Club Sports Illustrated: February 24th Edition by App State Club Sports

February 24, 2017

Club Sports Illustrated

Issue 80 A UREC Publication

An update on the tournaments to come. Page 12

In This Issue Executive Corner

Women’s Rugby 12

Inside Club Sports

AHO Takes On UNCG

Basketball 4

Men’s Ultimate 15

Springing Into The Season

New York, New York

Cycling 7

Women’s Ultimate

NCSU Road Race

Nonads Throwdown In Chucktown

Equestrian 8

Women’s Volleyball

A Little About What We Do

A Whirlwind Start!

Fencing 11 A(Bout) To Get Busy

February 24th Edition of Club Sports Illustrated Designed And Published by Ian Hensley Edited By Kristen Pool UREC Publicity Programmers Articles by App State Students Cover photo by: Club Sports

16 19

EXECUTIVE CORNER

Alex Shutin

Ian Hensley C – Community: “Club Sports provided me with a community the first day I got to Boone.” - Climbing L – Leadership: “Club Sports has given me the opportunity to develop my leadership and work with a team.” – Archery U – Unified: “The Club Sports Program has given me the chance to work with and lead a unified community, and a sense of pride to work with such empowering individuals.” – Executive Officer B – Building Character: “The program has helped to build my own character, make friends, and to compete with teams across the South East – an awesome experience.” – Men’s Lacrosse S – Sense of Belonging: “Becoming a part of a Club Sports team at Appalachian State University has given me a sense of belonging and a family to fall back on – my team means the world to me.” – Women’s Lacrosse P – Passion: “Club Sports has given me more than competing in my favorite sport. I have met other people just as passionate as I am.” – Snowboard O – Organized: “Club Sports is an organized outlet to compete and have fun with friends. I have created invaluable memories that will never be forgotten.” – Men’s Volleyball R – Relationships: “The Club Sports Program has impacted my experience at Appalachian State University in a big way. I have been able to not only compete, but meet lots of new people. I have made a lot of great friends and great memories.” – Men’s Soccer T – Travel: “Club Sports has given me opportunities to travel, pursue leadership positions, learn a new sport, and make great friends while being part of a team.” – Women’s Ultimate S – Skills: “Club Sports has given me valuable skills – leadership experience, working with a team, and learning to communicate.” – Swim

Article By: Angena LeBarre Executive Officer

Basketball

This spring’s basketball season has just started and we have been off to a busy start. The weekend of February 11th and 12th we were in UNC-Chapel Hill for our first tournament of the semester. Our next tournament was the weekend of February 17th through 19th at the University of Maryland for the regional championship. At UNC-Chapel Hill we played against a handful of very experienced and competitive teams such as UNC-Greensboro, Clemson, and UNCWilmington, all of whom we lost to. We also played ECU and High Point University, who we defeated. We were able to take many positive things away from this tournament. We ran our plays much better than we did last semester. Our communication and team chemistry have greatly improved. The next weekend of February 17th through 19th we competed in the regional championship for Women’s club basketball. There were teams from

SPRINGING INT

all over the country competing in this tournament. Our first game was against UCONN who both outnumbered and out-sized our team. It was a hard fought game but the seven-hour car ride before; started to take its toll. Our next two games were against the University of Delaware and Howard University. We lost a tight game to the University of Delaware. After a long lunch break of walking around Maryland’s campus we came back and were ready to play. This game was against Howard University and we could tell in warm ups that this would be a tough one. We came up short, but played very well as a team and as individuals. After our two tournaments, we are now able to see our strong and weak points better than we have before. This week in practice will be focusing on various aspects both offensively and defensively.

Article By: Rosemary Mosher Secretary

Jack Kane

TO THE SEASON

Jack Kane

Cycling

NCSU ROA

Matt Sloyer

AD RACE

Collegiate road season began for ACCC riders this past weekend, with NC State hosting the first races. The team had 12 riders come out to the races, with multiple categories represented. Saturday was the road race, which consisted of multiple 11.5 mile laps around picturesque Jordan Lake. The race was mostly flat which made for fast conditions, and the weather warmed up beautifully to a high in the 70s. The first race of the morning was the Men’s Cs at 8:30 a.m. They raced 35 miles and Kyle Kimball came away in the front group with 7th place. Grant Edwards finished mid pack, followed by Sean Hildebrandt and David Burstein not far behind. Men’s Ds started their two laps shortly after, with AJ Hayward starting his first ever road race and Ben Gialenios finishing towards the middle of the peloton. Men’s As headed out at 11:00 a.m. for 58 miles, with Marcel Gutierrez breaking away from the main group off the front, only to get an unfortunate flat near the end. Zeb Ramsbotham cinched 5th place, followed by Matt Sloyer and Garrett Clark. Women’s as was the final race of the day at 2:30 p.m., and after 46 miles Annie Pharr won in a sprint finish, followed by Maryann Riley in 5th place.

Sunday was a similarly sunny day, with a Criterium race hosted in Dorothea Dix Park. Criterium’s, or Crits for short, are shorter, more spectator friendly courses, with more race tactics and high speeds as racers strategize and work together to break off the peloton and win. Men’s C’s raced for 30 tough minutes, with Sean finishing in the middle of the pack, followed by Matt, Kyle, and David. Women’s A racers started next at 10:30 a.m., and Annie and Maryann displayed teamwork throughout the race to set themselves up for 2nd and 3rd place finishes following a final sprint. The last race to go out was the Men’s As, who pushed hard for an hour of racing, with Zeb taking 4th in the break, Matt winning 10th in the field sprint, followed closely by Garrett and Marcel. Overall, it was a strong start to the season, and the team is feeling good about the potential for this year’s results.

Article By: Annie Pharr President

Equestrian

This past Saturday, February 18th, was the final horse show for the App State Equestrian Hunt Seat team’s spring semester season. This show also marked the end of an era for several of our senior riders. Hunt Seat Captain Sophia Twarog, Club Sports Representative Catie Durbin, Secretary Samantha Waida (Who won her first 1st place in the collegiate association this weekend!!!), and Katie Grimes had their last regular season IHSA show this weekend and will be leaving us for the real world at the end of this semester. This show was held at Virginia Tech’s Equestrian Center and was all in all a very successful day for the Hunt Seat team. We left with a compilation of three first place ribbons, three second place ribbons, one third, one fourth and three fifths. At of the end of this show, four of our members had received enough points through the duration of this year’s season to advance onto a Regional Competition taking place in March. Our lingo in the equestrian world can sometimes be a little specialized and confusing, so I’ll do my best to explain a little about what it means for our riders that have become eligible to compete in regionals. In our riding association, known as the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association, or IHSA, colleges across the nation are divided by regions. These schools meet with other schools in their region to compete at horse shows. Schools take turns hosting shows and all the riders share the horses provided by the host school for the duration of the show by drawing a horse’s name at random before each rider competes for the day. As for the actual competition, each participant is put into separate ‘divisions’ based on their skill level. Riders then compete against each other in smaller ‘classes’ within their division, which are simply divided so there are not too many horse and rider pairs in the

A LITTLE ABOU arena at once, because that can cause serious issues no matter the riders’ experience level. Within these classes, riders are asked to perform a series of tasks, mainly changes in their horse’s gait, as they go around the arena or directing their horse over a series of jumps. Riders are then ranked one through six based on their performance of these tasks in conjunction with how well their position, or ‘equitation’ is throughout the duration of the class. This all may seem very easy, but there are a lot of variable factors that play into these class performances. To name a few, riders are randomly assigned a horse to ride by literally drawing a name and have to simply get on the horse and ride into the arena for their class, and riders are not permitted to change the horses tack before they ride. Every saddle is different, so never knowing what sort of tack a horse will have for their class, the rider must adjust to the varied equipment each horse is tacked with. Each time a rider is given a placing in a class, they earn points depending on the placing they received. After they have accumulated a set number of these points, then they qualify for a regional competition at the end of the spring semester where they will compete in the division they pointed out of and the rider is able to move up and compete in the next division level beginning at the next regular season show. This is obviously an extensive process and we are extremely proud of all our riders that are advancing to regionals, and of how well all our hunt seat riders performed not just at Virginia Tech, but throughout our entire season!

Article By: IVy Wagner Treasurer

Olivia Moran

UT WHAT WE DO

Olivia Moran

Fencing

A(BOUT) TO

Lauren Bracket

O GET BUSY

After an action-packed weekend in Nashville, our competitive season is in full swing! Our firstever trip to Vanderbilt University on February 10th – 12th was a huge success! We had a lot of fun together as a team. Despite more than a few wrong turns, we enjoyed all that Nashville had to offer, from the pedestrian bridge to late-night ice cream on Broadway. In addition to some sightseeing in the city, we also managed to bring home a few medals along the way. Congratulations to Patrick Arsena on another first place in men’s sabre and first place in sabre overall. Due to some technical difficulties, we were short a few epee weapons, forcing Maria Cilenti to fence foil on Saturday. Despite never fencing foil before, Maria still brought home the bronze with third place in women’s foil. Over the weekend, nine of our members traveled to Raleigh for an individual tournament hosted by NC State University. Although our visit to Raleigh was short, we had a great time hanging out as a team and cheering each other on during our bouts on Saturday. With fresh weapons and lamés in tow, some of our new members were able to compete in their first-ever competition. Our competitors were

tough, but we were all successful in our pools and did a great job during direct eliminations as well. Congratulations to Chris Hatcher, who won every bout in his pool, and to Maria Cilenti for making it to the third round of direct eliminations! Following two successful weekends, we will be on the road again this Friday as we head to Knoxville for one of the largest tournaments on our schedule. Over 150 fencers from across the South are currently registered for the annual Volunteer Open, hosted by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Clubs from schools such as Clemson, Georgia Tech, and the University of Georgia will be traveling to compete over the weekend so it will definitely be a lot of fun. This tournament is sanctioned by the United States Fencing Association (USFA), which allows participants the opportunity to become rated in their weapon. Senior mixed épée and foil are both already A2 events based on those who have pre-registered, so we are looking forward to watching some really talented fencers!

Article By: Lauren Brackett Publicity Chair

Women’s Rugby

Saturday is a Rugby day! These past two Saturdays AHO Women’s Rugby have been showing up and demonstrating incredible talent as the matrix season has been kicked off. With a blowout win to kick off the 2017 matrix season on February 11th and an intense match against UNCW on February 18th, AHO Women’s Rugby players are exhibiting great talent, both in the returning vets as well as in the budding rookies. The past two games were marked by many rookies achieving their first try of their career, countless tackles and scrums, and tons of AHO pride and excitement. The excitement of the matrix season continues as AHO takes on rival UNCG on February 25th. However, instead of the traditional afternoon kickoff at State Farm fields, AHO will be hosting UNCG on the turf fields of Kidd Brewer Stadium on Saturday at 6:30pm and the night game is sure to be full of excitement. Originally, AHO vs. UNCG was going to be played as an away game but due to technical complications AHO was able to secure the home field advantage. AHO is excited to be given the opportunity to mix up the routine of a typical rugby day. Rather than being at the distant State

AHO TAKES

Farm fields, the rugby match will take place on the ASU campus and the team is excited to experience the thrill of intense competition while being surrounded by the fans in stands. Although a typical rugby match kicks off around noon, this Saturday will mark a first for the new AHO team as it is considered a “night game” and will be a new experience even for the veterans of the sport. Although the team is looking forward to the experience of a night game in the stadium, the fans should look forward to the experience as well. The on campus location will make travel to the game simpler, the stadium seating will provide fans with a better view of the action and the restrooms will be more convenient to access. Everyone in the rugby community is excited for the third game of the 2017 matrix season as it will definitely be a unique game in the sense of its setting but it will be typical in the sense that the AHO Women’s Rugby team will outplay the competition and feature incredibly talented athletes.

Article By: Layne johnston Team Member

Christine Newcomb

ON UNCG

Christine Newcomb

Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ultimate

Logan Morrow

NEW YORK,

Logan Morrow

, NEW YORK

Call them what you want but small, slender, and downright scary insect that leech on to your skin and try to turn into what I presume to be some sort of man-horse hybrid are very obnoxious. This past weekend the Nomads traveled to Charleston a.k.a. Chuck town a.k.a. get me out of here, what is on my arm, and we dominated. Nay, wrecked the competition. I highly doubt there will be a tournament there next year after the way we polished our games. We were Randy Moss in 1998 vs. the Green Bay Packers.

Shout out to Motel 6 for hooking us up with the presidential suites. I’m talking two beds, one vanity, hard-wood floors, and a way too easily floodable bathroom. Also, shout out to Logan Morrow for being able to leave at 3am Saturday morning to make the first game on Saturday at 9am! Incredible motivation. Shout out Kevin and Terran, two faithful alumnus who supplied the Nomads and Nonads a high caloric meal Saturday night! That meal fueled us to finish out the tournament strong and take the championship!

We started the weekend off against North Greenville. Who? You might be asking yourself. That’s right. You ride I-88 to Greenville, take a sharp right (possible left) and boom! Bon Voyage North Greenville. Granted they had the height on our team, we made up for it in heart size. Grinded back and forth but ended up winning handedly 13-8. Second game was against the always cheerful Bums (Charleston’s current squad.) Easy W. Third game was against Elon. The Bombs. ANOTHER W. Count ‘em WWW. Naturally we had a fourth game and lost. Every cookie crumbles at some point.

Nomads kicked off Sunday playing the Bum Alums, beat ‘em 15-14. Easy W. Finals were against the infamous Elon Bombs. Chippy game with some chirpy players on both sides of the pitch. Nomads end up pulling it out 15-13 and sealing the second championship in three years in Chuck town! Finally, eighty percent of the squad rolled in heavy to Cici’s pizza and crushed some dank cinnamon rolls. As always thank you to my loyal followers, I love you guys <3.

Article By: Myles Grady Secretary

Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ultimate

The Nonads packed up and hauled out to Charleston to play some frisbee in the warm weather that Chucktown had to offer. Were we prepared to play? Yeah! Were we prepared for the number of mosquitos that Charleston had to offer? No. But we played with intensity and were able to persevere through the buggy haze that Charleston had offered us. We played the University of South Carolina, College of Charleston, and a pick-up alumni team. The fun part about the Charleston tournament is that it is unsanctioned so the teams we play are playing mostly for the love and spirit of the game, which is what Ultimate is all based upon.

NONADS THROWDOW

This was our first tournament of the semester and it was a great way for the Nonads to start off. We won two out of our five games. We played really offensively with quick transitions on turnovers and playing with smart decisions. This tournament really helped us click as a team offensively now all we need to work on is our defense and our zone offense. Our Coach, George Erhardt, will help us out with that at our upcoming practices these next couple of weeks.

Article By: Sarah-Cabot Morris Secretary

Fa Fa Funderud

WN IN CHUCKTOWN

Fa Fa Funderud

Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Volleyball

Mike Collins

CHALLENGE

Mike Collins

E ACCEPTED

This weekend all four of App State’s Women’s Club Volleyball teams are venturing to Virginia Tech to take on other club teams in one of our larger (attendance wise) tournaments of the season. Everyone is excited to take on this all-day challenge in Blacksburg, at Virginia’s beautiful and historic campus that mirrors Boone’s mountain town vibe and camaraderie. It is a wonderful opportunity and we are so grateful that Virginia Tech has agreed to host all four of our teams, among the many local Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia teams that were invited. This event is a great chance for our teams to unite as a club, and it is always a plus to have a crowd of your own club members to cheer you on in between their games, especially at an away tournament. This weekend’s tournament follows two unfortunate events that occurred in which our UNC Chapel Hill Tournament was canceled due to an emergency where a pipe burst and left this entire town in a water shortage and our NC

State Tournament was rescheduled to a date that conflicted with another one of our previously scheduled tournaments. This news was definitely disheartening to hear for the members of our club team, but we are no doubt enthusiastic about the upcoming Virginia Tech tournament! Everyone is working hard during practices, and it is showing. The club has recently taken more initiative in ensuring that all four of our teams have equitable court time during weekly practices to practice both alone and also with different teams. It has been a great improvement in varying competition levels and play styles. This variance has definitely helped to prepare teams for the variance in competition that we experience at the tournament level!

Article By: Natalie Bouchard Secretary

LEARN MORE ABOUT CLUB SPORTS GO TO CLUBSPORTS.APPSTATE.EDU

Executive Officers

Nikko Weeman weemannk@appstate.edu

Angena LeBarre lebarreac@appstate.edu

Sophie Twarog twarogsr@appstate.edu

Coordinators for Competitive Sports:

Chris Carr carrcp@appstate.edu

Eric Horth horther@appstate.edu

Director of UREC: Joe Carter carterjr@appstate.edu

Assistant Director for IM + Club Sports: Erin Sanders sandersec1@appstate.edu

@AppStateClubSports

@AppStClubSports

Club sports@appstate.edu | (828)262-2100