Well hey there,
This past weekend has been quite a good one. On Friday and Saturday the Cardinals traveled to Illinois Wesleyan University for the Indoor Track and Field Conference Meet! I was not competing, so I did not travel on the bus. Instead, I went with a few teammates on Friday after classes. We arrived at the Shirk Center just in time to watch Daniel Kerley win the 5k, along with provisionally qualifying mark! Other conference champion Cardinals consisted of Dan Benton in the 400 and 200, Mike Spain in the mile, Robert Kaputska in the shot put, Peter Geraghty in the Pole Vault (who also cleared an automatic qualifying mark), Neal Klein in the 3,000 meter run, and lastly Zach Heerspink in the High Jump.
Besides the national qualifying marks, I believe that this meet was very special. Once I stepped onto the track at the Shirk Center, to support my teammates, I got this feeling of unity. You can tell that everyone was feeling it, too. We were all there to support each other, share our energy with each other. I feel like we were more a team this past weekend than we have ever been before. As our great coach Al Carius always says about 'team', "It's not a word, it's a feeling." And I really think that everyone is really feeling what it means to be on this team. I hope that this feeling remains constant.
Up next for the Cardinals is our Last Chance Qualifier that we will be hosting in Res/Rec. I hope that many of you can come out to watch this. It should be an exciting meet with many people hopeful of reaching qualifying marks for the national meet, which takes place March 11th and 12th.
Have a great week :)
Patrick