Spring Break Blogging with Amanda Miller

Hey!

We started the week off on Sunday with a "warm up" on Emory's track.  We jogged down to the track together and did a warm up run.  Coach Hudson then implemented some new drills and we did them.  After we got back to the Inn, we went into Downtown Atlanta to Centennial Park!  We danced, played soccer, drew with chalk and wandered around downtown.  We had El Salvadorian for dinner =)  WE also had a talent show that night ... which completely rocked out!!  Monday we started our first day of two-a-days.  We arrived on the track at at 9 am and returned at 2 pm.  We worked on a lot of technicalities and did some short sprints.  Tuesday was our hard day (it always is).  We did a ladder workout (ex. 5-4-3-2-1).  I went to the Art Museum Tuesday and saw pictures and artifacts from King Tut's tomb!  So far this trip has been amazing =)  It'll get better on Wednesday, when we're going to the World of Coke =)

Spring Break Blogging: What's up with the ruckus next door? Part 2

Okay, so my name is Reshard, and I don't make stuff up about science.  Instead, I'm listening to Josh talk about the "Hot Sauce Pearl" bowling ball, which he says is "a lot like his ball" .... interesting.  Describing this room is kinda like describing the last time you threw up.  It's really messy and there's random stuff everywhere.  It smells terrible, and people cringe when they see it.  It's okay though cuz I just saw a dump truck full of gasoline CAREEN INTO A VERTICAL BUS FILLED WITH PYROTECHNICS .... ON PURPOSE. 

This is Kyle.  Having decided not to go  have pizza, I've returned to redeem this blog.  It's going to be a good week.  By Monday, a 9pm bed time sounds like a pretty good idea.  So far we've already plowed through two bags of Sun Chips, a box of large Cheeze-Its and a tin of Cashews.  I'm hoping to only be woken up twice by Reshard stealing the blankets or snoring.  Ah, the computer's out of battery ... I'm out.  

Spring Break Blogging: What's up with the ruckus next door?

Four Oberlin Track Athletes: Collin, Kyle, Reshard and Josh have a room next door to their coaching staff.  Follow all the action as they blog about the ruckus they're making next door.

What's up with the ruckus next door?

Here's what's going on with the noise in this room.  Stream of conscious-style.

Dramatis Personae:

Kyle "Upper (Master) delegator/lamesauce" Taljan

Reshard "Make stuff up about science" El-Shair

Josh "English as a Second Language" Gallagher

Collin "The Author" Cowdery

So it's pretty hard to write anything while watching various planes and cars absolutely destroy themselves on some show on Discovery.  Anyway, I was told to provide some sort of depiction of what's going on in this room.  Currently everybody is arguing for some unfathomable reason as to what a PET scan does, and as far as I can tell, Reshard is just making stuff up at this point and Kyle is calling him out on it.  Reshard has recruited the crafty Wikipedia onto his debate team.  Kyle is simply calling Alpha atoms "the lame ones" that you can block with a piece of paper, as opposed to Gamma rays - that made the Hulk.  This is kinda what happens when you room with two physics majors.  On the subject of Kyle, he was supposed to help me with this blog, but since he's going to pizza, he won't help.  Kyle has declared himself a "upper (master) delegator" which sounds kinda raunchy.  Kyle continues to hound me about a paragraph of big words which should include both "necrophilia" and "xenophobia".  I feel "supercilious" should make the cut as well.

I'm watching Josh finish a BIG Cheezit box all by himself.  It is an awesome spectacle.  So I feel like this blog is kinda wrapping itself up, but before we go, here are some awesome names.

Catamatalowatus

Versengenerix

Liliwakanzai

Ray Appenheimer

Timbuktu (A Country, not a name ... thanks Reshard!)    

Heading to Atlanta

We're kicking off the outdoor season with a meet at Emory University on the 28th of March.  We'll spend the entire week leading up to the meet training, and having fun in, Atlanta.  

Check back throughout the week for updates!

CONFERENCE (co) CHAMPS!!!

What a weekend!  We sent out the indoor season/kicked off the outdoor season in grand fashion at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships.  The women's team tied for first and the men's team tied for third ... the best finishes by both teams in school history.  

So many of our athletes had phenomenal meets.  In fact, we had 8 conference champs, loads more All-Conference (top 3) finishers and four school records!  Nicky Ouellet won the 800, mile and finished 5th in the 3k.  For her efforts she won distance runner of the meet honors.  Joanna Johnson won the 5k, the women's 4x2 of Ali Gemma, Madeline Schultz, Laura Vernon and Amanda Miller won.  Laura Vernon also won the pole vault and Ali Gemma also won the long jump.  Solomon Turner won the 55m, and the men's 4x400 of Seth Wimberly, Peter Morris, Solomon Turner and Reshard El-Shair won in a new meet record and school record!  Other school record setters were our Men's Distance Medley, Solomon Turner in the 55 and Ryan King in the mile.  See full results at www.goyeo.com

Indoor season isn't quite over yet.  Nicky will be competing in the mile at the National Championships this coming weekend.  It's the second national meet she has qualified for this year.  

Everybody else is getting ready for mid-terms next week.  After mid terms, we leave for our annual Spring Break trip.  This year's trip is to Atlanta.  We'll primarily spend the week relaxing and preparing for a meet at Emory on the 27th.  But the team captains always find fun activities for everyone during the week.  In years past, we've gone to a hockey game and the zoo in South Carolina, and NASA and the Beach in Houston.

Check back soon for more details!  

            

Happy Valentine's Day!

This past weekend the team competed at three different meets.  Madeline Schultz competed in a Pentathlon at Akron.  She P.R.'ed in two events, en route to scoring an excellent 2984 points ... only 16 points away from provisionally qualifying for Nationals!  Nicky Ouellett and Joanna Johnson ran at Boston University with fantastic results.  Nicky ran 5:01.19. in the mile.  Joanna ran 17:24.84 in the 5k.  Both school records.  Both provisional marks for the National meet.     

We also had 17 athletes qualify for the All-Ohio Championships.  Kudos to Ryan King (mile) and Seth Wimberly (400) for placing in the top 3 in their events - thereby earning "All-Ohio" honors.  Ryan also broke his own school record in the mile by two seconds.  By no means were Ryan and Seth the only athletes with outstanding results.  The rest of the team ran very well.  Our men's 4x2 broke its own school record from earlier in the year, and we had a slew of athletes place in the top 8 in their events.  You can see results from all three meets at www.goyeo.com  

Several years ago, we only had a couple of athletes qualify for the All-Ohio meet.  To come so far in such a short time is a testament to a lot of great things about our student-athletes and their dedication.  It's been especially great to see so many freshmen and sophomores run well.  They've taken a cue from our Captains and really embraced the hard work and competitive spirit necessary to run well in college.  It's never a great idea to "Count Your Chickens", but our early season results are extremely encouraging.  It's difficult to be anything other than optimistic when we look ahead to the rest of indoor, and then our outdoor season.    

  

     

Welcome Back!

The last weekend in January marks the end of winter term; where we welcome student/athletes back from projects and trips.  And we finally have the entire team back together.  It's also the same weekend that our conference hosts its relay carnival.  While it's a little different than the traditional meet lineup, the relay format puts a big emphasis on the idea of a track "TEAM".  And it's a great way for everyone to shake the rust off in preparation for a big indoor season.  Based on our early results, we're confident that this could be the best men's team in the history of Oberlin track.  On the women's side, we lost a fantastic group of seniors to graduation last year, but the women's team is still extremely talented.  In fact, they have the potential to score more points than they ever have at the conference championship.  

Highlights of the meet included three school records for our men's team.  Connor Doss set his second school record in as many weeks.  Fresh off an 8:51 in the 3k at Baldwin-Wallace, Connor finished 5th in the 5k in 15:19.20.  Our men's 4x200 team of Edwin Takahashi, Solomon Turner, Shawn Chrapczynski and Seth Wimberly also set a new school record, running 1:32.95. Finally, our men's DMR team of Ryan King, Thomas Shaw, Albert Davila and Stephen Williams broke our school record and took third overall.  

Our women's team fared extremely well too, with victories by Ali Gemma in the long jump, the DMR team of Nicky Ouellet, Anna Frackman, Kathleen Cann and Joanna Johnson, and the 4x800 team of Nicky Ouellet, Hillary Tipton, Kathleen Cann and Marissa Kennedy. 

We're especially excited for our seniors: Edwin, Connor, Ryan, Nicky and Ali.  Over the past several years, it's really been a joy to watch them advance their fitness and learn how to compete at the collegiate level.  They came in as 12-second 100m runner, a 4:42 miler, a 4:30 miler, a 5:25 miler/19:36 5k'er and 14-second 100m runner, respectively.  Their development into some of the best runners in the conference (and potentially national-qualifiers, in several cases) is a testament to a lot of great things about them and their team.  By  no means are they done yet!  They've got a lot of fast times, and hopefully some more victories ahead of them.  

We can't get too comfortable though, as we're back in action this Friday.  Our second home meet, The Crimson & Gold Invitational, will bring some great competition to campus.  It'll be a chance to show off all the hard work we've been doing.  Check back early next week for results.  We will also have some recaps of how Oberlin Runners spent winter term in the very near future.