The Guilfordian
Aprils, 2015 | 7
WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM/SPORTS
View from the lane: enduring the pre-race
BY SOMMER FANNEY
Staff Writer
“I wish I could enjoy running like you do.”
As a member of Guilford’s track team, I have caught this
comment already three or four times just this semester from
people on campus.
The consensus seems to be that people love the idea of
running but cannot stand the thought of actually doing it.
I do not really understand where people get the idea
that runners are magical creatures who cannot feel pain.
Sometimes, I wish I could go out and enjoy running too,
like that imaginary person we all apparently think is giddily
bounding around mile after mile. Maybe this person exists
but only if enjoying running does not mean to do so
effortlessly, which is not likely.
To give a real perspective on what it is like to be a runner,
and a Guilford College runner at that, I want to give you a
glimpse into a typical track meet. This might seem the peak
of glory and the aforementioned effortlessness.
You wake up at 4:45 a.m. on Saturday. This is normally
when someone wakes up in mid-sleep to check their clock
and then quickly get back into their slumber, but today is a
special day. You grab your things and leave by 5:15 a.m. for
a track meet. After a long car ride, you arrive at the track
at 8:30 a.m., luckily in plenty of time for your race that is
scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
After arriving, you jump off the bus wobbly with
equipment and settle into a grassy patch of shade or sun. You
pick a spot, set up a tent with your team and lay down to
save energy. Your options for entertainment: trying to sleep
or eating. But, be careful about eating. Take a brunch break
too late and you will be paying for it two hours down the
line when your sandwich punches the inside of your stomach
with each one of your pitiful running steps.
After four hours have melted away while you have tried
to sleep and not eat with the bags of tempting foods that
surround you, you rise and warm up for your race. You slog
around for five minutes, take the first of many restroom
breaks, jog around for 10 more minutes, sit down, stretch,
jump around and then head back to the restroom.
You have got 30 minutes before your race now, but you
still need to check in, something that I occasionally forget.
Checking in is like taking attendance for a race. If you do not
do it by a certain time, you will be “scratched,” or removed
from your race.
After searching around for it for a few minutes, you make
your way to the check-in table. The officials take your name
and give you racing stickers. Put them on now and they’ll
fall off the minute you bend your knees to sit or stretch. Put
them in your bag until right before the race and you might
forget them and earn yourself a disqualification and some
very dissatisfied coaches.
So what do we do with the stickers? Do we put them on
Sommer Fanney '18 describes the many stressses that a member of the track team has to think about as they get ready for a race.
anyway and hope for the best? Do we put them in a bag and
risk forgetting them? Do we just run around with stickers in
our hand and obsess over not dropping them? The sad truth
is that no one understands the sticker predicament. If you
have an answer to any of these questions, please let us know.
Stickers aside, you still have to fill your quota of bathroom
visits, and you have only got 20 more minutes of pre-race
freedom. You jog, use the restroom, shake out, check the
time, use the restroom then sprint to the starting line because
your race starts soon.
But oh no. Where are your stickers? With relief, you
remember they are in your bag on the side of the infield -
you were smart and brought your things with you to the line.
The other competitors crowd the starting line and get
in some last-minute shakeouts. The whole lineup jiggles
like jelly. Some girls make idle small talk to try and appear
amiable, forget about their nerves and the fact that you’re’'
all about to be running kind of hard and that it is probably
going to hurt a little.
If, under any circumstances, someone asks “What’s your
PR (best time for this race)?” either beat them with a spare
baton or glare at them bitterly because this is not information
that they have a right to know in such dire circumstances. A
subtler, realistic approach is to laugh it off and say, “I don’t
know” or “who knows. I’ve never run this before.”
Then you make sure that they do not beat you.
All of the Final Four hove a shot in Indianapolis
UNPREDICTABILITY IN THE
TOURNAMENT CONTINUES
BY REESE SETZER
Sports Editor
It is finally here.
After two weeks of March Madness, the
shredding of countless brackets and the
elimination of 64 teams, the NCAA Men’s
Basketball Tournament Final Four is set.
This came on the heels of a handful of
early upsets, buzzer-beaters and big games
that the tournament brought, but now the
grand stage is set. The teams who advanced
to the Final Four are all from programs
with tournament pedigrees and will not be
hypnotized by the limelight.
Number-one seeds University of
Kentucky, University of Wisconsin, and
Duke University along with seven-seeded
Michigan State University comprise the
championship field.
All four schools have rich basketball
history, current and future hall of fame
coaches and star studded rosters that led
them to Indianapolis. The consensus
favorites are the undefeated Kentucky
Wildcats.
The 38-0 Wildcats have the best start
in NCAA history and could become the
first team since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers
to finish a season undefeated. If Kentucky
wins the tournament they would be the
first to go 40-0.
This is coach John Calipari and
Kentucky’s fourth Final Four in five years.
Though the only players on this
Kentucky team that have any Final Four
experience are sophomore twins Andrew
and Aaron Harrison, it does not seem any
of the others are shying away from the
biggest stage.
Junior forward Willie Cauley-Stein, who
was injured during last year’s national
championship game loss to the University
of Connecticut, and possible top NBA
draft pick freshman forward Karl-Anthony
Towns have anchored the Wildcats through
the Tournament.
After cruising through the first three
rounds, which included a 39-point ‘ beat-
down of West Virginia University in the
Sweet 16, Kentucky faced the University of
Notre Dame.
This Elite Eight matchup went back and
forth all night, and with 6 seconds left
Andrew Harrison knocked down two free
throws to take a 68-66 lead. Notre Dame’s
star senior guard Jerian Grant had a shot at a
buzzer-beater three. But the shot sailed long
in the midst of three Kentucky defenders;
punching the ticket for the Wildcats’ berth
in the Final Four as the Midwest Region
Champion. They will be facing the West
Region champs, the Wisconsin Badgers.
Wisconsin finds themselves in the exact
same spot they were last year, a Final Four
matchup with Kentucky. In that game,
Aaron Harrison hit a three with five
seconds left to give Kentucky the one-point
lead and a 74-73 win.
The Badgers return to the game with the
core players who suffered the heartbreaking
loss last year.
Led by senior forwards Sam Dekker and
potential player of the year Frank Kaminsky,
the Badgers match up well with Kentucky,
and fans can expect another nail-biter.
After cruising in their first tournament
game, Wisconsin was in close games on
their path to the Final Four. Each of their
last three games have been single digit wins.
At this point in the season all that
matters is winning, and the Badgers are
good at that.
They also have redemption on their mind
from last year’s loss; the Badgers may have
the motivation and talent to take down the
Wildcats.
As could either team on the other side
of the bracket.
The East Region Champion Michigan
State Spartans prevailed through a bracket
that blew up in the first weekend of the
NCAA Tournament.
One-seed Villanova University was
upset by eight-seed North Carolina State
University and the Spartans themselves
upset the two seed University of Virginia
Cavaliers, opening up the region for anyone
to take. The Spartans took advantage of the
opportunity.
Led by senior guard Travis Trice and
junior guard Denzel Valentine, Sparty and
Tom Izzo are once again in the Final Four.
All of Michigan State’s Tournament
games have been won by single digits and
have been low scoring.
^Although the Spartans are playing the
“surprise” team in this year’s tournament
with 11 losses, there really should be no
surprise in seeing them here.
A rule to remember for your bracket next
year: do not pick against Spartan coach
Tom Izzo in March. With this appearance.
coach Izzo has led the Spartans to seven
Final Fours in 20 years.
However, the same could be -said about
coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Coach Krzyzewski’s Duke Blue Devils
find themselves back in the Final Four for
the first time since their 2010 National
Championship.
During their four-year absence from the
Final Four, Duke has seen some early, and
uncharacteristic, first-round upsets that
bounced them from the tournament in
2012 (against Lehigh University) and 2014
(against Mercer University).
The difference this year is freshman center
Jahlil Okafor, player of the year candidate
and the consensus 2015 top overall NBA
draft pick.
Okafor, along with senior guard Quinn
Cook, freshman forward and probable NBA
lottery pick Justise Winslow and freshman
guard Tyus Jones have led the Blue Devils
on a tear through the tournament.
Their closest game was a six-point win
over the University of Utah in the Sweet 16.
The Devils followed that with a 14-point
win over Gonzaga University in the Elite
Eight to become the South Region champs.
With the way the Devils are playing, their
immensely talented rotation and coach K at
the helm, the Blue Devils have as good as
shot as anybody to take down Kentucky in
Indianapolis.
So, while the Madness has just one
weekend left in the 2015 season, fans can
still anticipate the best matchups that a
March Madness junkie could ask for.
Now all that is left is for these exemplary
teams to fight it out and decide a champion.