May 28, 2019
The seemingly endless track season has finally come to an end. For some, the season ended on an upswing. For others, the season did not go as well as they had hoped. All in all, the team definitely had a good year.
This past week, Trent Classen and I (along with Kayla Casaletto and Carsyn Johnson from the women's team) traveled to Kingsville, Texas to compete in the NCAA DII Outdoor Track National Championship. I kicked things off on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. by winning the pole vault...that was fun. Later in the day, Trent and Kayla ran in the 3K steeplechase prelims. In really tough conditions (heat, humidity, and wind), Trent finished 17th and Kayla finished 16th. Sadly, neither of them made it to the finals. On Friday, Carsyn ran in the 800 prelims but was unable to finish because her calf cramped up. It was a sad way to end her collegiate career...but I guess now she can just focus on winning the Olympics or something...
For me, this year was full of blessings. My PR going into the year was 5.12m (16' 9.5") and I finished this year at 5.37m (17' 7.25") with a close attempt at 18' (I'd say I had about 6" of hip height over the 18' bar but came down on it on the back side). I thought I would have a lot to say about the year... but it's pretty simple: God is good. God taught me a lot of things this year. One of the biggest things God taught me was that I should trust him with everything. He made me, He has a plan for me, all I have to do is trust Him. I praise the Lord for all of the success I have had this year. All the glory belongs to Him.
May 6, 2019
This past weekend we drove up to Hillsdale to compete at the G-MAC Outdoor Championships! We had a lot of great performances and a lot of great competition.
Highlights:
Trent Classen ran a PR of 8:59 in the 3K steeplechase to solidify his spot at nationals!
Caleb Fauth placed first and Noah Errichetti placed second in the javelin!
(Editor’s note: Blogger Tommy Ansiel placed first in the pole vault!)
Overall everyone had a great meet! Many of our seniors went back to campus early for graduation on Saturday...since it was a three-day meet, some of them got to compete and some of them didn't. It's hard to draw the line of where the last meet for the team is because of many factors; but, since this was the last one where most of the team will be there, this was many peoples’ last meet ever.
Some of us on the team get the opportunity for a "last chance" to qualify for nationals so we have a meet this upcoming weekend! Some of us will go to North Central and some of us will go somewhere else (depending on where the good weather is). After that, it will just be the people who qualified for nationals left in the Cedarville area practicing for a couple of weeks before we leave for Nationals!
April 29, 2019
This past week, the team split up and went to three different meets! The majority of the team went to Denison University, a few distance runners went to Hillsdale College for the Gina Relays, and a small group went to the Jesse Owens Classic at Ohio State University. Friday was very wet and made it tough to compete. Despite the rough conditions, Wade Kyser won the 200 meters at Denison in 22.08 seconds! Also on Friday, Freshman of the Year Caleb Fauth threw over 60 meters in the javelin but fouled on that throw. That would have been far enough to hit the provisional NCAA DII mark. We had better weather on Saturday at the Jesse Owens meet. I was able to jump 5.26 meters, win the meet, and break the school record again by .01 meter.
The season is almost over. For some of us, training will get a little easier as we start to taper...for others (distance guys) training will likely stay the same because Coach O believes tapering is a myth (tapering is when an athlete decreases the intensity of their workouts towards the end of the season so they have more energy to compete).
It has been great to watch the team compete for Jesus this year. Many guys have worked very hard in practice and outside of practice to prepare for meets. Without giving you a list of 60 people who worked very hard this season, I'll highlight two athletes: Ryan Rager and Ethan Gatchell. First of all, there are many more guys who worked very hard this season - not just these guys. BUT, to give you an idea of how hard these guys have worked this year, Ryan has dropped nearly three seconds off of his 400 meters time since high school. That is a ton! From 51.something to 48.something! Ethan this year has dropped PR's in both the 1500 meters and the 800 meters. As a senior in college, that is no small feat - especially considering that many collegiate athletes do not even run faster than they did in high school.
This week we head to Hillsdale for the G-MAC Championship! This will be the last meet for many members of the team as well as the last meet ever for many seniors! Keep them in your prayers as they transition into a stage of life of not competing in sports which can be difficult after over 10 years of track.
See you next week!
April 22, 2019
This past week, the CU track team went all over the country! There were three meets we competed in: Miami of Ohio, University of Kentucky, and Azusa Pacific in California! I went to California so I can really only tell you about that one. I heard Miami of Ohio was a cold and rainy meet...I heard that the UK meet had some good competition.
California Trip:
Tuesday: Coach Mac and I left CU at 3:00 p.m. with the poles strapped to the side of the van. We were able to check the poles for only $75! We had a layover in Phoenix and then landed in Ontario, CA at 11:00 p.m.. The rest of the people on the trip flew with Coach O on Spirit Airlines and arrived at the hotel at 11:30 p.m.
Wednesday: Woke up, ate breakfast at the hotel, twiddled our thumbs until noon when we left for the track. Practiced at the track for the first time, then had lunch. After lunch, some of us went for a hike in the mountains nearby. It was 77 degrees and sunny. Perfect weather.
Thursday: Twiddled our thumbs until noon again. Went to the track. Ate lunch at Chick-fil-A. Watched Trent Classen and Kayla Casaletto run the 3K Steeplechase. Both ran well considering the 90-degree heat!
Friday: Madeline Barnes vaulted, clearing 11-4. Ethan Gatchell ran the 800 meters, setting a new PR of 1:51.8! Carsyn Koch-Johnson also ran the 800 meters in 2:06.94! I pole vaulted, clearing 5.25 meters to win the event. Later that night, a few of us got back to the track after showering at the hotel to find that about 20 emergency vehicles were at the entrance to the track. We soon found out that a runner had collapsed after his race. Based on second-hand information, I was told he went into cardiac arrest, was seizing, was unresponsive, and was not breathing. When the squad arrived, they used a defibrillator on him twice, he started breathing again but was still unconscious. Then they put him in the ambulance and rushed him to the hospital. I do not know what happened to him from there but his name is Simon and I'm sure you can pray for him and his family regardless of what the outcome was. After he left the track in the ambulance, the announcer called a meeting in the infield for a prayer. About 200 people came to the middle of the track infield, including all of us from Cedarville, to pray for him.
Saturday: Coach Mac and I left the hotel at 4:15 in the morning to catch our 6:30 a.m. flight. We got back to Cedarville at 6:00 p.m.
Sunday: I found out that the other group who was supposed to leave Saturday night had their flight canceled. They were stuck in L.A. for a whole extra day. I'm fuzzy on the details of what happened but I think they flew to Chicago on Sunday and arrived in Ohio either late that night or sometime early Monday.
All in all, it was a great trip with good competition! This week, the team will be split up again with some of us going to Ohio State University to compete in the Jesse Owens Classic, some of us going to the Denison Invitational, and some of us going to Hillsdale to compete in the Gina Relays!
April 15, 2019
This past week we traveled down to Centre College! It was a long drive but it was nice to go somewhere with a little topography. Everyone needs a little topography sometimes...corn fields are boring.
It was a cloudy and windy day but we still had many great performances. True freshman Caleb Fauth launched his javelin to victory on his sixth and final throw of the competition, beating second place by one foot. There were MANY other great performances that propelled the team to first place out of 10 with a total of 225.33 points (96.33 points ahead of second place).
Since this was a "Twilight" meet, running events didn't start until 5 p.m. We ended up leaving the track at 11:30 p.m. We drove four blissful hours back to school and arrived at 3:30 a.m. Gosh, I can't tell you just how fun that was. But at the end of the day (or beginning, depending on how you think about it) we had many God-glorifying performances. I ended up officially breaking the outdoor school record in the pole vault with a jump of 5.23 meters (17' 1.75"). Glory to God!
This week, the team goes all over the country. Some of us go to Miami of Ohio, some of us go to the University of Kentucky, and I and a few others are leaving for Azusa Pacific in California on Tuesday! Next week, I will probably be writing the blog on the beach, sippin' on a Pina Colada (non-alcoholic, of course), with my feet in the sand. WAIT, just kidding, I compete on Friday and my flight leaves at 6:23 a.m. on Saturday morning...and I usually write the blog on Sunday... maybe next time! Coach Mac and I have a separate flight from the others that are going to California because we have to fly with the poles! So in case you were worried about me not going to the beach on Saturday, don't worry, my teammates will go for me since their flight doesn't leave until 11:30 p.m. on Saturday.
See you next week!
April 9, 2019
This past week the team split up with some of us going to the University of Cincinnati Invitational and the rest to the Tiffelberg Open (Tiffin University hosting a meet at Heidelberg University). We placed third out of 10 at the Tiffelberg meet and eighth out of 18 at Cincinnati. Speaking on behalf of the entire team, I think I am safe in saying that there were more sunburns than PR's this weekend. Not to say there weren't PR's....but there were just a lot of sunburns. Thank God for aloe!
Tiffelberg Highlights:
Ryan Rager ran 48.84 in the 400 meters and placed second
Caleb Fauth won the javelin with a throw of 54.50 meters with Isaac La Croix just behind him in second.
I won the pole vault with a jump of 5.10 meters
Cincinnati Highlights:
Ethan Gatchell placed second in the 800 meters in 1:52.66
Weekend Highlight:
It wasn't 30 degrees!
This coming weekend we travel three hours south to Centre College in Kentucky! We should be able to find some good weather with a forecast of 65 degrees!
God is good. Track is fun. See you next week!
April 2, 2019
Let's try something new. If you are reading this, I want you to try and sum up this past Saturday’s meet in one word. Just think of one word that would fully describe the meet...
If your word was "wet", you are correct! If your word was either "miserable" or "rainy", you were close. Not to rub it in my teammate's faces but I really didn't get the full experience of the meet this past weekend...since it was raining, pole vault got moved inside...so I didn't have to compete outdoors. Thank God for the Doden Field House!
Despite the weather, we had a TON of great performances! The men’s team won the meet with a total of 223 points over Walsh in second place with 136 and University of Cincinnati in third with 64!
Highlights:
Lane Hluch broke the school record in the hammer and hit an NCAA Division II provisional mark with a throw of 56.82 meters (186-5)!
Alec Weinhold won the 800 meters and the 1500 meters!
Ford McElroy won the 5K!
The Reinhard twins tied for 1st in the high jump!
I won the pole vault with a jump of 5.30 meters (17-4.5) and automatically qualified for D II nationals and broke the field house record and outdoor record (not sure which records I technically broke since it was an outdoor meet but I was jumping in the field house...)
We won the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relays!
Also, if you haven't heard, Daniel Michalski, alumni and legend, ran under 8:35 in the steeplechase at Indiana University and is now ranked #1 in all of NCAA in the event...so that's pretty cool...
This Saturday, the team splits up with some of us at the Tiffelberg meet in Tiffin, OH and some of us going down to the University of Cincinnati. Hopefully, the sun shows up to both meets!
March 26, 2019
Well, it has been a while since we have had a meet. Everyone on the team has enjoyed a nice long three weeks off from training. With all of this extra time off, a lot of us have had to take up various hobbies to fill our time.
Don't worry, that's only wishful thinking...(not really though because I would rather vault for three weeks than have to pick up a new hobby). Anyway, training has been as tough as usual if not harder in these few weeks before our first outdoor meet.
This past week we had the long-anticipated Moving Day. Moving day is a biannual holiday in which the track community of Cedarville comes together for about an hour and a half and celebrates the transition to the outdoor season by moving all of our equipment to the outdoor track. For the record: moving equipment to the outdoor track is better than the reverse because you don't have to dismantle the pole vault pit that has been breeding worms underneath it for a good six months.
Track was meant for the outdoors. Everyone is excited for our first outdoor meet this Saturday at home! Some people, like our javelin throwers, are especially excited. They train for nine months of the year and only compete for about one month or about five meets...
Come out and support us at the Yellow Jacket Track & Field Complex this Saturday, March 30th at 10:30 a.m.!
March 11, 2019
Cutting to the chase, I placed fifth in the pole vault at NCAA II Indoor nationals this past week. From the girl's team, Carsyn placed seventh in the 800 meters and the DMR consisting of Sarah Hoffman, Olivia Hoffman, Rachel Sweeney, and Kayla Casaletto placed eighth! Everyone that competed at the meet made the podium!
We left on Tuesday so here is a day by day breakdown of our trip to Pittsburg, Kansas!
Tuesday: We left Cedarville in the morning and drove about halfway to Kansas and stopped in St. Louis. And what do you do when you go to St. Louis? You go up in the Gateway Arch! (So that's what we did) Side note: the tram/elevator/ferris wheel cars that take you to the top hold five people and are very small and claustrophobic. Then we piled back in our 12 passenger van, drove a few more hours and stopped at Applebee’s for dinner. After a 14-hour day of traveling, we made it to the hotel.
Wednesday: We ate breakfast at the hotel (we ate breakfast at the hotel every morning) and then went to check out some nearby man-made waterfall called the Grand Falls...they were decently grand I guess. After that exciting adventure, we went to the track for the first time of the trip. I had a pole vault practice where I took one full jump and cleared a 17' bungee with "ease." I think that practice gave me the extra dose of confidence I needed to compete well on Friday.
Thursday: We went back to the track for a pre-meet day. For distance runners, this means actually running...and I guess other things...But for me, a lowly pole vaulter, this means I stretched a little bit and sat in the bleachers while everyone else was running. (I didn't do much the day before because I jump better when I'm fresh).
Friday: Jump Day! I warmed up with an 18' bungee and was shocked at how close I came to clearing it. That last warm up jump was at 2:45 p.m. My first jump of the competition at 4.96 meters was at 3:40 p.m. My last jump of the competition was at 5:10 p.m. It was the longest and toughest competition of my life. I came in ranked second with a jump of 5.25 meters. At the end of the competition, three guys jumped 5.36 meters, five jumped 5.26 meters, and nine jumped 5.16 meters. I'm pretty sure six out of the top nine guys jumped higher than they ever had before. It was a great meet to be a part of. I am so thankful that God gave me the opportunity to jump at nationals and the skill to place fifth among such a competitive field. Oh yeah...after the meet, I got a porterhouse steak...so that was great. Also just found out that my sole fifth-place finish also placed Cedarville 39th out of 83 teams in all of NCAA II.
Saturday: We watched a lot of good track...including Carsyn in the 800 meter final!
Sunday: We left at 8 a.m. coming off of DLS time. All of us on the trip were looking forward to losing another hour once we got back Cedarville. The trip home took us about 11 blissful hours.
Our first outdoor meet is on March 30th at home! Hopefully, it is warm and sunny!
February 26, 2019
As promised, the G-MAC Indoor Championship was the best G-MAC meet ever. I mean meet records were obliterated, the Top 3 finishers in the 200 meters were all separated by .01 seconds, and Tiffin won both the Men's and the Women's title...just to name a few crazy things. Oh wait, one more. The NCAA Division II national record in the men's shot put was broken. The NATIONAL RECORD! What's even cooler was that I watched it live (no big deal). The throw was 67' 7.5"...Just imagine throwing a ball weighing 16 pounds a distance of 67'....it was crazy! The guy was about as big as Shaq...just to give you an idea of what it takes to break that record. Enough about him (I'm sure he has his fair share of people writing about him), let's see what the Jackets did on the track this weekend!
Highlights
Ryan Rager placed fifth in the 200 meters and fourth in the 400 meters
Ethan Gatchell got second place in the 800 meters
Alex Weber placed third in the mile coming in at 4:16.78 with Alec Weinhold just behind him in 4:17.06
Caleb Pendleton took third in the 5K with Ethan Sullivan just behind in fourth
Our DMR consisting of Alec Weinhold, Joel Gatchell, Ethan Gatchell, and Trent Classen came in first at the end of the day on Friday!
Andrew Reinhard came in fourth in the high jump with 1.94 meters
I won the pole vault at 4.93 meters
Quick story about Ryan Rager. First of all, he has been working very hard this entire season. Everyone on the team can tell he is fired up (not just cuz he's a ginger) for this season and wants to do well. But in the second lap of his 400 meter run in the finals, running in lane 1, he clipped a spectator who was standing too close to the track. Whoever it was hit Ryan hard in the shoulder while he was winning his section! After clocking in at 49.88, Ryan had to wait for the second section of the finals to race to see if he would make the podium (Top 3 finishers). After that final section, the times came on the board. The third-place time was 49.81. A mere .07 seconds faster than Ryan's time. In my opinion, Ryan would have gotten third if that spectator hadn't interfered. While it's disappointing now, I hope this will give Ryan more fuel as he goes into his outdoor season. And let's be honest...indoor track isn't what the sport is about...outdoor track is the real deal.
Also, Alex Weber has been working very hard and got a PR and finished third in the mile! After crossing the finish line, out of breath and ecstatic, he screamed: "Thank you, Jesus!" while we all congratulated him. If that doesn't paint a picture of what competing for Jesus and giving Him the glory looks like...I don't know what does.
As we head into Spring Break, the rest of the team has until March 30th until their next meet – lots of time to either get better or get out of shape. I have NCAA II Indoor Nationals on March 8th and 9th so I will be staying in Cedarville to train until we leave on that Tuesday with the qualifiers from the women's team. The meet is in Pittsburg, Kansas...and we are driving... so that'll be fun...
Until next time!
February 18, 2019
This past weekend, Cedarville hosted the NCCAA Indoor National Championships (Christian college nationals). It was a two-day meet full of great competition – here are some highlights:
Wade Kyser
But first...remember Wade Kyser? He was injured a few weeks ago. But this week, he was back and able to compete. Not only did Wade come back this week... he came ROARING back.
This photo (on the right) was taken at the end of Wade's 200 meters where he ended up setting a PR! Congrats Wade!
Also...
Ethan Gatchell won the 800 meters
Lane Hluch won the weight throw with yet another PR and school record of 17.35 meters
We went 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 in the mile led by Caleb Pendleton
We won the 4 x 400 meter relay in dramatic fashion with Bryan Perschbacher anchoring the race
As you can see, my name is not in the list of event winners for this week. This meet was a tough one for me. Despite jumping well, I lost....or got second....while both are true, it felt more like the first option. I'll be honest, I usually win the pole vault. When I don't win, I usually see it coming (like at nationals or some big meet like that). This was different. My competition ended up improving his best by eight inches....as a senior....in the most technical event in track. It was an amazing feat. Watching him clear the last bar stung. In that moment, I was disappointed, shocked, happy for him, just a little mad, and humbled. I thought I should've won – maybe thought I deserved to win. But then I remembered why I pole vault. I don't pole vault to win. I don't pole vault because I'm good at it. I pole vault because I believe this is where God has called me to be at this point in my life and this is where I can give him the most glory. It doesn't matter that I "lost." What matters is that God gave me the talent I have, He gets the glory, and I am going to continue to compete for Jesus because this is where He has called me to be at this point in my life. How much difference in glory is there between first and second? Who knows....but I think I can better glorify God by how I compete, rather than by the result of my competition. I strive to emulate Christ in how I behave on the track (technically field...).
I am thankful for the gifts God has given me. I am thankful I placed second. I'm thankful every day just for the ability to run at all (but I'm just a pole vaulter so I don't do that much anyway...)
This coming weekend we go up to Findlay to compete at the G-MAC Indoor Championships! It will be the best and most competitive G-MAC meet ever (some pretty good teams were just added to the conference this year).
Colossians 3:17, "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
That includes, as Dr. White would say, "Dominating in the name of Jesus"
February 11, 2019
This past weekend was crazy...I'm going to break down our trip to the Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Big Meet day by day -
Thursday: People competing on Friday (All 5K runners and everyone who qualified for the invite section of the meet) left at 2:00 p.m. in a 15 passenger van (that really only holds 10 people) and a minibus. The drive to our hotel took about six hours.
Friday: We got to the track around 9:30 a.m. I won the pole vault at 4.91 meters. It was a long day (I guess that's why they call it the Big Meet). We didn't end up leaving the track until 8:30 p.m. From the track, the Friday group drove an hour northeast to Oakfield Baptist Church where we spent the night (on mattresses on the floor... not the most comfortable...but rather, the most cost-effective). In the church gym, there was an electrifying game of basketball. The clear star performer in that game was Kevin Gideon.....playing.....the role of.....the announcer (yes, Kevin's announcing was better than the game that resembled basketball taking place on the court. Maybe his announcing was so good because he wrote the track blog last year...). We ate dinner when we first arrived and ate breakfast before we left for the meet on...
Saturday: We got to the meet early. I only competed on Friday so my job the whole day was to take naps in the team camp and wait to leave (and cheer on my teammates of course :). We had no event winners on Saturday (it’s a huge meet with a lot of NCAA DI programs...remember...that's why they call it the BIG Meet) BUT we did have some great 400 meter performances from Ryan Rager 50.02, Bryan Pershbacher 51.75, Josh Brown 51.84, Joel Gatchell 51.91, Seth Salisbury 52.28, and Justin Merrick 52.61!
We left the meet around 5:30 p.m. and made it all the way back to Cedarville at 11:30 p.m. (a whole 2 1/2 hours before our scheduled arrival time!).
The meet was a great experience against some better-than-normal competition. This coming weekend we will be at home hosting the NCCAA National Championships! It's a two-day meet so pick one of them (Friday begins at 3 p.m. / Saturday starts at 9 a.m.) and come out to support us!
February 5, 2019
It was a busy and exciting time at Cedarville this past weekend!
The collegiate meet was held on Friday. I'm just going to skip to the good part:
LANE HLUCH broke the school record again! and again! and again! and again! That's right, four new weight throw records in one meet! Well actually he only broke it once (on his secobnd throw of 17.05 meters) BUT four of his throws traveled farther than his record-breaking throw last weekend. So in other words, he basically broke the school record four times. I also had a very successful meet. I pole vaulted over 17' (5.18 meters) for the first time in my life and then jumped over 5.25 meters just a few minutes later to qualify for NCAA II Indoor Nationals!
Star Performances:
Ryan Rager won the 200 meters in 22.59 and the 400 meters in 51.02. He beat out the competition by .01 seconds.
Ethan Gatchell and
Alec Weinhold went 1-2 in the 800 meters.
Bryan Pershbacher came in second in the 60 meter hurdles in 8.72 seconds.
We won the 4 x 400 relay!
Ethan Gatchell,
Joel Gatchell,
Bryan Perschbacher,
Ryan Rager.
Andrew Reinhard got first place in the high jump with 1.88 meters.
Phillip Maillefer (he goes to Cedarville, isn't on the team, and still won!!!) jumped 6.34 meters or 20-9.75 to win the long jump as an unattached entry!
Jon Scouten got third in the shot put with 14.42 meters.
Adding up the scores for this meet, Cedarville came in first place (181) over NCAA DI school Miami University (177.5)! After all of these great performances, we all had to come back the next day to host the largest high school meet ever held by anyone anywhere....probably not, but that's what it felt like. Just to give you an idea of how big this meet is: there were over 200 high school boys registered for the 400 meters....that is crazy. After a long day of running the track meet, the whole team had to come back and tear down everything....and vacuum almost the entire field house. That whole clean-up process took just over an hour.
I just want to say, Coach Bo and Coach Gwinn worked hard all last weekend and did a great job of making everything run smoothly. So, if you are reading this now, go ahead and give them two claps. We appreciate them!
This week, we travel to Grand Valley State University in Michigan to compete. It's about a five-hour drive so it will be our longest trip of the season. Oh, and we sleep in sleeping bags...that'll be fun...You'll hear all about it in next week’s post!
January 29, 2019
This week we traveled back to Columbus to compete at Capital University.
The pole vaulters and some other field event people had to load the bus at 6:20 and leave at 6:30. Oh, I forgot to mention – that is AM. The rest of the team got on the buses at 10 a.m. Just to make it clear, college students run about three hours behind the regular world. So waking up at 6 a.m. for a college student is like waking up at 3 a.m. for a normal person (especially on a Saturday).
The meet was very large with 18 different teams/track clubs. Despite the vast number of competitors, the Cedarville Men's Track (and Women's) program STEAMROLLED the competition and came in first place – nearly tripling the score of the team in second.
Meet Highlights:
LANE HLUCH: you heard it here first folks (last weeks’ post). This man not only won the weight throw, not only beat the rest of the competition by a whole METER, but he also BROKE THE SCHOOL RECORD! The new school record for the weight throw is 16.83 meters or 55 feet 2.75 inches. Three words. What. A. Toss.
THE 5K: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9" What are those numbers? They represent the Top Nine places that Cedarville grabbed in the 5K. It also represents the number of letters in the word DOMINATED (yes there are nine letters). Those nine guys were led by Ethan Sullivan coming in first.
800 METERS: Ethan "The Best Goatee on the Track" Gatchell finished first in 1:56.73 with Alec Weinhold coming in second.
POLE VAULT: Tommy "Can't stay healthy to save his life" Ansiel (me) won with a jump of 4.80 meters (I was really close to getting 5 meters).
After all of that fun stuff ^, the team loaded the buses and got back to school as the clock struck midnight.
This week, we are competing at home on Friday, Feb. 1 beginning at 3:30 p.m.! Come out and support us because we almost never (it seems like) compete at home!
January 23, 2019
Welcome back to the Men's Track & Field Blog!
This past week, the team traveled to Otterbein University in Columbus in lieu of Tiffin University moving their meet to Friday. We left Cedarville with Coach Mac at the helm at 7:10 a.m. and arrived around 8:30 a.m. for our meet that started at 11 a.m. (props to Coach Bo for never getting us there late...)
Senior captain Wade Kyser started off strong by winning his heat in the 60 meters and advancing to the finals where he placed seventh.
The rest of the team had a lot of success with event winners including Ryan Rager, Ethan Gatchell, Tyler Reinhard (with his twin brother Andrew jumping the same height!), and myself. In the 3000 meters, we went 2, 3, 4 (Alec Weinhold, Alex Weber, Ethan Sullivan). Overall, many good things from many talented people!
After the meet, we had some quality Domino's pizza (Thanks Coach Gwinn) then loaded the buses. We were worried about the roads all day but they were fine for most of the drive. By the time we got back to Cedarville, there was a quarter inch of ice on just about everything so it was a blessing from the Lord that we got home safe.
Next week we will go back to Columbus and compete at Capital University.
Things To Keep Your Eye On:
Ryan Rager has been working hard all preseason and is gonna break records or break the speed limit (probably both).
Lane Hluch is a beast in the weight throw. Nuff said.
Andrew and Tyler Reinhard (twins) may be Freshmen, but they both jumped 6-4.25" in the high jump... Crazy.
Remember, all the glory gained in competition is God's.
Get EXCITED for the rest of the season!
Tommy
January 17, 2019
My name is Tommy Ansiel and I will be your tour guide throughout the season! I am a sophomore pole vaulter from the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois and am majoring in finance with minors in economics and Spanish (and Bible of course, cuz you know...this is Cedarville).
I hope to keep all of you up to date on all that goes on in Cedarville men's track & field.
Speaking of which, we have a meet this weekend!
Or do we...?
We don't really know yet!
With eight inches of snow set to slam Ohio on Saturday, Tiffin University is considering moving their meet (the one we were planning to go to) to Friday...Which means that the Cedarville team would not attend because people would have to miss class (and that's bad).
So coaches might take us to Otterbein to compete at their meet. And if it snows enough and the roads are bad enough, we might not go to any meet! (Side Note: kind of interesting that the weather can STILL affect INDOOR track...like isn't that the point of having INDOOR track to rule out the weather...? Still glad I don't have to pole vault in the snow don't get me wrong)
Regardless of what happens this weekend, you guys will get all the details in next week’s blog post!
Tommy
(Editor's Note: The CU track & field teams officially are participating in the Otterbein Invitational on Sat., January 19)
Tommy Ansiel is a sophomore pole vaulter from Warrenville, Ill. He is in his second year with the Yellow Jackets and is a Dean's List student majoring in finance.
