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March 15, 2005 LHU Relay Member Documents His Experience at NCAA Championships |
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LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - This past weekend, the Lock Haven University distance medley relay squad traveled to Boston for the NCAA Indoor Championships. The LHU squad became the first relay team from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) to ever compete at the championships. Freshman Cory J. Spidell (Home, Pa./Marion Center) documented his experience while at the championships. Wednesday, March 9th I slept in fairly late today because we didn’t have practice until 11am. Before practice we had our picture taken for sports information. Practice was relatively easy for me, consisting of stretching well and a 40 minute run. After practice I ate a quick lunch and packed for the trip. After we all met we loaded the van and hit the road for Boston. Coach seemed to get us there in a decent time. We stopped for dinner at a Chili’s in Connecticut, which had it’s good moments in itself. When we arrived in Boston, we got lost for awhile, but eventually found our Holiday Inn. We split into rooms (I was with Ryan Blood and Chris Cowan) and we headed to bed. |
Freshman Cory J. Spidell |
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Thursday, March 10th We got up at 9:30am this morning to make sure that we got some breakfast in. After a good breakfast, we got our stuff together and headed for the Reggie Lewis Center for practice. I had a 20 minute run, and then Tim (Hite) and I really worked on getting our handoff down. I also stretched very well. When we were all done practicing, we headed to Subway for a late lunch. We then went back to the Reggie Lewis Center where we played cards while the coaches attended a meeting. When they were done, we rushed back to the hotel to get ready for the banquet. After Blood and Cowan fought over it for awhile, we finally got our showers. I practiced my speech that I was giving at the banquet while in the shower. It was good! We had a rather difficult time finding a parking spot at the banquet, but finally made it. It was nice, and an alumni from our track team, Brian Wessner, attended the banquet with us. The food was good, and things went fairly quickly. To my great displeasure, however, I did not get a chance to give my well-prepared and rehearsed speech. It ended up being a joke that the team likes to play on the freshman whenever they make it to nationals. Following the banquet we shopped a little bit in a mall near the parking garage. When we returned to the hotel, we started to talk about tomorrow’s race a bit, and what to expect. Then we watched TV, and headed to bead. I have to say I don’t know if I’ve ever been as nervous as I am right now, but I’m also really pumped and excited to go after it tomorrow. Friday, March 11th I slept in for a little while today and then got up for breakfast. We relaxed for a few hours before we went to eat an early dinner (so it would settle by our race time at 8:05pm). When we got to the Reggie Lewis Center, we sat and watched a few events, then warmed up and got ready to race. I was so pumped and ready to go. During the first leg of the race, we had a major misfortune when Blood was tripped up and fell. I couldn’t believe it had happened; it was like it was in slow motion. By the time our second leg got the baton, we were about 75 meters behind everyone else. It was tough running the race by myself, and I probably didn’t run as good as I could have if I were racing next to people. Cowan anchored really well, going out in 2:00 for the first 800 meters of the mile leg. He actually caught a guy from Western, but had used all his energy making up ground, and the Western guy out-kicked him in the homestretch. I don’t know if I have ever been as disappointed as I was, and still am, at the outcome of the race. Saturday, March 12th We got up and had an hour run this morning, which was horrible because it was cold and rainy. It was nice to get the run out of the way, though. We went out for lunch shortly after the run at The Cheesecake Factory, and then went to the track to watch the final day of events. Shortly following the completion of the meet we began the long ride home. We hit a lot of snow in Massachusetts, but the roads cleared once we hit Connecticut. We ended up getting home at about 2 a.m. The trip was a great experience, and I had an awesome time. The outcome was a tough one to swallow, however, and there is nothing worse than coming home empty handed. ###LHU###
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