November 19, 2013
Sniff sniff…what a sad but happy day this is…mostly happy, as are most (to me), but a little bit sad…. For this, my friends, is the last cross country blog of the 2013 season…
BUT CHECK OUT THE RESULTS! Wooohooo like way to bring it home girls! And AT home too! This past weekend these Lady Jackets TORE IT UP on their home course in the NCCAA National Championship!
Our top seven competed on Saturday in the championship, and the rest of the girls put forth their final effort in the open race on Friday evening! They did fan-stinkin-tastic by the way….Trust me. I know. Because I was there. Then on Saturday we were what I’d call successful in giving a strong demonstration of what we’ve been working so hard for all season!
Alex Archambault earned All-America honors, running a time of 18:36 which placed her 7
th in the field of 227. Rachel Groh finished 33
rd in 19:20, and Kristen Laaman ran a 19:40 to place 49
th! Kacy Dunn had an amazing end to her freshman season, running a 19:56 to place her 53
rd! Finally, Hailey Bredeson, Ali Logan, and Melanie Redfield rounded out the top seven placing 59
th, 63
rd, and 65
th respectively. Great pack running girls! I love how we can use one another in our races! And everyone was at or under the 20 minute mark! Yayyy! I deem this a success. Boom.
Now, I have really enjoyed writing these blogs for y’all, and it was really encouraging to hear on Saturday that people actually read and enjoy them! However, the season has snuck by so quickly that I never did take the chance to poem-blog, or pog (I just made that up…), which is something I had always wanted to do if I got to be the team blogger….
SO…
This is not going to be as good as it should have been considering the time and thought that COULD have gone into it… but here it goes:
Oh how I’m thankful, to be a receiver
of blessings from friends, a core group of believers
But not only faith and beliefs do we share,
But running, a passion; the will to prepare
For races and meets, but also for life
To become better mothers and teachers and wives
The things that we learn through the course of a season
Apply to the rest, and give meaning and reason
To things that we face, though we’re never alone
We have not just our team, but our King on His throne
We can lift one another, through prayer and through deeds
We do life together and work to plant seeds
And yes, while we’re at it we have lots of fun
And though barely I’ve said it, we often do RUN…
But just as I’ve mentioned, each girl’s so much more
Than a person to run with, a masseuse when we’re sore
But rather a best friend, a sister in Christ
To lift up and hold up and walk with in life
For this we are grateful, and given a reason
To sadly, yet proudly, put behind us this season.
Well… that’s that. I would like to thank everyone who has supported our team throughout the season; we have had so much support and prayer coming from both parents and alumni. I ask that you continue to keep us in your prayers as we move through the rest of the semester and year. Though the season has come to an end, we will continue to work to be unified as a team and to grow our relationships with one another and with Christ.
This is Alexandra Archambault signing off for the Yellow Jackets!
November 13, 2013
WOOOOOO! That’s what we were screaming in Kenosha, Wisconsin this past weekend when we found out that the guys team made it to nationals! AND that three of our girls ran personal records! AND when we remembered that we were STINKIN’ IN WISCONSIN!!!
Phew… so yeah, exciting weekend to say the least. It was definitely a fun (rowdy) bus ride with the guy’s team; I think it’s safe to say that there were good times had by all…
We left around 3 in the afternoon on Thursday, stopped at Chipotle (yummmm) and then arrived at the hotel around 10:30 p.m. The next day we got up and headed to the Wayne E. Dannehl Cross Country Course at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside where we ran (and surveyed) the 6K course. Then we headed to lunch with the guys where they ever so politely allowed us to order first….Then back to the hotel to chill until dinner. don’t know what everyone else was doing, but Kristen and I studied Cell Bio…That was a blast (LIES!). Not EVERY part of the trip can be fun I guess… at least not when you have homework… ew.
ANYWAY…the race went splendidly! Like I mentioned earlier, three girls ran PR’s! Rachel Groh came in second for Cedarville girls placing 108
th in 23:37! WOW! Kristen Laaman ran her new best of 24:00 flat to place 121
st, and Kacy Dunn came in 130
th with a PR of 24:20! Also placing for Cedarville were Hailey Bredeson and Melanie Redfield who also ran amazing races! They ran 24:45 and 24:51 respectively! Alex Archambault led the Jackets in 23:12. Nice job girlies! Y’all rock!
The boys ran after us and placed third in the region, which sends them to Washington in a few weeks for nationals! Yayyy boys! And yayyy girls too! Yayy everyone! I’m way too happy…
On another note, I think this trip was a really good one. Not just because we had a few good races, or because we got to travel with the guys…or even just because we were in Wisconsin and got to visit a Cheese Castle on the way home (sweet, right!) I don’t know, I think we learned a lot beyond that. I guess I can’t really speak for everyone, but I certainly know that I learned a lot! When I was doing my Bible studying the night before the race, I was reading in I Corinthians where verses 1:27-29 stood out to me. It says,
"
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God."
We can be seen by many as foolish or naïve because of our faith. We can also be seen as weak; we are weak without Christ, but the world doesn’t see it that way. When we work to be humble, it can come across as weakness, or even foolishness at not boasting in our accomplishments! This verse encouraged me because through both our perceived weakness as well as our evident physical weakness (hello anemia…) we can be used by God for His glory in demonstrating the strength we have in Him! There were a couple other things God showed me through this passage, but I’ll just leave y’all with that for now :)
Yeah, it was a fun and encouraging weekend! Now we’re just getting ready for the final hoorah of the season: NCCAA Nationals!
The race is Saturday, November 16
th so come on out if you’re around! Or if you’re not… come anyway :] I know the girls are SUPER excited, as am I for this last opportunity of the season! We will be running our top seven in the championship on Saturday and all the other girls will run in the open race on Friday night! What a blast!
Alrighty well, I’ve got a carton of orange juice here that’s not going to finish itself… see ya!
November 6, 2013
WE ARE SO CLOSE! It’s almost time to pack in that bus and head for…..where??.... WISCONSIN!!!! I can’t even start to mention the abundance of blessings that God has placed on our team this year! What great opportunities we have to travel! Not to mention we actually get to race in the regional meet! WHAT!!?? Crazy…
This past week we’ve lowered our mileage a bit to get ready for the regional meet and then the NCCAA National Championships after that. Coach Carolyn took us through some circuit workouts in place of lifting this past week and now we’re just starting to cut back in preparation for Wisconsin…WISCONSIN. hehehe WiScOnSiN!!!!!!!! Can you tell I’m excited?
Over the weekend a bunch of the girls headed to Chicago with Elisa to stay with her family and explore the big city! Sounds like it was a blast; aside from the stand still traffic into the city… but hey, who couldn’t use some more time in the car?? It’s not like we have a long bus ride coming up or anything…
We had a good workout on the course this afternoon, we’re starting to get used to the 5K home course because that is what we will be running for NCCAA’s. It’s just a loop different from the 6K course, but it’s still good to get used to. Still another 6K first though! The regional meet in Wisconsin is a 6K with beautiful rolling hills and lots of woodsy trails! (I’m a New Hampshire girl… I love this stuff!) The start is up a slight incline I believe and then the rest of it is rolling; but lots of downhill as I think I heard Coach Bolender mention this afternoon. There is this one beautiful hill in the woods in the middle of the race that I can remember from last year that I’m super excited for! If only my enthusiasm for an incline was contagious…
If we do well (Top 4 teams I believe) at regionals, we will get to go on to Nationals in Washington!!! Another "W" state! Woooo! So that’s always an exciting possibility! And even if that is not the reality this year, we found last year at regional’s that this course is really good for PR’s :)
I promise, I’ll have a write up of next weekend that will be long enough to make up for the length of this week’s. Golly with everything that’s going on I’ll have enough to say to make your finger sore from scrolling :) So we’ll keep training and preparing for our big race, and you just do those finger exercises in preparation for the next blog…you know: in. out. up. Down. Now lift up a grocery bag. Or a gallon of milk. Yeah. You just keep working on that….
Well, until then…. See ya latah alligatah :)
October 29, 2013
Success! Nice job ladies taking home the win once again at the G-MAC championship! Saturday was such an incredible race for so many girls, as well as a great demonstration of the depth of our team! Allow me to get straight to the good stuff:
We had three Lady Jackets place in the Top 10 to make the G-MAC First Team and four more who made the second team! Alex Archambault took the G-MAC individual title with a time of 22:33, and was also named G-MAC Runner of the Year. Next in for the Lady Jackets was Olivia Esbenshade who placed 8
th in 24:06; great race by the way for this girl, coming off of injury mid-season and catapulting herself to the front of the pack is pretty awesome to see. Similar story with Rachel Groh who finished 9
th in 24:08… I guess all these injuries we had early on were just a secret way to hide some of our secret freshmen weapons for championship season…:) Right (and I mean RIGHT) behind Rachel was sophomore and overall awesome person Kristen Laaman! She finished just one second off of her teammate to run a time of 24:09, finishing 10
th! Yet another injury recovery story… so great… so, so very great:) All these girls made the G-MAC First Team (Top 10), and the following made the Second Team (Top 20)! Hailey Bredeson, Kacy Dunn, Melanie Redfield, and Ali Logan placed 13
th, 15
th, 16
th, and 19
th respectively! Talk about running together and using the pack!
Gosh. It’s super exciting to see a race like this at this point in the season. We’ve got PR’s popping out all over the place! Though I couldn’t really see the girls throughout the race, one thing that I could see was the finish. The amount of determination in the faces of these girls who I spend so much time with each day was really encouraging! You could easily tell just how much each girl wanted the title by the way she fought straight through until the end! Gosh I love these girls!
So, yes. Great race girls, keep up the hard work! We’ll be traveling to Kenosha, Wisconsin on November 9
th for the NCAA DII Midwest Regional Championships! Yayyy another road trip! And another great racing opportunity! AND lots of really pretty leaves in Wisconsin!
Hehe oh golly! Alright, in the words of Porky Pig: Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-...That's all, folks.
October 23, 2013
OH MY GOODNESS. What a weekend. Like WOW. We were so so so very blessed to have the opportunity to travel down to Gettysburg over this past weekend for fall break! WOW. Sorry… it was just that great…
Let me take it from the beginning. We left rather early on Thursday morning on our eight-hour road trip (the bus driver got us there in seven…. Yeah. I liked him…). We arrived early in Gettysburg and went straight to the college where we would be racing in just two short days. We did a run around the campus and got to see a little bit of some of the battlefields. We weren’t really supposed to run directly on the course until the next day, so we used this as our scenic run…we even got to see some really cool monuments (there was one just about every 10 feet….).
After our run we checked into the hotel and got all fancied up for our dinner that night. We went to this really super duper fantabulously amazing restaurant called Dobbins House. The house itself was built in 1776 and was eventually made into a restaurant. The food was AMAZING (thanks coach!) and the atmosphere was incredible! We ate upstairs in one of the "bedrooms" where some of the tables were set up like canopy beds! After we ate we got to walk up to an upper room that had a slave hide out built into the stairs. It just looked like a cabinet and there was a sliding bookshelf to keep it hidden. Gosh. Thinking about some of these things is crazy… I can’t even imagine having to go through anything like the situations that people were faced with back then. Visiting the Dobbins House and seeing these things was a very cool and eye-opening experience. Being RIGHT THERE, where it ACTUALLY HAPPENED! Wow, so grateful for that experience, it makes me so incredibly thankful for the blessings we live with today!
The next day we got up and left for our run at the course. This time we really scoped everything out and took note of all the muddy spots, narrow spots, rocky spots, etc. We took time on our run to talk about the course and about the race; strategies and decisions we need to have down before the gun ever goes off. Then we showered at the college and headed out to the museum!
The museum we were so privileged to visit was pretty stinkin’ sweet…we got to watch a short film about the Battle of Gettysburg and then we took an escalator up into a cyclorama that was painted in 1884. It’s a 360 degree painting that depicts different scenes of the war, and it was made into a presentation with special lighting and sound effects! SUPER COOL. After that we walked through the museum itself; there was sooooo much information and lots of interesting artifacts and photographs to see and learn from!
After the museum we went sightseeing on the bus; we got out at some different monuments and posed for the camera, fought with leaves, and Elisa played dead….Yeah. For dinner we got our carbs in at a nice Italian restaurant where some of the girls’ families were able to join us! We were also joined by one of Coach Bo’s friends from college and his family. Turns out that this friend is actually an iron man and we were able to hear a little bit from him that night! He talked about training and dedication, overcoming injury and trusting and leaning on God; the most important point that I got from the talk was to MAKE YOUR RACE COUNT. We are only given so many opportunities for good races, and we never know if something may prohibit us from racing in the future, so we need to take these races when we are strong and healthy and really make them count. Most of all, we need to make them count so that they can stand as a testimony to our faith, and point all the glory to the Creator! Yayy!
Alright. Now for race time. Our girls did super well! I think it’s safe to say that this was our best race yet! We had some really good packs going; lots of girls working together and pushing their teammates! And considering that the majority of girls raised their hands when asked if they had run a season P.R., I’d say it went rather well.:)
Alex Archambault came back off of some… erm…
interesting races (yeah, let’s say that...:) to come in 6
th over all with a time of 23:04. Next in for the Yellow Jackets was Rachel Groh who came in 33
rd with a 24:19! Rachel had been injured for a good portion of the season, and LOOK AT WHAT SHE DID!! Same with our next two finishers, Olivia Esbenshade and Kristen Laaman who ran 24:24 and 24:30 for 36
th and 42
nd place respectively. Ain’t no injuries gonna keep our team down! (yes, I realize that double negatives allow for the opposite of the desired effect, but I used it for emphasis, so you get the idea...:) Our final scorer was Ali Logan (46th; 24:38) followed by Hailey Bredeson (49th; 24:42), and Mary Kearney (58th; 24:51) who rounded out the top seven. Great job girls!! The rest of our team did really great as well! Everyone was super encouraging and all the ladies did a great job supporting one another both on and off of the course! And our girls that are still dealing with injury were there cheering as loud as ever! They also did a great job helping out coach and taking splits!
After the race we stayed for awards and then headed back to the ‘Ville. The bus ride was by far one of the best… let’s just say that if college doesn’t work out, we could all have careers as runway models!:)
Overall it was a really great weekend. I am so so very grateful for the opportunity to spend more time with all these lovely ladies! We’re all so different from one another but we are able to come together as one team which is so cool! I am so excited for the rest of the season; not just to see our times get faster, but also to see our relationships with one another grow. Yup, we’ve got a great group here. We are so blessed to be able to work with this group of girls and to have opportunities to invest in one another’s lives! In team Bible study tonight we had three more girls share their testimonies! Oh how I love to hear each individual’s life path and how God has worked in and through them to bring them here and now!
So yeah. Blessed weekend, lovely team, yummy food, wonderful coaches, and a pretty crazy awesome bus driver… that was pretty much our trip! If you made it to the end of this, give yourself a pat on the back. Then, since you must be such a devoted XC follower to read this entire obnoxiously long post, pick up a pen and write the G-MAC championships on your calendar! Seriously though, you should come if you’re in the area! Saturday morning, girls race at 11:30! This is our first championship meet of the season and we’re super excited! AND it’s a home meet. So why not, right? Hehe alright, well thanks for reading. This is me signing off and going to get a snack (runners need to eat ya know)…!
October 15, 2013
Hey there! The weather’s getting colder and the CU women’s cross team is getting STRONGER! As we get further into our season and increase the difficulty and length of our workouts we come closer and closer to our peak performances! After all, our first big conference meet, G-MAC, is in just two weeks!
Before we get to that though, we have a BIG adventure ahead of us! We are so incredibly fortunate to be given the opportunity to travel all the way to Gettysburg, PA for a race over fall break! We will be leaving on Thursday morning and getting back on Saturday night, but let me tell ya, there’ll be a lot more that goes on than just racing :D Coach Bolender and Coach Watson have all kinds of fun things planned for us! Including memorials, a museum, and a couple fun restaurants! How exciting!!! Such a great opportunity to not only race somewhere new, but also to spend more time as a team and even…(dare I say it?)...learn something! Not to mention all the homework time we’ll have on the drive…16 hours total…WHATT!!?? Bonding. If there is anything we don’t know about one another, it will be known after this trip.
This past weekend we were blessed with the opportunity to go to Tyler Greenwood’s house for a bonfire! Tyler is a freshman on the guys team this year and he lives super close! His family was kind enough to have both the guys and girls teams over to their home where they prepared a fantabulous (is that a word?) meal and put up with all of our crazy for the evening! We had a pretty intense pumpkin carving contest and sang songs and played volleyball! It was a really fun time and we were able to spend some time with the guys. I hate to admit it, but they’re a little bit tolerable… ;)
On a more serious note, I wanted to mention something that our team has been struggling with; iron. Who knew that one little transition metal (or lack of) could cause so much havoc?! I was aware that a fair amount of girls on our team had been or currently are anemic, but I didn’t realize just what that meant until I recently found myself to be in the same boat. It’s kind of a scary thing… frustrating as guacamole too, but hey what can you do? I WILL TELL YOU! Obviously it’s important to take iron pills, as that, I believe, is the most common treatment. But I’m not really talking about the physical aspect of this…
What does being iron deficient mean? Well, in simplest terms for our purposes in cross it means that you cannot race to your potential. It means that you can still work hard and train hard (thank the Lord) but that your results just aren’t going to be where you want them to be or expect them to be until your iron levels are back where they belong. My question? WHY!? I know that iron is important to your body and that you really do physically need a sufficient supply, but what does that really matter? See, I now know that I don’t have enough iron, but does that mean that I’m just going to give up my season and still work hard but settle for mediocre races? Stink no. God is bigger than iron! God is bigger than any problem or sickness or emotional dilemma we may be going through! So I’m not going to blindly accept the definition of my races that comes with anemia nor am I going to let my teammates limit themselves by the knowledge of it. End rant.
Phew. Sorry. Anyway…. Prayers for safe travels to and from Gettysburg would be greatly appreciated! I can’t wait for the next blog where I get to tell of our many crazy adventures from break!
See ya then!
October 9, 2013
Hello again! No fancy intro today, (not that my intros are usually fancy at all…) instead let’s get right to the good stuff!! WE HAD A RACE! Yayyy! And it was a HOME RACE! Right on our very own turf here at Cedarville! Home meets make me so excited, I just love being able to race on the course that we, at least by mid-season, have become so familiar with! Also, I have to admit, I love all the people. It’s nice to hear so many people cheering for Cedarville everywhere!
Anyway, it was a lovely day, though a bit hot for the varsity race. Scoring for the team was Alex Archambault who completed the course in 24:32, then Hailey Bredeson in 24:44, Melanie Redfield in 25:00, Nicole Watterud in 25:25, and Mary Kearney in 25:47. Also running in the varsity race were Ali Logan and Jasmin Banachowski who ran 25:55 and 26:31 respectively. The rest of the girls who are healthy competed in the open race which took place a little later and when the heat had let up a bit. All the girls who competed did an awesome job! Getting through the heat was a feat in itself, and this is also the biggest race we have been in thus far! So great job girls!
The race made for a super fun Friday, but what to do with the rest of the weekend?? Well, it was Homecoming Weekend, so there were lots of fun things to do around campus. Also, on Saturday night the Norman family was nice enough to have us over for a dinner and a bonfire! How lovely! I wasn’t able to go, but I heard they had a lot of fun, even though it rained a little. Well, a lot. Yeah it pretty much poured…
Allow me to back track just a tiddly-bit and mention our Bible study earlier in the week. The beautiful and wonderful Kathryn Sill took notes for me :) Jill Cobb has been teaching us about the inductive Bible study method, and since our team verses are Romans 15:5-6, we’ve decided to study the book of Romans! It looks like the girls got through a few chapters using the newly learned techniques, and I can’t wait until next Bible study so I can join them! Our homework was to make sure that we had our team verses memorized! Hopefully we will all be able to recite them soon so we can keep it in our heads and on our hearts!
School may be a little rough the next couple weeks with mid-terms leading up to fall break. We’ve really got to buckle down to make sure to get everything done and studied and turned in, etc. Good thing we’ve got teammates for encouragement :D Then after that we get to go to Gettysburg, Penn. for our next race! I heard it’s an awesome trip from some alum who have gone in the past, and am therefore INCREDIBLY EXCITED! It’ll be a lot of fun, especially where we get to spend even more time getting to know one another! (Though after that long of a bus ride we may just know each other a little too well…)
Haha just kidding!
But really… ;)
Well that’s about it. As always, prayers for our team are greatly appreciated :)
Have a blessed week everyone!
Love, Alex
October 2, 2013
Greetings! Another great week is just about wrapping up! We had some really, really, REALLY good workouts this past week. The girls worked incredibly hard and we, for the most part, were able to hit our splits as well run our max number of reps! After some tough but successful mile intervals on Tuesday afternoon, we had a great 800 meter work out on Thursday morning! Just for the record, I LOVE MORNING WORKOUTS! Some of the girls are not so excited about them… I have absolutely no clue why…:) The only downside is that we were running in a very foggy darkness around the track until the sun came up because the big lights weren’t on yet… that’s alright though! It was a blast!
Morning workouts are good. They not only teach us discipline in getting to bed on time and getting up early, but they give us more of an opportunity to work together as a whole team (Usually the reason behind a morning workout is that we have so many class conflicts with afternoon practices). I just think it is so much fun to be able to yell that loudly that early in the morning (we usually need a little extra encouragement for morning practices)… and there’s no one around to judge…:)
Coming up next is yet another wonderful home meet! Except this one is the All-Ohio. That’s right folks, ALL of OHIO. That means we’ve got big schools, small schools, short schools, tall schools, D1 schools, D2 schools, red schools, and blue schools… yeah well you get the idea… and yes, I do like green eggs and ham. ANYWAY, it should be a great meet with lots of good competition AND it just happens to take place during Homecoming Weekend! Yaaayyyyy! So grab your cardboard canoe and paddle on over to the Elvin R. King Cross Country Course! And this coming week is spirit week here at Cedarville, and Friday is blue and gold day! So dress appropriately! The ladies and I will be rocking our uniforms… LET’S REPRESENT PEOPLE! Hehe :)
This past team Bible study was a special one as well! Our Team Chaplain Jill Cobb meets with us every other week so this time it was just us girls. We were able to spend some time talking about our goals for the season as a team as well as hear some testimonies which was truly awesome. I love that we can come together as a team for practice and races but also as sisters when it comes to the other aspects of our lives. It really is such a blessing to be on a team with a group of girls who strive to do all to the glory of God! Blessed. That is what we are. So. Stinkin. Blessed.
So I hope to see y’all at the All-Ohio! It will be a great time and I’m definitely feeling a few PR’s out of these girls! Have a wonderful, fabulous, blessed and God-honoring week!
Love, Alex
September 24, 2013
And we’re back! We’ve had a super wonderful fantastic week! Yeah. It was that great. Or at least I thought so…I guess that nothing incredibly spectacular in itself really took place, but it was still super great! And shouldn’t we appreciate and seek out the best in every week God gives us!? No matter the circumstances!? Well, there’s your dose of sunshine…
What helped make our week so spectacular, you ask? It must have been that on Saturday we successfully held our VERY FIRST HOME MEET! It was so great! I can’t even imagine all the time and hard work that so many people put into this race, but it turned out wonderfully! I am so grateful that we have a school that takes our sport so seriously! You can see the results and all the fancy statistic things on the Cedarville Yellow Jacket’s website, and they even have a cute little video recapping the race! How cool is that!?
I’d say that as such a young team in our second meet of the season we did rather well. Coach Bolender keeps telling us to keep in mind that we have a long season this year, and that it’s alright to not have run a personal record right in the beginning. Also, we haven’t done a lot of speed work yet; one of many factors that will play into our future race day successes! Overall we came in seventh place out of eleven schools. It was a competitive field and there were even some NCAA DI schools! It was such a blessing to have so many teams come; we were given great opportunities for planting seeds for God’s kingdom through our words and actions. We even got to pray with some of the other teams right after the race! It’s amazing how something as simple as running can be a way through which the gospel is shared!
Aahhhhh! Gosh that just gets me so excited! Anyway, our girls did great! Especially the freshmen… I’m loving having all these freshies on the team and I think that this will be a really successful season for them and subsequently for all of us!
Speaking of freshies, Hailey Bredeson ran her first collegiate race EVER on Saturday and came in second for Cedarville! She was 30th overall with a 24:45 on the 6K course! Nice job Hailey! We had three other freshmen in our top seven; Nicole Watterud finished 40th, Mary Kearney was 47th, and Abby Niemiec was 53rd! Sophomore Alexandra Archambault ran a 23:59 to place 18th (yup, I think I’m going to go with using the third person, despite the awkwardness…) Also in our top seven were junior Melanie Redfield placing 45th and senior Jasmin Banachowski in 50th!
All the Lady Jackets ran really well! I’m super proud of every single person on our team; even the injured girls did a superb job cheering us on from all over the course! I can’t wait to see everyone’s improvement as the season progresses! Our next race is the All-Ohio Intercollegiate Championship on October 4th, ANOTHER home meet! I hope some of y’all were able to come out to the Friendship, and if not then come on out for All- Ohio! It’ll be great, I promise! (I kind of have a tendency of seeing everything as great, so take that into consideration…)
Well that about wraps it up… I’m super pumped for our team Bible study on Wednesday night; I’ll talk a little about it in next week’s blog… See ya!
September 17, 2013
Hello Hello again! Welcome to this week’s episode of "Cross Country Shenanigans"! Haha! Sorry, I really just made that up…
Anyway, this week has been a week of preparation. We’ve been getting ready for our race this coming Saturday; our first home meet of the season! Not only have the girls and I been preparing physically and mentally for this exciting race opportunity, but Coach Bolender, Coach Orchard and countless others behind the scenes have been working to prepare the beautiful course and get this meet rolling! Let me tell you, the course looks absolutely AMAZING, and there are pretty little lines and arrows everywhere to keep directionally challenged people like me from getting lost. Yes lost. In a field. Yeah. Let’s not talk about that…
The team has been continuing to work really hard! I can see these girls putting their all in everything they do, from tough workouts to lifting to stretching. Even the girls dealing with injuries have been incredibly diligent in their cross training and exercises! These girls have been a huge encouragement to the rest of the team in the way that they handle their injuries and continue to cheer the rest of us on!
I’m almost positive that I’m not the only one overwhelmed with enthusiasm for this upcoming race! We’re all SUPER excited for such a great racing opportunity, and there are even going to be some big NCAA Division I schools there, so good competition!
Also this week, we had our first team Bible study with our team Chaplain, Jill Cobb. She is a former CU cross country runner and now she’s back to invest in our team this year! It was lovely meeting her and sharing our first Bible study together. I think we’re going to learn a lot this year! Miss Jill is running a race of her own this Saturday, a WHOLE STINKIN’ MARATHON! Props to her! While we’re running our relatively puny little 6K, we can just think of all the miles she’s conquering!
One of the things we talked about during Bible study this week was dedication. We dedicate ourselves to running every day, and through that dedication we know that running is a priority in our lives. But what about our spiritual lives? Do we make it a priority every day to spend time praying and in God’s Word? None of us would be alright with missing a day of running just because we were "busy", so why allow our spiritual time to take the back burner when classes get tough and we’re overwhelmed by meetings and projects and homework? Definitely something to think about as we take on this busy week and prepare for our race.
I’d say that’s about it for today. Your prayers and support for our team are always greatly appreciated. If you’re in the area, come on out and support us this Saturday at the Elvin R. King Cross Country Course! The men’s 8K goes off at 9:30 a.m. and the women’s 6K at 10:15 a.m.!
Hope to see you there! (And seriously, if you actually do see me there, please talk to me! I’d be oh so very happy to meet someone who actually reads this… :)
September 11, 2013
Hello hello hello! This is Ali Logan, subbing in for Miss Alex because she wasn’t able to attend the meet this past weekend. Fear not, though - you will only have to suffer my writing this week, and she will be back on board next time!
Before I get to the meet, we have some very exciting news to share: we have a new assistant Coach!! The lovely, newlywed Mrs. Carolyn WATSON will be working with us this season!! Carolyn ran track and cross country for Cedarville; she graduated this past spring and missed it so much that she just had to come back! She is married to THE Clay Watson who is a junior on the guys’ team. We love having her around and couldn’t be more excited to call her "Coach!"
Last Friday we took a little drive to Mason, Ohio to race in the Queen City Invitational. One unique aspect of the meet was that the course is very new, so most, if not all of the teams were not familiar with it. In fact, a couple days prior to the meet Coach announced that, "They told me there will be more hills than expected." We don’t know who ‘they’ are or how these hills grew overnight, but we mentally prepared ourselves for a tough course.
When we arrived, we walked and jogged the course to familiarize ourselves with it. When we walk a course we talk a lot about strategy for racing - running the shortest distance around turns, finding even ground (which was difficult on this course!), the best opportunities to pass the competition, etc. After our warm-up we spiked up and gathered at the start line. One of my favorite things prior to a race is our team huddle. Coach encourages us, sometimes a couple of girls give words, and most importantly, we pray. Our theme this year is unity, and part of being unified is doing all we do for the same purpose. Our purpose in all we do should be to glorify God, which is why our team cheer is "Run for Him!" The team huddle always calms my nerves and reminds me why I race.
Eleven of our twenty-three girls lined up at the start: Melanie Redfield, Nicole Watterud, Kacy Dunn, Abby Niemiec, Mary "Suburban Mom" Kearney, Jasmin Banachowski, Jo Sanders, Joanna Wheatley, Louise Van Matre, Kate Havard, and I.
A couple of race highlights: Freshie Mary Kearney ran 20:34 for a twenty-second lifetime PR!! It isn’t often that someone PR’s in the first race of the season, but it proves that those grueling summer miles pay off. Cap’n Melanie followed suit with her 20:12, a cross country 5K PR. Congrats to all five of the freshmen who just put their first college race under their belts!
Obviously eleven out of twenty-three sure seems to be a small number. Where were the other girls? They were out there on the course calling splits and cheering us on! We are sad to see so many injured, but let me tell you - those girls work HARD! While we train outside, they hammer away on bikes, ellipticals, rowing machines, and all of their rehab exercises. Their determination is inspiring to the rest of us, and we can’t wait until they can run again. Huge thank you to the girls who cheered this weekend - having that support is immeasurably helpful in a race!
That’s all I have! Thanks for tuning in again, and Alex will be back for the next installment!
September 4, 2013
Guess what time of year it is again!? Golly, I can already smell fall in the air! That’s right, here begins a brand new season for the CU women’s cross country team!
First off, I would like to thank y’all for reading this blog and following our team! It is the prayers and support of our families, alumni, friends, and everyone else reading this that really helps make our team great! Let me start off by introducing myself, and then the beautiful ladies that make up our team this year! My name is Alexandra Archambault, but I go by Alex. Jas calls me Alexa which I am slightly okay with only because it sounds more feminine than Alex. Anyway, I’m a sophomore, pre-pharmacy major and I’m loving every second of it! I’m from a teeny tiny town up in New Hampshire that I absolutely adore; all the flatness and corn around here is a little different for me, but I love it!
We have a great team this year! Even though we lost a really wonderful group of seniors to graduation, we have gained a whopping 11 freshmen! Yes, wonderfully confused and full of questions that we’re happy to answer. Gosh golly, I can’t get over how much fun it is to watch them adjust to college life! They’re just so cute!
Our freshmen are Megan Ball, Hailey Bredeson, Kacy Dunn, Olivia Esbenshade, Rachel Groh, Mary Kearney, Abby Niemiec, Bethany Norman, JoHanna Sanders, Jennifer Stallard, and Nicole Watterud. Wow, what a list! The freshies outnumber every other class, so we’ve got to be careful this year!
Our sophomores include, Captain Ali Logan, Kristen Laaman, Kate Havard, Kathryn Sill, and me. Our juniors are Captain Melanie Redfield, Louise Van Matre, and Tabitha DeHart. Lastly, allow me to introduce our magnificent seniors, who have been through it all and have done a wonderful job in leading our team thus far. We have Captain Jasmin Banachowski, Johanna Wheatley, Elisa Cherry, and Gina Mattes. By the way, Jasmin just got engaged this summer! Ask her to tell her engagement story, she totally hasn’t been asked like 7,000 times…
Our season has been off to a really great start! Though we had more of a camp "weekend" than a camp "week", we were still able to get to know all the new freshies pretty well and help get them adjusted and settled in to college life. We’ve shared some great running adventures so far, including a run at John Bryan State Park where we saw the "yellow springs" and killed spider’s homes with our faces. EWW.
After one of our runs, coach offered to make us all smoothies, but he forgot to take the spoon out of the blender before turning it on… yummy, ground up plastic pieces! Haha, it really was great though, he made us another batch and I’m sure none of us will ever forget that morning!
We’ve been working hard, but having lots of fun, and our team has gotten really close over just the last few weeks! On Labor Day, freshman Bethany Norman and her family invited the team over for a pool party and dinner which was a super blessing to all who attended! I know I had a great time, and we even got to make s’mores!
Also, this past weekend alumni Rachel Wong had both the men’s and women’s teams over to her home for dinner! How nice is that!? A lot of work too… boys eat a lot. Speaking of boys, we’ve gotten to know the guy’s team pretty well; we went to Young’s Dairy at the very beginning of the semester and got ice cream and played mini golf with them. They’re pretty cool, I guess.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for y’all today. Come out and support us at our first meet this Friday in Mason, Ohio, if you’re in the area! I ask that you be praying for our team; I know that a lot of girls have been injured already this season, or are still suffering from injuries that carried over from the summer. Also, we’re focusing on unity this year within our team, so prayers that we may unite as one body in Christ and serve Him through our running would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again for your support and for reading about all of our crazy adventures! I’m sure there will be a whole lot more crazy to write about as the season progresses. God bless and have a great week!
Alexandra Archambault is a sophomore at Cedarville University from Strafford, N.H. and majoring in pre-pharmacy.
