I'm currently a freshman at Southern Illinois University. I'm studying Exercise Science and running on the Cross Country and Track teams. This past weekend, we had our MVC Conference Meet. We were seeded first going into the season. Having won the past two years, the team was ready to compete for the legendary "three-peat". However, a season rarely ever goes according to plan, and we were faced with several injuries to our top runners. They dealt with the adversity in the best way and toed the line on Saturday morning believing they were the best team there, even though their seed fell to third heading into the meet. They fought hard and battled for a long 8k. It was a dog fight between us and Indiana State. It was the closest race in conference history. After scoring the top 5 runners, it was a tie, so the officials go to the sixth runner for the tie breaker, and unfortunately, we fell a few points short. I did not compete this season because I red-shirted and had to overcome some injury issues. However, I learned so much from watching my team compete and I learned what college running is all about. I am ready to have not only a big season this year, but a great career here over the next couple of years.
Denis O'Callaghan