november 8th

For more information on any of the club teams, visit the website:clubsports.appstate.edu

email us [email protected]

or call us at theStudent Recreation Center(828)262-2100

Director of UREC:Joe [email protected]

Director of Club Sports:Erin [email protected]

Publicity Programmer:Marcie [email protected]

Executive Officers:Jessie [email protected]

Ashley [email protected]

Tyler [email protected]

THE nov 8th Edition of the Club Sports Illustrated

Edited by Jason SharpeDesigned by Marcie Ried

IN THIS

ON THE COVERThe Swim Team describes what it is like to be swimmer in one word: dedication.

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swimming- Dedicated

CYCLING- The Last Mountain Bike Race Weekend

BASEBALL- Working Out the Kinks

women’s Lacrosse- Wrapping Up the Season

SNOWBOARDING- What It Means to Compete on the Slope

Equestrian- Saddle Up!

Women’s Soccer- Friends On and Off the Field

Women’s Basketball- Spring Preparations

Executives’ corner- From Ashley

Upcoming events

swimming- Dedicated

CYCLING- The Last Mountain Bike Race Weekend

BASEBALL- Working Out the Kinks

women’s Lacrosse- Wrapping Up the Season

SNOWBOARDING- What It Means to Compete on the Slope

Equestrian- Saddle Up!

Women’s Soccer- Friends On and Off the Field

Women’s Basketball- Spring Preparations

Executives’ corner- From Ashley

Upcoming events

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04 CLUB SPORTS ILLUSTRATED /// November 8th, 2013

Written by Callie Strachan, Secretary

If the Appalachian State Club Swim Team could be described in one word, it would be dedication. Like

most people know whether in the swimming world or not, our sport is not an easy one. It takes years and years of training, tapering, cutting, more tapering, and a lot of patience to succeed in this sport.

If you talk to any of the swimmers on our team, they will tell you about the many 2-a-day practices they attended in high school, waking up at 5 am to swim for two hours and then to stand a cold bus stop with soaking wet hair, or missing many hang outs with friends for evening practices, just to work at the sport they love. Swimming requires a lot of endurance, which is something that just doesn’t naturally happen.

Our team is special because we know what it takes to work for the sport we love. Every night you can find our swimmers in the pool swimming up to 6,000 yard in practices. Even though there is a lot of time dedication to the sport of swimming, we selflessly do it because at the end of the day, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

DEDICATED

November 8th, 2013 /// CLUB SPORTS ILLUSTRATED 05

Two weekends ago, Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals landed in

our own backyard. The team sent nine riders out to Beech Mountain to compete against the top riders in the country. One of these riders, Alex Dawson, went on to win the downhill race to become the National Champion. We are so proud to have him as part of the team and appreciate all the hard work he put in to make this happen.

2013 Collegiate National Champion

of Downhill Mountain Bike Racing

ALEX DAWSON

The National Race weekend was also the last race weekend of our mountain bike season. Including Alex’s win, the team had a fantastic season. We took second overall in the Atlantic Collegiate Cycling Conference with a few top finishes individually. John Michael Gorum placed first overall in the Men’s A category. In Men’s B, Zebulon Ramsbotham finished second overall followed by Justin Evans in third. Matthew Cole was the top rider in Men’s C.

Thanks to everyone for all of the support over the season! With this one in the books, it’s time to start looking forward to Cyclocross. Just this past weekend a few people from the team raced out at the old fairgrounds. Daniel Mason won the Cat 5 Men’s race and Anna Gannet finished second in Women’s Cat 4. Be sure to keep in touch and look for updates. With the talent on the team we’re sure to have more great results to report as the season continues!

THE LAST MOUNTAIN BIKE RACE WEEKEND

Written by Charles Ramsbotham, Team Member

Daniel Mason, CyclocrossDEDICATED

Eat at Come Back Shack

on Wednesday, November 20th,and say you are supporting

CLUB SPORTSfor our Club Sports Council fundraiser!


A fter a month and a half of no competition, the Men’s Club

Baseball Team finally got play in, with much anticipation, the Greenville Fall Baseball Invitational in Greenville, SC. 12 teams participated in the tournament, including teams from Appalachian State’s conference (ECU, UNC Chapel Hill, Elon). The teams were split up into three pools. The winners of each pool and one wild card team would move on to the elimination rounds. South Carolina Union, Methodist, and Virginia Tech were all in the Mountaineer’s pool this weekend. The men would play two games Saturday and one on Sunday with the possibility of two more if they won the pool or wild card spot.

The men’s first game was against USC Union. USC was already 2-0 with dominated wins over Methodist (17-0) and Virginia Tech (15-2). The Mountaineer’s took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first, then performing an easy 1-2-3 bottom of the first inning. But that domination disappeared when number four hitter for USC Union hit a homerun to deep left field to tie the game 1-1. They took the lead 4-1, but there was still a lot of baseball to be played. The Mountaineers

never gave up, eventually taking a 6-4 lead in the top of the 5th inning. But the powerful hitting of USC Union stuck around, tying the game 6-6 and forcing the game into extra innings. In the top of the 8th, the Mountaineers scored to take a 7-6 lead and were three out away from a win. But USC Union was hitting everything thrown that day and scored on a walk off double, making it 8-7 to win the game and the pool. The Mountaineers’ were heart broken, but knew they had to bounce back quickly against Methodist later that day in order to keep their wild card hopes alive.

Appalachian State’s next game against Methodist proved to be more of a fight than anyone thought. Methodist jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in early innings and never really looked back. The Mountaineers would answer with a run here and there, but never could sustain a big rally against Methodist. App State’s biggest chance came in the bottom of the sixth down 4-3, when the Mountaineers loaded the bases with two outs.

Unfortunately, they could not capitalize as the inning ended with a groundout to the second baseman. Methodist would

hold off the next inning and win the game 4-3. This knocked App State out of the wild card race.

But the Mountaineers were not ready to just roll over and die. They were determined Sunday morning to still go out and compete against Virginia Tech, and compete they did. After stellar pitching performances by both teams, App State finally broke through, taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning. But down the stretch, Virginia Tech would answer, tying and eventually taking the lead 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Hokies would hold off the next inning and win the game 3-2.

It was a disappointing weekend for the Club Baseball Team, losing all three games by a run. “It was a difficult weekend for all of us,” said president Ben Duncan. “We hadn’t played in over a month, so we knew we were going to be a little rusty. But that’s fall ball for ya. We’ll work out the kinks and come back against UNCW next weekend.” The Mountaineers have a three game series against Wilmington in Wilkesboro, NC, this weekend.

WORKING OUT THE KINKSWritten by Patrick Sekel, Team Member

Written by Molly Lancaster, Team Member

Women’s Lacrosse just finished their last games of the semester at ECU. We played four teams

during the weekend and came away with two wins. It was a great chance for our team to play some games together and getting to travel together was a nice team bonding experience. We also just celebrated our Halloween practice where all came to practice in costume and we celebrated at the end with some treats. Outside of practice, we have been planning some team fund raisers and participating in budget point activities. Club Sports recently adopted part of Queen Street and our team participated in the first clean up. It was a nice opportunity for us to meet some other teams and help clean Boone’s streets.

WRAPPING UP THE SEMESTER


Practice on Halloween!

THE BIRD5K

INTRAMURAL

SPORTS

Sign up at imsports.appstate.edu. If you run & place first, you win a turkey!


The sport of snowboarding lends itself to multiple types of competition:

Giant Slalom (GS) racing is flying through a course of flags one at a time to get the fastest time. Pure speed won’t cut it for these races; you must learn how to take sharp turns while losing almost no speed. We took 3rd place in this event at 2013 National Competition.

Slopestyle/Freestyle competitions are courses of jumps and rails to do tricks that are scored by judges. This is where our riders’ steeze shines. Judges will look at a combination of different variables to determine a score, two of which being style (what kind of trick was thrown) and ease (how clean the trick looked, sloppy form or not) hence Style+Ease=Steeze.

Boarder-cross (Boarder-X) races are head to head heats with 4-8 racers riding through a course of sharp burn turns and big air jumps, trying not to slam into each other on the course. The first two spots move on to the next heat until the final is a simple win free-for-all race.

Big Air competitions are large jumps with huge gaps that riders throw themselves off of and perform gnarly tricks. The distance on these jumps can be monstrous, we have competed on 74 foot long gaps.

Super Pipe is the competition where riders go onto giant snow/ice half pipes and perform tricks for judges. Our National Competition Half Pipe in Sun Valley, Idaho, was 22 feet high with almost half of that being vertical. You are supposed to yell “drop” before entering because you are not stopping once over that edge.

Pond Skims are “just for fun” competitions where riders attempt to get enough speed to make it across a body of water. These are typically at the end of the season “Meltdown Games.”

WHAT IT MEANS TO COMPETE ON THE SLOPEWritten by Tyler Grandis, President


Our season is composed primarily of Giant Slalom races with many Slopestyle events thrown in. We have one regular season Boarder Cross event and hope to give Big Air and Half Pipe a shot at Nationals. These competitions are in themselves individual which makes us an individual sport.

Appalachian State stands out in comparison to other teams in our ability to make this sport a team effort and work together to be competitive. The volume of the mountainside doubles when an Appalachian State racer enters the start gate. I, personally, know how great it is when you hear a whole team of people yelling on your behalf and hoping that you tear the course up. Our team steps up and no matter which of these competitions we compete in, we will be yelling ourselves hoarse in encouragement.

GOOOOO AAAPPPPP!


On Sunday October 27, the Equestrian team was host to Virginia Intermont College, Virginia Tech,

and Wake Forest University for the final Intercollegiate Dressage competition of the semester at our home facility, Foothills Equestrian Center in Taylorsville. Hours of planning go into making this event run smoothly and effectively, with efforts from each and every member being crucial. Each horse competing in the show must be equally as conditioned and prepared as the riders are, and equally as polished. After weeks of preparing the horses, facility, equipment, and logistics, show day comes and the team must put all distractions aside and concentrate on nailing the task at hand.

Intercollegiate Dressage offers four different levels of competition, starting with the most advanced and demanding, First Level, and descending to Upper Training Level, Lower Training Level, and finally Introductory Level. Each level has its own pattern, or “test,” that competitors must memorize and diligently execute in front of a judge who marks each movement with a score. Typically two riders from each school compete in each division, each riding a different horse. It is the job of the hosting school to compile horses for each level that are of the same ability level, and to make sure these groups do not offer any clear advantage to one horse or group of horses.

SADDLE UP!Written by Nikka Hronis, Dressage Captain

Perfect harmony between the rider and his horse, i.e. beauty, is the ultimate goal of all dressage. The horse must be visibly at ease, and nothing in the rider’s demeanor should betray how hard the road is.

- Wilhelm Musler

Cassie Strobel, Lower Training Level

Halie Cunningham, Upper Training “

Hosting a show offers a slight advantage to the hosting team since riders are already familiar with the horses participating in the competition. Which horse each rider competes with is completely random; fortunately at this show, riders ended up getting paired with some favorites! All ASU showing members had exceptional rides, with teams earning 3rd and 4th overall out of 9 total teams for the day (each school is broken into an A team and B team, with one mixed team).

After this final competition of the semester, three Senior ASU riders placed exceptionally high in the regional standings. Upper Training Level rider, Alex Jonker, leads her division by 5 points, with Cassie Strobel and Nikka Hronis each holding spots at second place of Lower Training and First Level, respectively. In other exciting news, rider Halie Cunningham earned enough points at the ASU show to upgrade from Upper Training Level into First.

At this point in the year, ASU is tied for second place with Virginia Tech in the regional team standings. This is incredible news for the Equestrian team’s small Dressage sector, which began in 2009 with three amazingly dedicated members and has been growing ever since. Hopefully we can keep up the good work and everyone can be on the lookout for more great things from the Equestrian Team next semester!


SADDLE UP!Written by Nikka Hronis, Dressage Captain

Perfect harmony between the rider and his horse, i.e. beauty, is the ultimate goal of all dressage. The horse must be visibly at ease, and nothing in the rider’s demeanor should betray how hard the road is.

- Wilhelm Musler

Nikka Hronis, First Level

Alex Jonker, Upper Training Level

”


Last week our team took a break from practice after having traveled to Regionals. This week we are starting back

up with two more games ahead on the 17th of November at UNC-Charlotte. Charlotte has invited us to come play them and College of Charleston. This will be a great opportunity to get back at Charlotte after losing to them at the beginning of the season.

I think we have come a long way sense then and have grown as a team. We have bonded together and it’s reflected on the field as we

Friends On and Off the FieldWritten by Bailey Pages, Vice President

show our confidence in our teammates, playing with great chemistry. Our team is also having a little potluck this weekend, just a time to relax and hang out as our season comes to an end. But I hope that our friendships remain strong even with the season being over. I hope that young players have built friendships to last a lifetime just as I have.

A lthough the Women’s Basketball Team has finished competing for the semester, that doesn’t mean they’re

taking things lightly. They are preparing for all of their upcoming regional and national NIRSA tournaments in the spring. They will be traveling to Georgia Southern, Ohio State and NC State… maybe even University of Maryland.

This was their first semester receiving funding from the club sports program and they hope to hit the ground running with fundraising and exciting new ideas to raise money for their team. They have a few thoughts but are still


SPRING PREPARATIONSWritten by Elena Kacan, Team Member

deciding which is best and what will help them out the most. For the remainder of the semester they will be practicing once a week and having team workouts in place of their second practice to stay in shape in hopes that the holiday food doesn’t get the best of them. They also can’t wait to have a team Thanksgiving dinner before they all leave for break!


Executives’ Corner Written by Ashley Cutrell, Executive Officer

A s the fall semester is coming to an end, Club Sports Council is wrapping up. It is

hard to believe that only one more Council meeting remains for the 2013 year! All of the Executives are impressed by the Council for all of the progress that has been accomplished this semester and the dedication it has taken.

In this past Council meeting, a new Club Sports logo was voted on, discussion of potential Manual Changes for the Spring semester have started, and the four different committees have been hard at work. Some topics that have been discussed include: criteria for moving teams currently in the developmental tier into an allocated tier, what is considered late travel, and the allocation of publicity budget points. In addition, each committee

has been extremely active this semester. The Budget Committee has almost completed the new criteria for National Championship Reimbursement, the Publicity Committee has sent emails through ASU Info and has a fundraiser setup at Comeback Shack for November 20th. The Community Service Committee has Adopted Queen Street. The Team Unity Committee has worked hard to put together a Minute to Win It night on November 25th and has made a Facebook Group including all of the officers to keep in touch!

The Club Sports Council has been extremely active this semester and has done a phenomenal job keeping Club Sports a progressing program.


Upcoming eventsMark your calendars + support your fellow mountaineers

NOV 9-10: ULTIMATE Blue Ridge Blowout at State Farm FieldsBASEBALL Three Game Series in Wilkesboro, NC

NOV 16: SWIMMING Home Meet at SRC Pool

NOV 17: CLIMBING Competition at SRC Climbing WallWOMEN’S SOCCER Invitational at UNC-Charlotte

NOV 20: LAST CLUB SPORTS COUNCIL MEETINGCOME BACK SHACK FUNDRAISER

NOV 22: IM SPORT’S “GIVE ‘EM THE BIRD” 5K 2pm at State Farm FieldsLAST CLUB SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

NOV 25: MINUTE TO WIN IT 7-9pm at the Parkway Ballroom

WHAT DO YOU

WANT TO SEE IN THE NEXT

ILLUSTRATED?

See more at clubsports.appstate.eduFriend us on Facebook: Clubsports Appstate

Follow us on Twitter: @asuclubsportsQuestions? Comments? [email protected]

november 8th

Documents

sport of swimming

mountain bike season

club sports illustratededited

coverthe swim team

downhill race

beech mountain

club teams

day practices