Download - App State Club Sports Illustrated, March 27!
IN THISISSUE
05
ONE FOR THE BOOKS06
08 WE ARE NOT DONE YET
10 LONG DISTANCE ATHLETESGO A LONG DISTANCE
Director of URECJoe Carter, [email protected] Director of Club SportsErin Sanders, [email protected]
Activities CoordinatorChelsea Watson, [email protected]
Publicity ProgrammerAlyssa Gribble, [email protected]
Executive OfficersPhilicia Gibson, [email protected] McNeill, [email protected] Uva, [email protected]
A WEEKEND AT EASTERNSWOMENS ULTIMATE
WOMENS VOLLEYBALL
WOMENS BASKETBALL
TRIATHLON TEAM
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Publicity ProgrammerAlyssa Gribble, [email protected]
Executive OfficersPhilicia Gibson, [email protected] McNeill, [email protected] Uva, [email protected]
For more information on any of the club teams, visit the website:clubsports.appstate.edu
email us at: [email protected]
or call us at the Student Recreation Center(828) 262 2100
The March 27thEdition of the Club
Sports IllustratedDesigned by Alyssa Gribble
APP STATE DRESSAGE:A LOOK BACK
EXECUTIVE’S CORNER
12 RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY
14 DIVISIONAL QUALIFYINGTOURNAMENTFENCING TEAM
MENS ULTIMATE
EQUESTRIAN TEAM
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WRITTEN BY:
CORRIE MALONE,
SECRETARY
he clouds were heavy
with rain; the ground
muddy and slick from
cleats cutting across; the
game tied; the time out. It is the last
game on Sunday, the winners will take
third place at Easterns, the losers will
take home only the mud on their shirts.
Both teams want the win, both teams
will fight hard for it. Team Asheville
pulls the disk to Nonads, ready on the
line. The great Maggie Simmons picks
up the disk as the rest of the teams
falls into the vertical stack. Captain
Kenyon Hall makes a hard cut for the
disk, receiving it ten yards closer to the
in-zone. The pressure is on, put on by
the mighty Asheville team with a strong
defense. Unintimidated Meredith and
Sarah-Cabot take turns working the
disk up the field, with handler Rachel
providing a soaring flick back to Maggie.
Five feet from the in zone and the ladies
are on fire! A quick cut from the side,
slashing to the back right corner, and
the game is over. Victory in the hands of
the entire Nonad team!
And there you have it, Third place
achieved at the sanctioned tournament
known as Easterns. With only two subs
the entire weekend and a long drive
home, the Nonads reflect upon the
final winnings. Not soon to forget, that
ultimately it isn’t the score that matters
but the personal victories each lady
made as she pushed herself to best of
her ability.
WOMENS ULTIMATE
ULTIMATELY IT ISN’T THE SCORE THAT
MATTERS BUT THE PERSONAL
VICTORIES
“
”5
T
WOMENS VOLLEYBALL
This past season has
been one for the books. With
two dedicated teams, Women’s
Club Volleyball has overcome
adversity to pump out a successful season!
The most recent tournament took place
at Virginia Tech where the National team
traveled to compete with teams from all
around the east coast. President Priya Ford
recalls a tough match against Pennsylvania
State University that went point-for-point.
“Our girls worked hard and we fought for
every point!” Priya says, “Although we split
the match I’m really proud that we could
keep up with such a tough team!” That tough
match didn’t stop the Appalachian State
Club Volleyball team from placing first in
the entire tournament though. “I really think
we deserved first! I’m so glad we earned it,
our team needed to know we could do it!”
recalls Vice President Jamie Lee Misencik.
Next up for the National team is the National
Tournament taking place in Kansas City,
Missouri on April 9th through the 11th. Our
other team will be cheering them on from the
mountain and hoping the team can keep the
first place momentum going! From all of us at
Club Sports and Club Volleyball, we wish our
team good luck!
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WRITTEN BY:
CORBIN BRUTON,
SECRETARY
T
7
“
”
CLUB VOLLEYBALL
HAS OVERCOME ADVERSITY TO PUMP OUT A SUCCESSFUL
SEASON
ven though the school year is
coming to a close, the Women’s
Club Basketball team has a lot
more fight in them. They have a
home tournament at the Student Recreation
Center coming up in a couple of weeks and
will play teams around the southeast. The
season will come to a close when they will
go to nationals at North Carolina State mid
April. The girl’s are getting anxious for this
tournament, so they are doing everything to
prepare. The team has had some changes in
the last week. Practice times have changed,
which conflicts with some of the players’
schedules. Also, some of the team members
are unable to play because of injuries. This
puts a strain on the team because with fewer
players it is more difficult to practice at full
speed when only a fraction of the team is
there. But this is team is able to recuperate
from anything. They have seen adversity all
season and they will continue to overcome it.
Because it is an indoor sport, the players
are not able to enjoy the beautiful spring
weather that Boone has to offer. To make
things interesting the girls are going to start
conditioning outside up and down stadium
drive in order to have the best possible
experience at practice. The girls are also
participating in hiking and any outdoor events
to get closer as a team and enjoy the beauty
Boone has to offer. As said in other articles,
this is a very tight knit team that enjoys
spending time together. This may include
hanging out on the weekends or going to
the gym and pushing each other outside of
practice. They are excited to finish this very
successful season strong. They are not done
fighting and not done showing their skills.
“
”
THE TEAM HAS A LOT MORE
FIGHT IN THEM
WOMENS BASKETBALL
8
E
If you see the girls compete during the home
tournament coming up, go in and cheer them
on. They will not disappoint! The coaches and
players are very proud of how far this team
has gone, but they know that there are more
obstacles ahead.
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WRITTEN BY:
ALYSSA HORAN,
SECRETARY
TRIATHLON TEAM
have addressed in recent articles
how this is the off season and
we are just now stretching
out and started training after
winter. It really didn’t get warm until
after spring break, so we are just now
starting to get into biking and running
again. Over winter, some of our members
were participating in winter sports, such
as skiing and snowboarding. Two of our
members, Tom Nolan and myself (Riley
Parr) decided to just go ahead and drive 24
hours to Colorado. We brought a crew of 7
individuals to partake in the epic journey.
It was quite the time.
We left right after classes on the Friday
before spring break. Buzzing with
excitement like 6 year old boys when
spiderman shows up to a birthday party,
we packed up the car and started to
hightail it west. We shifted in a clockwise
pattern so that everyone ended up driving
about 6 hours in my car of 4 individuals.
The old Subaru huffed and puffed all the
way there, from the icy roads of Kentucky,
through the downtown streets of St. Louis,
and through the night, only stopping for
gas and yummy foods at gas stations
that made foul odors come out of our
bottoms. The sunrise in Kansas was
pretty fantastic and inspiring, but that was
the highlight of that state. That stuff is
flat. Very flat and boring. Once we got to
Colorado, excitement was fleeting, because
Eastern Colorado is about the same as
Kansas. After a few hours and mountains
in sight, we were instastoked again. A
night was spent in Denver, and then off to
ski Arapahoe Basin, CO. The altitude hit us
pretty hard (especially for poor Stewart)
but we still shredded up some serious
gnar. We did this for 3 days with decent
snow conditions, skiing everything open
including a hike-to chute (pictured). We
then skied Loveland CO, a favorite of ours
with free cat skiing. Wooza! The views were
stellar, with mountains much more rocky
and jagged than here in the Appalachians.
With out connections, we were able to ski
Breckenridge for a reasonable price, and
were not as impressed as we thought we
would be. It was a super big mountain,
but it seemed quite touristy and was very
expensive to eat ($13 burger). That night
we were still pretty exhausted from the 5
days of skiing we had done, but we decided
YOLO and went to UC Boulder for the night
to hang out with one of Tom’s friends from
high school. It was fun and we behaved
ourselves. The last day we skied, Friday, it
snowed 7 inches at Loveland. The feeling
of skiing that soft, dry powder snow was
absolute bliss. It bellowed over our bodies
and we swished through it, and we looked
back out our tracks in awe of the epicness
we had been through. For some of the
crew, it was their first day in real powder.
They learned quickly (especially Tom, for
10
I
he is so athletic, despite his skinny skis)
and soon, we were all hootin and hollarin
all the way to the bottom of the lift. No one
was there that day, so we got lap after lap of
fluffy white stuff in our faces. Sadly, we had
to leave from that old, semi-sacred parking
lot with our ski socks still on. We then
drove all the way back to Boone, nonstop,
with much less excitement. Getting back
was a happy/sad moment. Happy, because
we didn’t have to be in a cramped Forester
for any longer, and sad because we were
no longer in CO. I had a great time, with
memories to last a life time, and I would
do it again in a heart beat. Heck, maybe I’ll
do a triathlon out in Boulder. Or just skip
it and go ski again. Keeping tearing it up
out there, y’all.
WRITTEN BY:
RILEY PARR,
SECRETARY
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his past weekend the
Nomads traveled down to
scenic Statesboro, GA to
compete in Southerns, a
very competitive late season tournament.
Ranked 2nd coming into the tournament,
the team had a lot to prove. Saturday pool
play started out with a warm up game
against North Georgia, who proved to be
no challenge for the Nomads as they rolled
them and got to give everyone on the team
a lot of playing time. This would be the
only cakewalk for the team all weekend
though. The second game was against
Carleton GOP, who beat the Nomads at
this tournament last year. With revenge
on their minds, App came out strong in
the first half with great play by all seniors
and was able to take a couple breaks
from the GOP squad. With a comfortable
halftime lead App took their foot off the
gas and GOP made them pay for it. After
rattling off a few breaks to start the half,
GOP regained a comfortable position right
behind the Nomads, making the score 8-7.
App knew what had to be done, and after
a few stacked defensive lines, the Nomads
were able to recapture their big lead and
coast into the Win 13-8. After this game
the Nomads took their bye and feasted on
some delicious Chick-fil-a, many Nomads
went with the spicy chicken sandwich, a
staple for mid tournament food.
After the bye the Nomads faced off against
Mississippi State, a game that included a
lot of chippy play, and words exchanged on
the sideline, ended up in the Nomads favor.
A squad that rallies around the other teams
dirty plays, App was able to put MSU in the
rear view mirror and coast to a third victory
on the day. The day was not done yet
though, a game against Princeton would
be the final match up and test to see if
App could take the pool. The game started
in App’s favor, as the Nomads scored on
offense, then were able to stop the Ivy
League school on defense and capitalize
on their silly mistakes. Princeton was able
to start a late comeback, but this was
halted by great defense from Caleb Ritchie.
Ritchie was all over the field on Saturday
disrupting the opponent’s offensive flow;
he recorded three bookends on the day, a
team high. Finishing the day 4-0, App was
able to secure the pool but by a scheduling
mishap, had to play the three seed in the
first round of the championship bracket
on Sunday.
Sunday was wet, like really wet, it had
rained all night and was pouring as the
Nomads were warming up. The fields
weren’t taking this too kindly either, what
was grass turned to dirt, and dirt to mud,
causing cutting and playing defense very
hard. The disc was wet, but oh well, when
you gotta play, you gotta play. The Nomads
first game Sunday was against Georgia
College, a tough team who was seeded
3rd at the tournament. The game was
sloppy, with both teams recording bad
T
MENS ULTIMATE
12
THE NOMADS FINISHED THE
WEEKEND WITH A WIN
“
”
turnovers due to the weather, it seemed as if
no clear winner would be found. One side of
the field was like the scene out of a movie,
but a cheap movie that couldn’t afford good
props, there was mud everywhere and players
from both teams were slipping and sliding
in attempts to corral the disc. To the Nomads
demise Georgia College was able to hone in
and top the weather as well as the Nomads,
despite some questionable calls late in the
game. This was the Nomads first loss of
the weekend and would knock them out of
championship competition. With spirits low
the Nomads were ready to bulldoze their next
opponent, a young Florida team who made
the mistake of wearing all white on a muddy
Sunday. The Nomads traded with Florida for
a while then took over and broke them back
to back times in the second half to bolster
a lead. Weather would now make a bigger
play than it did all day, the field director
approached the Nomads in the second half,
signaling that the rain was only getting worse
and the fields were ruined so they were going
to cancel the rest of the tournament after this
game. Knowing this the Nomads came out
strong to finish the game and the weekend
with a win. The season is not over for the boys
from Boone, they travel to Raleigh April 11th
for the first round of the playoffs.
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WRITTEN BY:
RYAN SCHANZ,
SECRETARY
o kick off our Spring Break
this year, ten members of the
Appalachian State Fencing
Club traveled to Raleigh, North
Carolina for our first fencing competition of
the semester! The NC Div I/Div II Divisional
Qualifying tournament was an experience for
veterans and newcomers alike. Three of our
members competed in epée and four in the
foil competition, with the rest along to support
their teammates during the tournament and
enjoy a weekend of fencing.
The bouts proved to be intense and exciting
to watch. All of our competitors showed
dexterity and great sportsmanship towards all
of their opponents. Our members fought hard
and we even had one of our own place in the
rankings - Joshua Danford reached the third
round and walked away with an “E” rating.
When we weren’t on the strip or preparing
for a match our members were there giving
each other advice and providing plenty of
support to those that were in the fray. At the
tournament we also had the opportunity to
meet other fencers, learn training techniques,
and discuss plans for hosting tournaments
with a coach from NC State.
Participating in this tournament helped our
members further their skills by going up
against other fencers with different techniques
and styles. Through this amazing experience
the fencing team’s members have grown as
fencers and friends.
After returning from the tournament, the team
has been busy preparing for several other
tournaments coming up in April. The fencing
club is also excited to be hosting our first
competition at the Quinn center this semester
and hope everyone comes out to help support
our members.
FENCING TEAM
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WRITTEN BY:
KARA RAPP,
MEMBER
T
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As we approach our final regular show
weekend of the year and I myself approach
gradation, I can’t help but reflect on the
last three years of my life I have spent
on the Dressage Team. I joined the team
as a former hunt seat rider with no
prior dressage experience, but something
about the harmony between a dressage
rider and her horse pulled me toward
the discipline. My first Intercollegiate
Dressage Association (IDA) horse show
was like nothing I had ever experienced.
In intercollegiate shows, riders draw the
horses they will be competing on out of
a pool of the hosting school’s horses, get
acquainted with their horse during a brief
warm-up, and then enter the arena to ride
their dressage test. You can never get
bored with intercollegiate riding. Even a
seasoned IDA rider is always at the mercy
of the draw.
EQUESTRIAN TEAM
WRITTEN BY:
MADDY MASON,
DRESSAGE TEAM CAPTAIN
I filled the Dressage Team Captain position
at a time when several veteran members
of our small team had just graduated, so
the beginning of the 2014-2015 season
involved a lot of shameless soliciting of
new riders on my part. By some miracle,
we had a full team of amazing riders by
the first show of the season to represent
App State in our region. In November,
we hosted a successful IDA show at our
home facility thanks to the hard work of
the rest of the Equestrian Team. (Special
shout out to Haley McCune, show chair
extraordinaire.) In February, we drove
to Bristol, VA, in the snow and sub-
zero temperatures to make it to a show,
because none of us were willing to give
up as long as the car was on the road and
moving in the right direction. One of our
First Level riders, Kristen Gore, who is also
graduating this May, is currently placed
second in the region. She will be going
to IDA Nationals this year at Otterbein
University, Ohio, if she can secure her
spot at this weekend’s show at Virginia
Tech. Another one of our riders, Marisa
Bumgardner, is third in the region at Intro
Level and may also be going to Nationals
if she can conquer this weekend’s show.
Graduation is always a bittersweet time,
and knowing I will be riding in my last
intercollegiate show this weekend makes
it even more so. I have been very fortunate
to be part of such a close-knit, kickbutt
team, and being Dressage Captain this
season was an unforgettable experience.
I am so proud of my team and I know they
will continue to be awesome next season
and for many seasons after that.
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Club Sports Council had an unexpected last minute change this week, but we ended up making the most of it and still having a very productive meeting. We were supposed to have an activity club propose to be a Club Sport during our meeting, but they ended up having some difficulties on their side causing them to withdraw their proposal. Although we were all looking forward to the proposal, we took that time and reallocated it elsewhere.
At the end of each school year, the Club Sports Program generally has some extra funds left over, whether it be from teams not accepting their full allocation, having to withhold funds from teams, etc. So we take that money and reallocate it back out to teams based on certain
criteria. This year we decided to reallocate the money based on attendance at Council. Coming to Council every meeting is extremely important for the development of our program, so we try reward teams that take it seriously. The teams had an opportunity to vote on whether or not they thought that criteria was fair, and then the teams that were eligible had an opportunity to accept or deny their share of the funds. The next thing we voted on had to do with the Budget Proposal. Katherine has been working on it all semester and needed Council to allow her to spend a certain amount of money in order to print the actual proposals. She broke down what she would be spending money on and Council voted to approve the funds.
Towards the end of Council, Kyle Craft-Kulkin and Chelsea Watson went over the criteria for voting in a new Club Sport once again. Deciding whether or not to let a club be a Club Sport is a huge decision and it is important that all of the Representatives are on the same page.
Overall, it was a great meeting! Some of the team’s seasons have started winding down and some of them are still right in the thick of things. It is always great to hear the accomplishments that each team is having and to hear how well they are representing Appalachian.
WRITTEN BY PHILICIA GIBSON, CLUB SPORTS EXECUTIVE
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