{"id":138,"date":"2018-08-01T18:10:57","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T18:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/?p=138"},"modified":"2019-04-16T23:21:43","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T23:21:43","slug":"running-away-with-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/running-away-with-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Running away with it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Champs\"
\nConference Champs<\/strong>
\nStudent-athletes on the men\u2019s outdoor track and field team were determined to bring home a conference championship in 2018.
\n\u201cThey told me, \u2018Coach, we\u2019re not competing for it, we\u2019re going to win it,\u2019\u201d Welch said. <\/p>\n

The men\u2019s team reclaimed the Cascade Collegiate Conference title for the first time since 2015. Ranked third and expected to lose by 40 points, the Mountaineers won by an even larger margin. <\/p>\n

Matt Kirkendall closed his collegiate career as conference champion in the 400-meter and 110-meter hurdles, breaking EOU\u2019s oldest standing record (set in 1962 by Lou Thorn). Nic Maszk won the 5,000-meter race and placed third in the steeplechase, later coming in second at nationals. He was named the CCC Men\u2019s Athlete of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get a group that really buys into it that\u2019s what makes this happen,\u201d Welch said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just that they didn\u2019t want to be second or third \u2014 they were flat-out unwilling to be.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Ben
\nRegional Champ<\/strong>
\nEOU\u2019s track and field program has competed at nationals for more than 30 years, and Ben Welch has been coaching at EOU for 27. Welch said he consistently works with about 80 student-athletes. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of work, but the student-athletes make it worth it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His hard work was rewarded this year when his fellow NAIA coaches from the West Region voted him Men\u2019s Coach of the Year for both indoor and outdoor track. The award followed his selection as CCC Men\u2019s Track and Field Coach of the Year. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a testament to having good help from assistant coaches and having good athletes,\u201d Welch said.
\n<\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n

\"Rachel
\nNational Champ<\/strong>
\nSeveral standout student-athletes set the bar for their peers, Welch said. This year, Rachel Roelle, \u201918, was one of them. She\u2019s the NAIA\u2019s reigning national champion in women\u2019s steeplechase and was named CCC Women\u2019s Track and Field Athlete of the Year. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have people like that it shows the rest of them it can be done,\u201d Welch said. <\/p>\n

In 2018, the Mountaineers took 11 men and six women to the outdoor national championship. The men\u2019s 4×800 relay placed second, and the men\u2019s team landed at No. 15 in the nation.<\/p>\n

Steeplechase Success with Rachel Roelle<\/strong>
\nThe 3,000-meter race takes athletes around the track 7.5 times, encountering five hurdles and a water pit in each lap. Roelle called the event chaotic and unpredictable \u2014 one missed hurdle or an inefficient exit from the water pit can change everything. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many variables in it,\u201d she said. \u201cThe only time I did everything right was in the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are her tips for coming out on top:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Take it slow<\/strong>
    \n\u201cThe worst thing you could do in steeplechase is start out fast,\u201d Roelle said. \u201cIt\u2019s a patient race.\u201d Harnessing her adrenaline is key to a good race, and she plans a calculated push for the final two laps. <\/p>\n
  2. Find your rhythm<\/strong>
    \n\u201cYou could be the fittest person out there, but if you get off on the timing of hurdles you\u2019re going to struggle,\u201d she said. In practice, she drilled that rhythm into her muscle memory. <\/p>\n
  3. Keep your cool <\/strong>
    \n\u201cYou have to be a mentally tough person because it\u2019s such a broken-up race,\u201d she said. \u201cJust don\u2019t panic, trust yourself.\u201d Composure is key to avoiding mishaps when you\u2019re approaching a barrier. <\/p>\n
  4. Lose the socks (or don\u2019t)<\/strong>
    \n\u201cI\u2019m a sock person, but I\u2019m in the minority,\u201d she said. Socks help prevent blisters and improve foot comfort, but they get wet in the water pits. Roelle said steeplechasers are hotly divided on the topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Conference Champs Student-athletes on the men\u2019s outdoor track and field team were determined to bring home a conference championship in 2018. \u201cThey told me, \u2018Coach, we\u2019re not competing for it, we\u2019re going to win it,\u2019\u201d Welch said. The men\u2019s team reclaimed the Cascade Collegiate Conference title for the first time since 2015. Ranked third and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":448,"featured_media":145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,3],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2018","category-university-news","tag-athletics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/448"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}