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Meredith Volleyball
Player, Cross Coun
try Runner Honored
Leslie Bunch, staff writer
Freshman middle blocker Jasmine
Aguinaldo earned Volleyball Rookie
of the Week honors this past week
from the USA South Athletic Confer
ence, after averaging 4.4 digs and 1.4
kills per set the week before. In a 3-2
non-conference win over William
Peace University, Aguinaldo totaled 27
digs, eight kills, six assists, three blocks
and one service ace. In a 3-0 loss to
Piedmont, Aguinaldo contributed 11
digs, two kills, one service ace and one
block. Finally, in a 3-0 win over Mary
Baldwin, Aguinaldo tallied ten digs,
five kills, two blocks and one service
ace.
This marks Aguinaldo’s second week
earning this honor after being named
Rookie of the Week Sept. 3-10. Agui
naldo says “Coming in as a freshman, I
was mainly focused on getting to know
my new teammates and working my
butt off to get some playing time. Titles
like this weren’t even on my radar.”
Come see Aguinaldo and her team
mates tonight at the 7pm as they face
Methodist and raise awareness for
breast cancer with their Dig Pink for
Breast Cancer Awareness night.
Cross country senior Morgan Youd
was named the USA South Women’s
Cross Country Runner of the Week for
Sept. 10-17. Youd placed 30th out of
99 runners at the Sept. 7 UNC-Wilm
ington Seahawk Invitational, complet
ing the course in 21:05. She led her
team to a third place finish, the top
NCAA Division III team in the race.
At the Sept. 14 Adidas XC Challenge,
the Avenging Angels placed sixth out
of eleven teams. Youd was at the front
of the MC pack, finishing with a time
of 21:11.9.
One week later, the team split up to
tackle two races in a weekend - Fri
day’s Great American Cross Country
Festival and Saturday’s Greensboro
Invitational. On Friday, Morgan Youd
finished first for the Angels. Meredith
finished ahead of the NC State Club
team and Methodist University. On
Saturday, Allie Gallagher earned the
top spot for the team and finished 11th
out of 67 runners with a time of 21:35.
Megan Beebe added 19 points for MC
with a 22:32 run.
The Avenging Angels travel to New
port News this Saturday to compete in
the Christopher Newport Invitational.
Photo courtesy of Meredith College Archives
Equine Enthusiasts Push
for New Meredith Program
Cody Jeffrey, staff writer
“The hardest part about coming to
college was leaving my horse behind,”
said Meredith College freshman Nancy
Merritt, a successful dressage com
petitor. In 1943, the same heartache
of leaving behind an equine friend
made one such freshman, Maiy Esther
Sadler, ride her two horses to Mer
edith.
Sadler’s horses were kept with two
on-campus mules used for plow
ing and cutting the courtyard grass.
According to Jimmie Rucker of The
Twig in a 1957 article, Mary’s horses
created such a buzz that Zeno Martin,
then business man
ager of the college and
horse enthusiast, had
a swamp filled in to
make a front pasture
and purchased two
more horses and in
1944, equitation was
added to the physical education cur
riculum.
With the help of Maiy McKay Ed
wards, a previous Stephens College
saddle seat instructor, several more
horses were purchased and donated
for the students to use in their equine
classes, which consisted of about four
teen women per lesson.
In no time, hundreds of students
were piling onto the waiting list, and
in 1966, an outside donation allowed
Meredith to build a $50,000 equine
facility including a 40-stall barn with
a wash pit, farrier area, feed room,
restrooms, a classroom, an indoor
“The hardest part
about coming to
college was leaving
my horse behind”
arena and an office for Edwards. Ap
proximately 32 horses were kept at the
Meredith facility for student classes
and a few students who actively com
peted boarded their personal horses
on campus.
Although the equine program
boomed at Meredith for some 40
years, it slowly lost interest among
students and was discontinued in the
late 1980s.
Today, Meredith is home to many
equestrian enthusiasts, some of which
have been state and world champions.
Leah Mooney is one such student, “I
recently competed
in the American
Quarter Horse
Youth Association
(AQHA) Youth
World Champion
ship Show in Okla
homa City with my
horse. One Bold Invitation (“Clyde”),
in Working Hunter, Hunter Hack and
Equitation Over Fences. It was the
most amazing experience of my life.”
Merritt recently won the Virginia Car
olina Morgan Horse Club Senior Youth
Achievement Award and believes that
“equestrians deserve recognition for
[our] sport too. We’re another com
munity at Meredith that most people
don’t even know exists as largely as it
does. This is my sport, just like volley
ball and basketball are to other girls.”
The biggest obstacle in bringing
equine back to Meredith is the finan
cial and liability — cont on page 2
Wake Country
Schools Fire
Superintendent,
Address issues
Senttra Snowden, staff writer
WRAL reports that last week
Wake County Superintendent Tony
Tata was fired after a 20-month run.
The Wake County Board of Education
voted five-to-four to dismiss Tata on
Sept. 24. He was given $253,625 to be
released early from his contract that
would have ended in December 2014.
Some have alleged that Tata’s
dismissal is a purely political deci
sion, as the four votes against the
release of Tata were from Republican
board members while the Democratic
majority votes were for his dismissal.
The four Republican votes for Tata to
stay are the same votes that hired him
during the former Republican major
ity. However, the Democratic majority
have defended their decision as not
political but pragmatic, saying that
the Tata’s release from his contract
was a result of his lack of leadership
skills and inability to develop rela
tionships with other members of the
Board. T. Keung Hui stated in the
News & Observer that “Wake County
school board Chairman Kevin Hill said
Friday that former Superintendent
Tony Tata’s autocratic leadership style
created a culture of fear among school
system employees.”
Now that Tata has been dismissed,
Stephan Gainey will act as the super
intendent while the board searches
for Tata’s replacement. Gainey is the
Wake County assistant superintendent
for human resources.
In addition to Tata’s firing, the
school year began with thousands of
students experiencing bus issues due
to the Wake County Board of Educa
tion’s decision to remove 52 buses.
The major decline in buses resulted
in longer routes, larger occupancy of
students per bus and children sitting
on the bus for longer periods of time.
Due to the overwhelming number of
complaints, the board has added 41
of the 52 buses back to the routes.
Also, Don Haydon, the Chief Facilities
and Operations Officer submitted his
resignation and will be on a paid leave
until the end of the year.
The Wake County Board of Edu
cation now faces the burden of finding
replacements for two major positions
and fixing the ongoing bus issues.
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