report the week happenings for the CUWXC team. This week of practice was pretty typical, with our last cycle of those deathly 1200's and a new cycle of workouts, Thursday being alternating mile and 400 repeats. This week was an up week in milage, breaking down our bodies in hope to build up strength for our big races to come.

But this week, we are going to focus on the weekend happenings of CUXC. I'm here with sophomore runner Tabby Moore and senior captain Katie Laphier who will be giving some weekend updates from our team.  Despite not having a race this weekend, our teammates were still running, whether it be down the road volunteering, or in downtown Chicago running with the Elites in the Chicago Marathon.  Since I decided to slave away in my room to prepare for mid-terms this next week, Tabby and Katie will be informing us of this weekend’s happenings.

First up is Tabby Moore, giving us a detailed report of our teams visit to Chicago!

Tabby: Hey everyone! Tabby Moore here, I’m not as creative of a writer as Jasmin so please bear with me. This past weekend, since we didn’t have a meet, a handful of us thought it would be fun to go to Chicago for the weekend and watch the marathon.

So on Friday afternoon Carolyn Case, Hannah Lamos, Rachel Wong, Abby Wong, Kate Stover, Elisa Cherry, Ethan Blagg, Clay Watson, and I headed to Chicago. Five hours later we arrived at Elisa Cherry’s house and her parents had an awesome meal ready for us to eat!

Fun fact: My parents, Elisa’s parents, and Matt Brooker’s parents all ran together at Cedarville!

After dinner at the Cherry’s we were all tired and decided we should get to bed because we were going to have to get up early and do a long run. Most of us didn’t want to wake up early. When we looked at our watches we saw that it was about 1 a.m. in Ohio and decided that if we did our run now we can technically count it as the next day’s run. The next thing I knew Abby, Carolyn, Clay and I were out running at 1 in the morning! Ethan and Elisa rode bikes next to us to keep us safe. At first we were only going to do three miles, but it ended up being around a 12 mile run! We finally made it back to the house around 3 in the morning and we proceeded to do P90X.  As the clock approached 4 we had a 4th meal and then finally went to bed.

In the morning we awoke to some delicious pancakes that Mrs. Cherry made for us and then packed up our stuff to head into the big city. The boys took a train to Ethan’s brother’s football game, Elisa stayed at home with her family, and Kate visited her friend at Wheaton. The rest of us went to see Lydia Wong (Rachel and Abby’s sister, also a former runner at Cedarville). (SIDENOTE: LYDIA IS FAST! She was an All-American runner here at CU and is still fast). Lydia showed us around her town where she has an awesome ministry going on and then we all hit up the Marathon Expo. As soon as we walked into the Expo we saw Justin Herbert, Britt Simpson, Elisabeth Feucht, and some other Cedarville alumni cross country runners. Small world, huh?

Jasmin: I tell you, Cedarville people are everywhere! While in Chicago, our teammates got to visit alumni runners Doug and Becky Cherry (Elisa's parents) and the real Wong One: Miss Lydia Wong! Both of these alum were very serving ans hospitable to the runners and it's great to hear about that Christ loving, running community, even across states. How awesome! I wanted to take a moment to interrupt Tabby to tell you about other cross country happenings going on Saturday morning. Some of the girls volunteered to work the Linda A. Ferguson Memorial 5K this past weekend.

Katie Laphier is here with the details of the race:

Saturday’s without races usually consists of sleeping in a little and getting our long run in early before it gets too hot, but this Saturday morning a group of us headed down to the bike path to help out with the Linda A. Ferguson Memorial 5K. This was the first year for the 5K to be hosted so it was full of unknowns, but I think it went very smoothly. More importantly, it seemed to honor the late Mrs. Linda Ferguson. I personally, did not know her, but everybody I have talked to who did has gushed about what an absolutely inspiring lady she was. What an awesome legacy to leave!

The race was hosted in order to raise money for the Linda A. Ferguson Memorial scholarship fund. This fund provides scholarships to nursing students who have a specific passion for oncology nursing. It’s so cool to see her family honoring the legacy she left and helping to continue to inspire future nurses. There’s something invigorating about getting out of our normal running week and helping to put on an event like this. We had people helping with timing, registration, and even had Jess, one of our senior team members, run it representing our team’s support of the cause. All-in-all it was a great experience and hope we start up the tradition of helping out with this event.

Jasmin: The girls said the race was a big success, and I'm pumped to be a part of an active, serving team. Now back to Miss Tabby for details on the Chicago weekend:

Tabby: At the Expo we picked up as much free stuff as possible, tried on shoes, ate free samples, and checked out cool new running gear.  When the Expo was over Carolyn left us to visit her friends at Moody and the rest of us went to get some dinner.  Abby, Rachel, Lydia, Hannah, and I sat down at a cute little café in China Town. There the waiter set up the table for us where he laid out three pairs of chopsticks and two forks. We couldn’t figure out who the forks were for! :)

Finally, after a long day we made it back to Lydia’s apartment and we crashed for the night only to be woken up what seemed like a few short hours later to go watch the marathon. At 6:30 a.m. we got onto a train that took us into downtown Chicago to go watch the race. All of us were so excited to see Ryan Hall run! He is one of our favorite runners! At the race some decided to bandit run a few miles while some of us ran from point to point trying to see how Hall was doing in the race. It was a great day and I’m pretty sure all of us that went to the race are ready to run a marathon now!

Once the marathon was over we went back to Elisa’s where her parents had an awesome lunch ready for us! After lunch we got back in the cars and made our way back to Cedarville.

Finally, I just want to say thanks again to Mr. and Mrs. Cherry for feeding us cross girls and guys (we tend to eat a lot) and for letting us stay at your house. The same goes for Lydia Wong -  thanks for dinner and letting us stay with you! We really appreciate everything you guys did for us this weekend and we can’t wait to see you all again. Hopefully at the NCCAA meet!

Jasmin: As you can see, it was a busy weekend for Cedarville cross! Today we start a new set of workouts, and a personal favorite of mine: MILE REPEATS.  We run these on the course at our race pace with some rest between.  This workout is one of my favorites, because it's pretty challenging, but perfect preparation for building endurance for these next races that count. This week is going to fly by fast, with team dinner at the Mark's House (running Alumni... as you can see, our past runners take good care of us!) another speed workout on Wednesday, some homework and tests here and there, and the weekend we've all been awaiting... FALL BREAK!!! Thursday morning, our team will be off to Gettysburg, PA, were we will be-

You can find out next week. :D Thanks for reading! :D

P.S. - I would just like to make a special thanks to The Mark Family, The Cherry Family, The Wong Family and Lydia Wong who did and will be accommodating our big ol' team for dinners, a place to sleep, etc. over last and this next week. It's awesome to see people who are actively letting God work through them to serve others! Thank you for your love to our team :D

Have a great week everyone!!


October 3, 2011

Brace yourselves, this one is a little lengthy.  The good news is, it’s because we had a week jam- packed with pure awesomeness! Here’s the past week’s events brought to you in chronological order:

Still in phase II, Monday’s workout was going to consist of, you guessed it, 1200 repeats.  For a lot of us, this is a challenging workout. It’s a longer speed than us 800 runners are used to, and this is pretty fast-paced for our 10K girls. The conditions were consistently muddy and gloomy as were past weeks, and our hilly 1200 course was awaiting us. But fear not, Coach Bo inspected the unsafe terrain and safely moved us to the track. What a hero :D  Here, we got in our pacing groups, and from top to bottom had a solid workout. I attribute this to our friend Mr. Maintenance Man,  who during our warm-up drove past us in one of those golf carts, flew his door open (while driving) and screamed “YYEEAAHHH!!!!” as a word of encouragement.  How kind of him :D

The day after a speed workout, we normally have a recovery day, where we run 2-5 miles at a confortable pace. It’s not good for runners to go hard every day; we need days that are “light” so our bodies can repair and be stronger. Also on these days, we do barefoot form drills, like high skips, backwards running, high knees, and running mechanics. We do these, as well as hurdle drills, plyos, and stretching. Our favorite part of our dynamic warm-up is our two leg bounding, where we have to hop like froggies ten times continuously. Because of this drill, we have a new appreciation for the diligence of little froggies, and strive to one day be able to frog hop like Coach Bullfrog Bo.

ALL OHIO! It’s really a special thing that we get to participate and host a race such as this one. Almost 50 teams from all over Ohio, come out to little ole’ Cedarville to race on our beautiful rolling cross course and show what they’ve been working for since those long summer miles began.  For those unfamiliar with cross, each team in the varsity race could run seven members of their team. The women’s varsity race contained 317 racers and 47 teams, and our team came through in 14th.  Our average time was a 19:29, which is very good for being about midway through the season.  In our sport, we train fairly hard through the season, taking down weeks for some meets, and taper at the end, hoping to run our best times when it counts.
 
For any of you who are athletes, you know that some games, matches, races become forgotten after time passes. Looking back, I can’t remember all of my high school cross country races, but there are a few that stick out particularly in my mind. This is normally because it was a great day for our team (fast times or winning a championship) or because there was something kind of abnormal about it. This might be an upset, or my personal favorite, strange weather conditions. 

Something about weird weather always makes races more enjoyable and memorable to me. (Except if it’s above 90…something about that weather condition causes me to forget all recollection of the day.)  What I’m saying is, to me, this will be a memorable meet. It was around 50 degrees, which is actually great racing weather, but the cool rain and 25 mile per hour winds made the race pretty interesting.  In the second mile, there is about a 400 meter stretch that was straight into the wind, which I envisioned being pretty comical for spectators to watch.  Little runners trying to run 10 mph against 25 mph winds, while stomping through mud…. seems funny to me. The wind threw in some adversity as well as the rain; our course was already a little soft from the past weeks rain, and when you have four races with 300 plus people stomping their pointy spikes through the soft muddy ground for two hours, conditions worsen to say the least.  By the last race, our course was getting pretty sloppy.

Despite the odds, I would still call this day a success. Number one runner Hannah Lamos finished 30th  at a time of 18:45, tying her season best despite all odds. Here are some of her thoughts from the race:

“Despite the whipping 40 degree winds and thick mud that seemed to suck one's energy with every step, All-Ohio was a great event this year. Meets like this one are good because they teachs us to be tough despite the conditions and not allow ourselves to give into negative thoughts. We learn to grind through the mud, wind and rain and be even more keen of the little ways to outsmart the competition in the tricky conditions. I think there is a lot to take away from a meet like this one. We finished 14th overall, the same place we got last year when we ended up placing 10th at NAIA Nationals, therefore, I have great anticipation for the time drops and team jump that I know are right around the corner."

Her and the rest of our seven ran great races, with a pack time around a minute and a half. Miss Rachel Wong came through second at a time of 19:12, placing 64th, followed by Neola Putnam (19:44, 110th) who was just 20 seconds off her season PR despite the weather. Coming in 113th at 19:45 was sophomore Gracey Lou Campbell, followed by Abby Wong (135th, 20:03). Jennifer Hollander (152nd, 20:11) was consistent from her last time running and looked incredibly strong during this race.  Despite the icky conditions, this young lady moved those legs through! Shortly behind to finish the tight pack was senior Jessica Smith, coming in 159th with a time of 20:19. 

For those of you who don’t know Jess, her story is quite the success! :D She starting running cross country here her freshmen year on the JV team. During her first race, she ran around a 26:00 5K. She’s made extreme progression, running in the 19's as a junior and looking to be in this range and lower very soon. Jess puts in hard miles during the summer and season, and it’s evident that her time and work ethic is paying off. Her story reminds me a lot of Miss Hannah’s, because she also ran cross for the first time her freshmen year in college, and look at where she is now! God has gifted both of these girls with awesome running ability, as well as work ethic. It’s been awesome to watch Jess progress, and we are all excited to see what she’s gonna do for her last collegiate season! Good job Jess :D

Saturday morning, Elisa, Joanna, Gina, Kate, Lauren, Tabby and I helped work the alumni race that started at 8:00 a.m. Two things I’d like to say:

1. It was very cold.

2. Runner’s, we gotta represent better in this race! There were about 50 runners and the winning time was in the 20's.  This is pretty good for people who aren’t collegiate runners, but wouldn’t it be neat if more alum came back to run it? Just a suggestion for our future :D

The weekend wrapped up with my personal favorite time of the week, Sundaes on Sunday.  Since we are runners and try to stay healthy, some of us choose to not eat ice cream all week. Three things:

1. This is a really hard task. We have some pretty good flavors of ice cream and lots of yummy toppings (except chocolate chips, but that’s another story.)

2. Not everyone follows the rule.  For example, Erik Johnson and Dusty Dalton (did I spell it right this time?) think it’s better for their running if they eat ice cream every day. 

3. …sometimes I break the rule too :D

Sundaes is every Sunday night at 7:00 p.m.  We eat dinner together, then make yummy sundaes and enjoy each others company.  It’s really fun for us to just relax and fellowship with each other; a lot of fun memories have been made from this little tradition.

To sum up this past week, it was one filled with business, bonding, and fun-filled- memories.  I know that may sound a little corny, but I really do feel blessed to be a part of a team with such dynamics;  they know when its time to buckle down and do business, but also know when it’s time to eat an ice cream cone or two :D 

Great week for CUXC. 


September 26, 2011

Last week I left you to run in the rain, and that hasn't changed! This past week has been a change in workouts, lifting, but the same weather since we last spoke. Same rain. Everday. We moved to phase II of our training, and have been doing 1200's on the wet, muddy golf course. Along with some more intense workouts, our lifting intensity picked it up last week. It was hard for me to comment on the workouts for everyone this week due to me having class during them, but after talking to the girls and feeling exhausted I know we all put in a hard week.

Observations and updates from the week:

1. “Mr. and Mrs. Matt Brooker” have been frequently spotted in Chuck’s making plates of organic foods to prepare Hannah for a solid race this Friday.

2. Runners are like little birdies: they flock to each other. I promise you, every time I see a runner, they are with another. When I walk into Chuck’s, there is a table full of them. Space jam? Runners. After space jam? Runner’s run to Taco Bell. Where do all the runners sit in chapel? Together. It’s like inside our CU bubble, we’ve formed a baby bubble, and we all just run around in it together. It’s a joy to be on a super tight team, and also to know I will never sit alone in Chuck’s :D

3. I’d like to confirm the two dates of Dusty Dolton that Ethan wrote about in his blog. Dusty joined us for a Taco Bell run to give minor details, but I don’t really know if I’m allowed to reveal her name. But we can confirm that she is a hottie :D

On a more serious note, please keep our team in your prayers this week. After a hard week of training, we are going to back off miles in preparation for the funnest home meet ever, ALL OHIO BABY!! The title of this meet makes it pretty self-explanatory; all the teams in Ohio (or most) come to little old Cedarville to run our course and maybe wander around our cute little campus. It is an awesome meet and we encourage you to come out and support! Also, to pray we are a great representation of our team, school, and Savior. This is such a fun day for our team, but more importantly we hope it is one that is honoring to God, the One who gives us this ability in the first place. We are so pumped for a great week, and you should come out and be a part of it :D

I don’t have too many things to update you on this week, but next week will have more to inform you on. Also, our meet will be live video streamed again, so if you can’t make it out to watch, turn on your computer!

Thanks for tuning in; more next week :D


September 19, 2011

What a week it’s been! It’s hard to believe that just two weeks ago, humidity was approaching 100 and we were preparing for a 96 degree race, hoping to be within a minute of our normal finishing time (or finish the race and walk away remembering it.) But we're two weeks further from those blazing, hot summer days and 40 degrees closer to those cool, fall days; the leaves are starting to fall, the air is beginning to crisp, and our times are starting to drop.

Not that that’s a hard task after the brutal race just two weeks past, but there’s something in that fall air that gets us distance runners to our A game. Maybe it’s to get out of the cold quicker? Is it something in the air? Who know’s? The bottom line is, distance runners love the fall, and now that fall actually feels here, it's go time :D

The weekend worked out nicely in favor of the Lady Jackets. We went home (or crossed the street) with a repeat Championship, better times from the week before, and a teammate who won the Individual Title! Miss Hannah Lamos has been hittin' the brinks all summer, puttin’ in some long miles, eatin' good from her daddy's market up in New York, and getting chased around by Junior Redshirt Matt Brooker (who’s pretty fast himself I might add.), and ran an 18:45 last weekend. Close behind was Miss Gracey Campbell at 19:22 and Neola "Legs" Putnam at 19:24. Following Grace was Wong one, Miss Rachel, running a 19:42, closely followed by Miss Abby Wong. Great to see Abby's hard work paying off. After injury, Abby's been patiently recovering and got to run some intense miles this summer, and she is back in the game ladies and gentleman! it's gotta be somethin’ in their water....The Pack came in solid with less than a minute from their first to fifth runners. That my friends is impressive!

I’d like to second Blogger Blagg’s thoughts on his emotional thoughts about injury. I myself am not injured, but am still recovering from heat exhaustion and am trying to fight off the seasonal cold, putting me sub-par at my race Saturday. But through my disappointing race, I’m learning who is really in control, and through trials we learn to persevere, and come through stronger in the end. Persevering also comes easier when you’re surrounded by elite athletes who have the same joy you do: Christ. I can’t stay mad about my race when I’m surrounded by my team. Also, when there’s a cross-cookout planned for later that night!

The boy and girls teams got together after our races to eat some real red meat (mmm, iron!), spicy salsa, and German chocolate (actually from Germany! Thanks Nathaniel’s Mom :D, oh, and thanks for Greg and Erik’s mom for the yummy cookies!! :D) Always a noisy good time when you stuff a bunch of runners into a confined area.

As a blogger, I’ve been trying to pay more attention to the “teams’ dynamic” (boys and girls) and it’s been a joy to watch. People who come from very different places and backgrounds who share two predominant characteristics (Christ, running) come to this team and become friends for life; it’s fun to watch these bonds in the making!

Our fun victory is over now. Today’s a rainy day, aerobic run’s on the calendar, and its time to up the mileage and crank up the intensity to prepare for our next meet: ALL-OHIO!!
 
Thanks for tuning in...I gotta hit the rainy trails :D


September 12, 2011

Hey faithful fans! Before I start, I’d just like to thank you guys for keeping up with our team from week to week. It’s really encouraging to us, and so is your prayer for our team, so keep doing both of those for us :D

This past weekend, the Lady Jackets didn’t have a race, but here’s a few updates for you eager fans, or you forgetful runners who’d like to reminisce the week.

1. I’m really excited to tell you guys that our team verse this year is Micah 7:7 “But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait on the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.” Prayer is our teams focus this year; We’ve been working on being intentional with our prayer requests between each other and continually being in prayer. The reason I am so excited is because GOD IS CERTAINLY ANSWERING OUR PRAYERS! When at team meetings and Bible study, we’ve had quite a lengthy list of prayer requests, and almost daily we’ve had updates from our teammates that these requests have been answered. It’s been super encouraging to me and our team and I’m excited to see what God will keep doing during our season!

2. Congratulations to the Guy’s team on the 2nd place finish and the Miami Invite this weekend! I couldn’t make it out to give you a detailed report (Went to watch my sister Kelly Haubert Place 31st at the Tiffin Carnival!), but I sent some spies (aka Team Girlfriends) to watch and they we’re impressed with the results of their men. Good job guys :D

3. Practice is going great. We upped our miles this week due to not having a race this weekend, and we’re looking forward to the results of our hard work. Also, when we have workouts, we get rewarded with a nice treat of chocolate milk and Fig Newtons, brought by our Fearless Leader Coach Bo, which makes the week all the better :D

4. WE HAVE A HOME MEET THIS WEEKEND! This weekend we will be hosting the 21st Friendship Invitational. The boys 8K will start at 10:00 a.m. and the girls 5K at 11:00 a.m., followed by high school and junior high races for boys and girls. We’d love for you to come out! And if you can’t, I have good news for you! For the first time, we will be WEB STREAMING both collegiate races, so you can cheer from your computer screen!

Thanks for checking up on us! Keep praying for us, and we hope to see you this weekend! I’ll give you a shout out in the blog next week if you are a first timer at one of our collegiate races. So come and tell me so I can put you in here! Have a great week :D

Blogger Banachowski


September 6, 2011

Welcome back cross fans! This week’s edition of Blogging With Banachowski is going to have a little twist, so to speak. As the team blogger, I’m here to bring you my observations of the week and mainly happenings from the race day. Unfortunately, I come to you today as a secondary source for this weekend’s Dayton Flyer 5K.

Confused? I’ll explain in a bit. Let me update you on some of the week happenings, of which I do remember:

I am confident to assure you we had a great week of practice. The workout that stands out best to me is our speed workout on Wednesday, where over half ourt team completed an 800 and 10- 400’s at race pace with little rest, in our trainers. Our rookies busted out at least half the workout, and everyone else in between finished strong and confident, ready to do business, 24 miles southwest this weekend.

With the speed workouts at a close second, my favorite moments with the team are the ones where we are not running. Most times before practice, we have a time for prayer requests, to talk about the meet, thoughts from coach, etc. And it’s so good to hear what’s going on in the lives and minds of the people you call your teammates. My favorite quote of the week was from our first finisher Hannah Lamos: “We can’t mentally limit ourselves.” She described the time the top seven went to the Walsh Invite with plans to give it their all, in hopes to move up in the rankings to qualify for the 2010 NAIA Nationals. They finished the race and shockingly gazed at their watches, amazed at the new PR’s they had just gained. This moment and others, such as prayer time at our team Bible study, were perfect preparation for our first race, which would be in Dayton at 11:15 a.m. Rumor had it, it was going to be a hot one.

And was that rumor true. Didn’t take much for our girls to get warmed up for this race; most of the team was ready to stretch and get water after the first mile of the warm-up. We did our best to stay in the shade and keep hydrated, and I am confident to say our girls did all they could to prepare for this race.

Just before starting, Coach came to prepare us for what we were about to step into: a blazing sauna. The boys winning time was close to a minute slower than the year before, and we needed to take this first mile out smart, or we were toast. (For real, it was that hot.) The thermometer moved up to 96 degrees, the gun goes off, and its go time… kind of.

I do know times were a little slow for the Lady Jackets. But can I give you exact stats? Not really. Here’s why:

1. No one knew what their time was after they crossed the finish line

2. At this point, the results aren’t online for me to give them to you

3. I blacked out the last 1000 meters of the race and the next hour after, so I couldn’t exactly pull out my clipboard and write down team times for the blog. I was planning on it. Honest. :D (but God-willing, I finished :D)

Most of our team would agree that this meet is not worth remembering. Did we do our best despite the conditions? Definitely! But when it comes right down to it, it’s us against the clock, and when we don’t see that low number as we cross the finish, we try and pretend that race didn’t happen. Unfortunately, the daunghting 96 degree heat and random Appalachian Mountain on the course is hard to forget. As the team might be haunted by this memory for a while, I am lucky enough to walk, or should I say, be carried, away having few recollections of what actually happened.

What do I remember? Not much. But what I do remember is important and hopefully encouraging to you all. After I woke up from my near-death experience, the pain started flowin’ in, but so did the care of my girls, my teammates, my sisters in Christ. I have never felt so helpless, and at the same time, felt so cared for. These girls were by my side for three hours, (and that’s not including my BFFs Joanna Wheatley and Elisa Cherry and Student Trainer Ally Stafford who stayed at the hospital with me for SIX hours!) keeping me conscious, hydrating me, easing my mind, and giving me strength. I felt so privileged to be mouth-fed ice chips from Alumni All-American Lydia Wong (yes, related to Rachel and Abby…I told you, mama knows what to feed these kids!). I am excited to see our XC nurses progress into their field and have Christ shine through them.
 
I went to the hospital, and while I was sitting for two hours waiting for an IV and listening to the fire alarms go off (apparently there was a fire in the hospital, but no need to evacuate.) I was wishing my teammates were my nurses. Their God-given ability to care for people weak people like myself was OUTSTANDING. Also awesome that it wasn’t just the nurse; every member of my team was at my side at some point making sure I was conscious, stuffing fluids in me, and trying to make me laugh (which is the best medicine of all :D) As I was laying half dead in the van, at least five members of the boys team came up to check on me and let me know they were praying for me. What a great community to be surrounded by. God was smiling down on all of you! Thank you all so much. :D I might have lost conscious and forgot half of Saturday, but I gained a deeper love and appreciation for my teammates and will never forget that part of my crazy Saturday.

Also, I can’t forget Coach Bo and Coach Williams! Coach Williams - I heard you were the one who pulled me to safety. I don’t remember it, but I do appreciate it. Thank you! And Coach Bo- Thank you for your continued 20 questions to keep me awake and conscious. And sorry if I got any puke on ya… no but in all seriousness we have theee best coaching staff there is to offer. Great Leaders of God!

CUXC acted out the verse II Corinthians 4:6 “For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” and I’m so blessed to be a part of this team.

Thank you all so much! Tune in next week for practice updates… no race next weekend, so I should be conscious all week! :D


August 30, 2011

Hey fellow runners, parents, and supporters of CU’s XC women! My name is Jasmin Banachowski, and I’ll be the team blogger for this season. I am a sophomore education major returning for my second year of collegiate running, and I’m pumped to inform you guys of the coming events for this season.

I’d like to start by thanking you all for taking time to keep up with our team highlights and experiences over the coming year. Your support means more than you know, and we are excited to share with you all! Two favors I’d like to ask of you readers:

1. Please keep our team in your prayers. God has blessed us with a team full of ridiculous talent, but also with girls whose testimony and faith can touch the lives of many. Pray that we can use our talent and obedience to make Christ known to our competitors, each other, friends, and whoever else we encounter. I also ask for prayer for our team captains, Katie Lanphier, Jessica Smith, and Carolyn Case, who have already done an outstanding job leading us to be our best physically, mentally, and spiritually. Pray for them to keep seeking our Lord for wisdom. Pray this prayer for them and for our fearless leader, Coach Bolender, who will be coaching the “Lady Distance” team for a second year. Coach Bo has been a tremendous leader over the years in track and in the past year as the new Head Cross Country Coach, and we are excited to see where he leads our team this year. We are blessed to have him as a Coach, and we ask for your prayers that God continues to bless our season through him. Thanks for being an awesome coach, Coach Bo!

2. COME WATCH US RACE!! When my legs are feeling weak and I’m just entering mile 3 of a 5K, it’s a great joy to hear a scream of encouragement from a teammate, friend, fan… we know traveling can be hard, but good news! Cedarville will be hosting three home meets this year (Friendship Invitational, All-Ohio, and the NCCAA Championship) and our course is very spectator friendly!

Alright, time to get down to business! Coming out to watch a race is going to be something you’ll have to put on your priority list, because the Lady Jackets are gonna do work for His glory this season! Other than losing Erica Hoff to graduation, our team brings back all its varsity runners, all of who put in hundreds of miles this summer and are ready to race! Our team is stacked with talent from our number one returning varsity runner Rachel Wong down to our 22nd Jacket, which shows high hopes for change in placing order, bringing healthy competition among our runners and the ability to push each other to push to the top.

Juniors Carolyn Case and Hannah Lamos are a dynamic duo looking to push each other for a solid front pack. The 18:35 junior Neola Putnam is moving her awesome legs (yes, I’m not kidding. She has the best legs on the team.) to tighten the pack along with Rookie of the Year candidate Grace Campbell, who is looking to fly past her 18:50 PR and help bring some girls through that sub-18 wall.

We are also excited to say that sister of our front runner, Miss Abby Wong, has had a healthy summer of training and pounded out some serious miles, and we’re excited to see some big things from these speedy sisters (Whatever their mom fed them clearly works!). Also, junior Tabby Moore and seniors Jennifer Hollander and Jessica Smith are high hopes to make a solid pack. (side note inserted by Ethan Blagg, blogger for the men’s team, as he proof reads this: twice I have corrected Jasmin’s calling the junior runners sophomores. Also, read the men’s blog) (do not delete this.)

We also have a few wild cards in the mix. Varsity runner and last year’s blogger Meghan Terrell is returning from sickness. But we are excited to have her back with us and recovering and can’t wait to see her recovery make her stronger than before! We are excited to see where Miss Krista Johnson, returning from ACL injury and senior captain Katie Lanphier, who ended her season with a mid-20 PR, are going to fall in the lineup this year. All have put in hard miles, and with sophomores Joanna Wheatley, “Yours Truly”, and Elisa Cherry coming back with a bigger base and tougher mental game plus newcomer soph Gina Mattes, who knows how the lineup will fall. We also have sophomore Kate Stover, currently out with double stress fractures in her femurs, but this girl ran a summer on those bad boys and she’s gonna dust people when she is healthy!

We are also excited to see where freshmen Tabitha DeHart, Melanie Redfield, Louise Van Matre, plus redshirts Lauren Callahan and Alyssa Mathis fall in the rankings.

Two weeks have flown by, and after about a week of school, arriving seems like months ago. But this year, camp week was one full of cider drinking, mini-golf competing, world famous ice cream eating (in Ohio, we take our tourist attractions quite seriously!), team building, core strengthening, mind building, sweat dripping, God honoring love for each other and our sport, Cross Country. After a strong-built foundation of work, fun, and fellowship, our team is ready to buckle down in our academics, athletics, and relationships and make Christ known in all we do. We’ve got a good week of practice ahead of us, and we’re ready to do some business this weekend in Dayton! If you can, come check it out! This is Miss Banachowski, reporting for the Lady Harriers. Tune in next week, or get to Dayton this Saturday, 11:15 a.m.!


Jasmin Banachowski is a Dean's List student as a sophomore majoring in early childhood education from Napoleon, Ohio.