Watch Us Live At Nationals!!!

Watch as we, Bentley, and Stonehill represent the Northeast-10 Conference at the 2011 NCAA Division II Championships in Spokane, Washington!

Below is the link for a live stream of the race today at 2pm
http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule/2011/11/19

Evelyn Marrero poses with Northeast-10 commissioner Julie Ruppert following Bentley's second-place finish at the 2011 Northeast-10 Championships on October 23 at Stanley Park.

All Over The Place!

Since my last post a lot has gone on! One of my roommates became an aunt, another is officially employed, and I got the internship I had second round interviews with!

Along with making it to nationals came a lot of rushing and intense planning. Thanksgiving break is Wednesday the 23^rd, which means a lot of professors have exams and deadlines for projects before then because they say it’ll be better so we don’t have to worry about it over the break. While that is true, all professors seemed to think that so everyone is in a panic since they have things due for all classes!

Then with leaving for nationals on Thursday and not returning until Sunday, there comes talking to professors to inform them we will miss class and what we should do about the classes we are missing. Talking to groups about how we won’t be around to meet. There’s trying to get stuff done before we leave, and preparing for stuff that’s due when we get back. It’s all very overwhelming. My professors have been very accommodating which makes it a whole lot better. Stressful for sure, but totally worth it.

Recently was Veteran’s Day so thank you to all of those who have served for our country.

On 11/11/11I hope you all made a wish at 11:11 PM if you missed it in the morning. You’ll never get the chance again!

Friday was also workout day, which was very successful for all of us. Something about workouts on the track just always seem to go better for me. Maybe it’s because there are splits at the 200’s I know of so I can adjust my pace accordingly while off the track it’s more of me mentally trying to maintain that pace? Not too sure, but anyway, I could tell Amy and Caitlin were feeling particularly great by their last interval time…and by great I mean veryyyyyyyy great. Ashley, who has become quite the mature runner in her second year at Bentley, did not follow in their madness. So proud Ashley, so proud.

Tomorrow Amy and I are going to the mall to buy an outfit for the national’s banquet. It’s totally necessary to buy a new outfit for the occasion, at least I think so anyway.

Well I need to finish my laundry and get to doing some of that homework.

Later!

I’m done…no really though I’m not done. Let’s goooooo!

It was only a matter of time before Look at Me Now made it into the blog. Stop reading, go to YouTube and search Karmin Look at Me. Whether you’ve heard it or not, listen to it while you read this post.

We did it; we are the first Bentley Women’s Cross Country team to ever make it to Nationals!!! It’s such an amazing feeling to be part of such a great team, not just performance wise but also with how close we all are.

The weekend of regionals couldn’t have been better! I had an interview for an internship Friday morning and I received a call later that day telling me I made it to second round interviews, great way to start the weekend!  I had a relaxing night of watching tv, having pizza, and hanging out with friends after that. Saturday at the team dinner I decided to try and make it a little more fun. I printed off a couple of copies of the course for Sunday, let everyone look at them for a couple of minutes and then gave everyone 3 minutes to draw it off of memory. Let’s just say, everyone thankfully knew the course better on Sunday. Following that were trivia questions that ranged from complete this running quote, to what is Kara Goucher’s sons name, to who made this person’s poster for secret runner. This what I thought would purely be a friendly game turned out to have a quite the bit of competition, wouldn’t you agree Caitlin?

After being carbo loaded it was movie time. No better way to get pumped than to watch Without Limits, which is based on a real person for those of you who may not know. It’s based on Steve Prefontaine’s life. If you haven’t seen it, you really should even if you aren’t the biggest running fan you can see how Nike shoes was created! A few tears were shed, but the motivation and drive were all there too. A few girls who were at dinner were not at the movie, and there was a bit of curiosity as to why. Once we got to our rooms after the movie it was clear, they were making us posters!!

Conditions were great, and the course didn’t look too bad, couple muddy spots but nothing that couldn’t be dealt with. This was it, it was time to finish or die…literally. A few words were spoken before the start, to put things into perceptive but to also get everyone pumped. The flag is up, the horn sounds and off we go.

At the finish everyone on the team was talking, how’d you finish, what was your place? We knew we had a chance to make it to nationals but whether we did or not was on everyone’s mind.

Jeptui Cherutich of American International followed her NE-10 conference win with a first place finish, covering the 6k course in 21:54!

Stonehill also followed their NE-10 Conference Championship title with their 3^rd straight East Regional title!! Maura Ferrarini, again, led the Skyhawks to their first place finish with a time 23:12 good for 8^th place, earning her for the first time All-East Region Team honors. Nicely done ladies, another trip well deserved.

But hey, we’ll be seeing you there too thanks to our great performances and all the support! Tara Dooley led us Falcons with a 2^nd place finish just 4 seconds behind Jeptui! Behind her was Amy Varsell who came in not alone, but with the beast by her side (Born to Run reference) in 4^th place with a time of 22:39, 18 seconds before 5^th place!! The next two Falcons were Ashley Nichols in 18^th, and Caitlin Fahey in 20^th with times of 23:27 and 23:29 respectively. I came in at 24:38 to round out the top 5, and Brittany Roderman and Leah Schiller came to complete our team at 25:20 and 25:21 respectively. I suspected they were holding hands, but video confirmation of the race finish says otherwise. Video of the women’s finish can be seen here.

Now let the pictures commence!!!

Wilderness!

The start

Awaiting the results...

We did it!

All Smiles Here!

I would also like to congratulate our guys’ team for a great performance coming in 3rd and a great season.

Thank you to everyone who came to support us and be sure to check back to see what’s going on leading up to nationals, which will be held on November 19^th in Spokane, Washington!

NE-10s, NE-10s, NE-10s, NE-10s, NE-10s!!

The long wait is finally over! After many reminders and pressures to get this post up my homework has been put aside for this very, very, veryyy exciting post!

Stanley Park in Westfield was absolutely beautiful! If you weren’t able to make it, check out these awesome pictures Ashley Nichols took.

Now this is cross country scenery!

A lot happened the weekend of the NE-10 Championships! Between mix ups with hotel reservations and wondering if we were going to travel a “short” 45 minutes to Lee, Mass., to not being able to find a restaurant to eat in, to COMING IN 2^ND PLACE!!

As predicted, Stonehill claimed the NE-10 Championship title!  Leading the way for the Skyhawks was senior Maura Ferrarini covering the 5k course in 18:12, earning herself NE-10 All-Conference First Team honors for the first time in her career! Congratulations ladies, and to you too Maura.

Our own Tara Dooley of Bentley came in 2^nd, just 5 seconds behind defending champion Jeptui Cherich of American International with a time of 17:44, earning herself Rookie of the Year, as well as Rookie of the Week! Amy debuted her season with an impressive 6^th place finish covering the course in 18:21, not bad Miss Varsell…not bad.

Caitlin Fahey and Ashley Nichols completed the course together, whether they were holding hands or not is still up for debate, in 10^th and 11^th respectively with times of 18:29.11 and 18:29.84. Those great performances lead the way for us to come in 2^nd place for the first time since 2002! We also are nationally ranked, in 25^th, for the first time ever! We’re pretty stoked about the last considering our team is so small! With the NCAA Div. II East Regional race just a short ways away butterflies are building and anticipation is high!

Now enjoy the celebratory pictures, thank you to Mrs. Varsell, and the girls on the team for providing these pictures.

Fingers crossed for a safe and injury free week for everyone, and I’ll see you all at the race. You are all going right? Sunday November 6^th, at Franklin Park!

Athletes Supporting Athletes

At the beginning of the school year we had an athletes’ meeting where every sport got together and various people in the athletic department talked to us. At one point we were asked how many have attended, say three different sports events, how many have been to 6?  The higher the number of sports the fewer the hands in the air. I made a list of the sports I had been to in the past and the ones I haven’t and decided to make it a point to try and get to at least one game/event/meet/match my senior year. I mean how do we expect non-athletes to come if we can’t even support one another? Also as athletes we’re aware of who one another is. We’re aware of the hard work and effort we put in to prepare for our sport, so why not show some support?

That being said, my roommate and I attended the women’s volleyball game against Pace University last night. Every sport has a Super Fan event were there will be free t-shirts given away to the students who attend, and it was volleyball’s last night. Although we did not win, the effort was phenomenal. I may not have known all the rules, with double tap, the rotation, why one girl on each team was wearing a different colored shirt than the others, amongst various other things, but I can say our girls were working hard. I couldn’t imagine just diving the way they were, the thought of the burns I would get was enough to make me squirm. The blocks at the net, the set ups, the gymnastic like tumbles our girls were taking were impressive.

At one point I was getting so into it I was having heart palpitations, exaggeration? Not at all! Some of the volleys just kept going back and forth; they were close to missing it, but no they hit it! Then back to us, nice save V, back to them, back to us, then back to them! It got pretty intense. I had a blast, plus there were a few guys who were really into it next to me. They were all decked out in full body suits — two of which earned Super Fans of the night.

After an almost 2-hour drive to Westfield, full of homework and studying, we made it to the course for Sunday’s Northeast-10 Cross Country Championship. There we saw fellow competitors scoping out the course: Merrimack, Saint Michael’s, UMass Lowell, and Le Moyne.

I’m looking forward to racing tomorrow as we will finally have our full team; welcome back Amy Varsell!!

See you after NE-1os!

Shhh…It’s A Secret

Our Secret Runner tradition is well on its way as Northeast-10s are just around the corner. Everyone on the team picks a name out of a hat, and what happens is you make them a poster, and put together a goodie bag. You do not tell anyone who you have, hence the title “secret” runner, and the night before we leave for NE-10s the posters are hung on the person’s door and the goodie bags are given once we get on the van. It’s always fun to decorate, and buy treats for after the meet. It’s also fun to try and get people to tell you who they have. Someone always claims to figure it out, but I know some give false information. Here’s a poster someone got in the past:

And here’s a goodie box:

I wonder who has me?

Workout Fridays, Job Interviews and Homecoming!

A great feeling always comes with workout Fridays. It’s like the best kick off to the weekend. I mean, what better way to start your weekend than with an amazing workout? I mean sure if it doesn’t go well, you might not be as enthusiastic, but yesterday’s was great. The whole group of us felt great; it was a confidence booster for sure. We were pretty right on with our splits, relatively speaking, and the rotations went well too. It was always raining, so speaking for myself I feel even better when we rock a workout in the rain.

The night for me continued with a trip to the mall to buy a business suit. I ended up stopping by The Cheesecake Factory and bought a slice of their Red Velvet Cheesecake, but that wasn’t part of the original plan. I landed my first job interview, so I’m pretty excited about that.  Have to start prepping!

Now it’s Saturday and it’s Homecoming/Parents Weekend! There was an alumni mile this morning…I unfortunately did not attend. I intended to, but I was enjoying sleeping in far too much.

Picture from the Bentley website, with some slight modifications

Off to see what Homecoming activities are going on!

New Englands 2011: The Competition Heats Up

Guest Blogger: Ashley Nichols, Bentley Runner

Hello, hello NE-10 fans!

As many of you may know, the 99^th Annual New England XC Championships took place this weekend. Katie Matthews from Boston University won the girls’ varsity race with a blazing time of 17:18. If you ran this past weekend you were probably pretty fired up to have competition like Katie, or from the wicked hot temperatures.

Fun Facts:
1) The temperatures this weekend were the hottest New England has seen since 1935.
2) The temperatures this weekend were higher than the average temperature in Seattle over the summer.
3) The guest blogger writing this author is from Seattle, she was the runner in the Bentley uniform that melted at the finish line like the witch from the Wizard of Oz.

But enough about me. The NE-10 Conference has a new competitor from Bentley named Tara Dooley. DO NOT BE FOOLED by her innocent look and sweet smile. This girl means business, and in her first ever cross country race she was the top NE-10 finisher (28^th place overall) with a time of 18:34. Congrats to Tara and to the girls from Stonehill, who improved their team placing from last year from 24^th to 15^th overall!

(Conference note: Dooley was named the Northeast-10 Women’s Cross Country Athlete and Rookie of the Week October 11)

Coming Soon:
10/23-  NE-10s
10/28 – Cross Country Awareness Day

Cross Country Awareness Day is a widely celebrated international holiday. Have you ever been asked “how is track going” in the middle of October? This is a common mistake and can be prevented by simply spreading awareness. Join the cause, and make a difference today or the 28th.

Falcon Out.

Secret Weapon Unleashed!!

Bentley freshman Tara Dooley

Stay tuned for a New Englands recap by guest blogger Ashley Nichols, founder of Cross Country Awareness Day!