I apologize from the bottom of my heart for skipping a week of blogging, but now you get a DOUBLE ISSUE!

We competed at Rose Hulman on the 16th, and ended up with a 78-66 victory over Wash U (St. Louis). Indiana State and Illinois State competed in the meet as well, so we were able to run/jump/throw against a lot of quality athletes. Individually, we had some stellar performances to start off the year. Amanda "The Rock" LaRocca whipped out an automatic qualifying mark for nationals in the 55 hurdles with a time of 8.19 (also a school record). That's flying. In the 800m, I was able to squeeze out a provisional qualifying mark of 2:15.07, so that was exciting. Kerry Devitt posted up a 10:30.04 to capture the school record in the 3000m. Overall, we had 9 first place finishes on the women's side and 4 on the men's side. These included LaRocca (60 hurdles and 60 dash), Kyla Motz (weight throw and shot put), me (800), Gaby Johnson (high jump), Lauren Alpert (long jump), Ashley Heilengoetter (mile), Alicia McCoy (400), Darien West (weight throw - school record), Noah Dunham (800), Alex Lambert (pole vault), and Aaron Ball (400). On top of these accomplishments, we had numerous personal bests across the board. The most noteworthy event of the trip to Rose Hulman was the euchre showdown in which myself and Brandy Bird made Amanda LaRocca and Walter Kelley Farris never want to show their faces again. Coming back from a 1-9 deficit to claim an 11-9 victory is a testament to the power of dedication and perseverance. Life lesson learned. 

Last week got started with one of our most anticipated/despised workouts of the year...The Chase. In past years, I'd estimate that at least half of the team ended up with their heads in a toilet or trash can by the time the torture was over, but this year we sacked up and took it like champs (besides one chump, who I will spare from the embarrassment). The brutal training led us into our meet at Monmouth this past Saturday, where we finished 1^st of 5 teams. Once again, Amanda LaRocca exited the establishment with another school record and national qualifying mark, but this time in the 55m dash with a 7.17. Chinny Ekwulugo, Texan superstud, busted out a 38' 8.25" mark in the triple jump to also provisionally qualify for the national meet in March. Fellow Texan, Alicia McCoy, showed off her speed with her 1^st place finish in the 200m, an event that she took 3^rd in at last year's outdoor national meet. Other 1^st place finishes came from birthday girl Jessica Christy (300), Kerry Devitt (mile), me (800), Gaby Johnson (high jump - only 1 inch from qualifying for nationals), Lauren Alpert (long jump - also just an inch shy of qualifying), and the 4x400m relay in which Brooke Bernadoni made the crowd go wild with a come from behind win. The men's team trailed Augustana and Monmouth to finish 3^rd overall and received 1^st place finishes from Aaron Ball (200) and Noah Dunham (800).

 

Next up, we're competing on our home turf in the Titan Open on Saturday. For a taste of our training theme for the week please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLjY9B6UNrA. Any concerns should be directed to Coach Shoe.

 

Due to the numerous complaints from fans regarding the lack of jokes in the last entry, I've got another original joke for your entertainment purposes.

-Where do people from Illinois go when they're feeling depressed?

----They cross the border into a state of Missouri (misery...)

As predicted, the white team prevailed over the green team in our intrasquad meet this past weekend. I'd still like everybody to give a round of applause for the greenies as they ran, jumped, and threw their little hearts out. Seriously though, it was really nice to have a low-key and fun meet to start off the season. Track love is out in full force.

Since we are student-athletes, I should probably touch upon the academic aspect of IWU. We now have an entire week of classes under our belt for the semester. It's looking to be a challenging one, for me at least. My library pants will soon be making their first appearance of 2009.

Not only are we all bogged down with schoolwork already, but we're also experiencing a modern-day ice age. I've already broken 3 ice scrapers this winter, so that's been fun.

Onto more important matters, my birthday is on the 17th. I will be accepting gifts. Possibly even more exciting, the Lost Season 5 premiere is next week! Yay. Oh yeah, and Rachel Anderson Lyons, the 2008 NCAA D3 Women's Track Athlete of the Year will be making her return to IWU this weekend :)

We'll be competing next at Rose Hulman on Friday. It's the site of this year's Indoor NCAA Championships, so we'll hopefully be getting a taste of what's to come in March :)  I'll let you know how we fare.

Yo. Just a little intro - I'm Mackenzie Clemens, a junior biology major at Illinois Wesleyan University in the exciting town of Bloomington, IL, home of Beer Nuts. We're coming off of our best season in the history of IWU Track and Field after bringing home the team's first CCIW conference title and the school's first women's national championships. It was a fairly exciting year for us...

To start the season, we had an early December meet against 2 other CCIW teams, Millikin and North Park. It provided a good insight into what we should expect for the rest of the year. We also held our annual Track Ugly Christmas Sweater Competition, in which I'd like to again congratulate Amy Burns for her outstanding and surprising performance.

So this week we're really getting underway with our '09 season. After the successes we had last year, we definitely have a lot to live up to and a lot to look forward to. Our first focus will be shedding our "holiday butts," as the almighty Brandy Bird likes to put it. We'll be putting in a lot of hard work on the track and in the weight room this week to get back in shape after the break.

We have an intrasquad meet this weekend, white team vs. green team...but the white team will no doubt be running away with the victory :)  Overall, the team is looking solid, with great leadership and experience from the returners and incredible talent with the new freshies. Unfortunately, we'll be missing our amazing seniors from last year. They've left us some very large shoes to fill.

As a treat to my thousands, maybe millions, of readers, I'll leave you with some Mackenzie Clemens-original jokes. You have never heard these anywhere before, and they have been copyrighted, so please don't pawn them off as your own. I hope you like Laffy Taffy-style humor...
-What do you call a pig that likes to eat bacon?
-----HAMmibal Lector (like Hannibal...get it? Hilarious, I know)
-What did the vegetarian get his girlfriend for Valentine's Day?
-----CauliFlowers!

Sorry.