NCAA Indoor DII National Champions 2011

CONGRATULATIONS! The Men's ACU Track and field team have won their indoor title at the NCAA DII National Championship with just four guys. The FOUR guys on the team scoring a total of 49 points was Amos Sang, Ramon Sparks, Desmond Jackson and Nick Jones. The WILDCATS next competition will be at UTEP Springtime Invitational in El Paso. Good luck everyone, compete with a huge heart.

WILDCAT Inspirational Quote of the Week!

"If you want to achieve some really big and interesting goals, you have to learn to fall in love with hard work."Steve Pavlina

WILDCAT Inspirational Quote of the Week!

No one can coach heart, no one can never coach desire, they must always come from within. Rules may be learned, and skill developed, But you cannot be taught the will to win. You must reach a little deeper to bring out your best, you must be your own motivation. Keep going, Never Quit, You have to find a reason. You are your own Strength, is your own Motivation.

Question and Answer with Kevin Johnson

Q. How has preparation for this year been compared to the last few?
A. My preparation for this year has been training more, doing more things outside of track practice like eating healthy, meditating, and praying more.

Q. What are your biggest challenges in practice?
A. Overcoming my hamstring injury

Q. What would you consider to be the single most important element of your training? Why?
A. Staying healthy because without good health(body and mind) it is difficult to get the best result from training.

Q. Do you like competing? How do you channel your nerves?
A. I LOVE competing, its like Christmas for me. I channel my nerves by deep breathing and visualizing my race.

Q.Knowing what you know now, what would you go back and change in your training in high school and college?
A. If I had the chance...Yes. There is some much that I have learned that would have benefitted a younger me.

Q. What is your favorite way to reward yourself for achieving your goals?
A. Well to be honest I reward myself by setting more goals to achieve. I love pushing my limits.

Q. What is your advice for young athletes?
A. My advice is to never give on yourself or your dreams because with hard work and faith, Anything is possible through Christ.

Q. Who is your biggest role model?
A. My father, I seen that man go through everything to make the best for his family. I would not be here if I never learned from his examples.

More Qualifiers....

This weekend was good and bad for some, but we hope those who have had that bad day on Friday we wish them a SPEEDY recovery. Amos Sang, Nick Jones and Amanda Ouedraogo all got NCAA Automatic qualifiers in their perspective events while Jessica Sloss, Paige Newby, and Kevin Johnson all earned NCAA Provisional marks CONGRATS girls and guys. Lets add people to the list each week!

A Texas Tech Weekend!

Hope everyone had a good first meet and got all the cobwebs OUT! As you know the Indoor season is very short and each meet counts in order to qualify for the NCAA Division II Championships, so give EVERY meet 110%. Congratulations to Nick Jones who won the Shot Put and Kevin Johnson who posted a provisional mark in the 55m HH he was the only other qualifier for the on either the men's and women's team. Hopefully we re-establish ourselves and have more qualifiers this weekend!!

Athlete's Spotlight with CASSIE BROOKS

Q. What are your goals going into this season?
A. This season my goals are to go to the championships indoor and out, and just to leave each track meet with no regrets!

Q. What has last year thought you during your track season?
A. . Last year has taught me that in my event I have to be aggressive, confident, and consistent. Each time I step on the track I need to have a mind set that I've already won, all I have to do is show up.

Q. What do you think will it take for you to make the NCAA Division II Championships this season?
A. To make the championships this year, I need to believe in myself and use one of the many gifts God has blessed me with.

Q. What are you getting you degree in?
A. I am majoring in Exercise Science to become a physical therapist and will have minor in business.

Q. Tell us something that no one knows about Cassie Brooks.
A. I'm a really hard worker!

Q. When did you start Track and Field?
A. I began track in the 7th grade and running hurdles my junior year in high school

Q. What do you do outside of Track and Field?
A. Besides track at ACU, I am a cheerleader and apart of a group called L.Y.N.A.Y. (love your neighbor as yourself). Lynay is a community servant leadership program. To become apart of Lynay you have to do 20 hours of community service each semester while keeping a G.P.A of 3.0 and above. So each week I find some time to volunteer at University church of Christ and serve food to the members. In my free time I love to sleep, eat, and just relax and watch some tv!

WE ARE BACK!!

I know Ramon and I said that we were going to have this blog up and running throughout the 2010 Track and Field Season BUT I guess we got so caught up on our GOALS we forgot all about it. We would like to start back doing interviews, posting videos and everything else that would interest out WILDCAT followers and to encourage each individual on the team to reach their goals. Our 2010 Cross Country season was tremendous we will like to congratulate Amos Sang and Anais Belledant who were selected as 2010 Lone Star Conference Cross Country Runners of the Year. We would also like to WELCOME all our FRESHMAN's and incoming TRANSFERS to the Wildcat Team and hope you realize what it takes to bring success to a National Championship Team! GO CATS!!

Congrats

Congratulations to all those who qualified for Indoor Nationals DII automatic and provisional at the Leonard Hilton Invitational in Houston,TX . Now that the first meet is over and the nerves and cobwebs are out I hope everyone is looking forward to the season with progressing and moving on to MEET #2 the Texas Tech Invitational, in Lubbock TX. Keep Pressing FORWARD! For results of the meet click the link flashresults.com/flashtexas/lhilton10/

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

MERRY XMAS TO THE ACU TRACK AND FIELD FAMILY! HOPE EVERYONE IS LOOKING FORWARD TO WHAT THE NEW YEAR HAS TO OFFER. GOD BLESS!!

ATHLETE's SPOTLIGHT WITH CHLOE SUSSET!

Q. How was your Cross Country Season?
A. The cross country season was a start for me, I discovered the level (which is much more high than in France). I improve myself at each race, I am stronger than last year but it was very not enough to go to nationals. So I am happy for my improvement but I know I have to train harder!

Q. What are your main events?
A. My main event is steeplechase. I use to run 2000 meter s steeplechase in France but now it is 1000 meters more ! ouch !

Q. What do you enjoy about being on ACU track and field so far?
A. I don’t know all the team yet but people I met so far are cool. I expect that the cross country team gonna be stronger !

Q. Being from France was it a hard transition to ACU?
A. The most difficulty is the language barrier. Usually I like to talk with people and say what I am thinking.

Q. Are the workouts any different to what you are accustom to?
A. The workouts are really different than in France. Usually I do just long jogging and fartlek and here it is harder and I run more Km.

Q. What activities do you get into in Abilene?
A. I don’t have a lot of time for any activities in Abilene. I try to pursue to play flute cause I used to be in an orchestra but it is difficult to find the time and the motivation for it.

Q. Now that Cross Country is over, what are your goals for indoors and outdoors?
A. I will be happy to improve my actual performances for the track and the best would be to qualify myself for nationals but I know that it will be difficult.

Q. What brought you to ACU? (Did you have friends here?)
A. I meet coach Burroughs at the French championships, It allowed me to have a real exchange. I also meet Camille who gave me many information about ACU and his experience there.

Q. Do you miss France? What do you miss the most?
A. I miss French food but hopefully I go back in France for Christmas.