May 22, 2016

Hey Badger Fans!!

I apologize for the brief hiatus; last week was crazy with school finals and the Outdoor Big Ten Championships.

The team was very lucky and was able to charter a shared flight with Indiana to the meet. Indiana met us in Madison, and from there we landed directly in Lincoln, Nebraska for the meet. It was still fairly early in the afternoon when we got to our hotel, which was right downtown, so a group of us went on a walk around the city. It was good to shake off the plane legs and then to get our bearings for the next couple of days. Not only are stakes already high because it is the conference meet, a lot of my teammates had to take finals on the road. A learning specialist traveled with us to this meet to administer the exams and study sessions. Some professors are flexible and let us take exams before we leave or at whatever time is most convenient for us while we are traveling. Others prefer for the exams to be taken at the same time they are being given on campus. I was fortunate to not have to take any tests last week because I had a paper due the week before finals and a project due online the Monday after the meet.

Day 1 of the meet on Friday was like a reemergence of winter. It was very cold and incredibly windy. Luckily, there were very few events taking place on that day. The throwing event of the day was the hammer and we had one guy and two girls in it. I was one of the participants and honestly, I was a little unprepared for the weather. The events were set to start in the afternoon and from the time that I left the hotel, to when I actually started throwing, the wind picked up considerably and made it very cold. Meet officials even had to push back the start time for the 10K race it was so windy. The second day of the meet was not much better, with it still being windy and colder, although I made sure to bring extra layers. Regardless of the weather, we still managed to have some awesome performances from all across the event groups. The last day of the meet finally offered a reprieve from bad weather. We had some fantastic showings in even more events and it was nice to end the meet on some high notes.

The next round of competition is the West Division regional meet. The country is split almost in half with an east and west division. To qualify for this competition you must rank in the top 48 in your event in your division. Once at this meet, you must finish in the top 12 in your event in your region to move onto Outdoor Nationals, that takes place two weeks after.  With school being done, it is weird not to be rushing about from class to practice, but it also makes it nice to be able to have some relaxation and free time.

Until Next Time!

Kelsey Card