Tough competition

| he Lady Flames cross country team finished 17th out of 45 teams in their first national championship competition.

In their third year representing LBC, theteam compiled a 1-5 record in dual meets

The season opened with losses to Radford and James Madison before defeating St Augustine,a DivisionII foe. Following losses toEast Tennessee State, Virginia Tech and Richmond, the team prepared forthe Virginia Association of Intercollegiate Atheletics forWomen state competition.

The LBC runners placed behind Mary Washington and Radford in both the state and region IIcontests capturing third position in each meet.

Julie Smiley and Sue Andrew both made theall-region team

Seven members traveled to Seattle, Wash., to represent theLady Flames in theAIAW Nationals,thefirst time the women's cross country team qualified forthe event.

"The nationals were well beyond our expectations at the beginning of theseason,"Coach RonHopkins said. "Going to the nationals in only our third year was definitely a highlight of the season—it indicates that our cross country program is making good progress."

One of theteam's goals at the beginning ofthe season wastobe competitive in Division III

"I think we achieved that goal We're avery young team andstrictly a team of the future." said Hopkins, whose ten-member team consists of five freshmen, two sophomores, two juniors,and only one departing senior

Renee Reimer, Sue Andrew and Barb Temple were freshmen standouts forthe1980 team

"These girls ran at a higher level than I expected they would," Hopkins said. "They allhad a minimal background incross country before coming toLiberty but they did verywell."

Teammates selected Julie Smiley as the Most Valuable Runner, Barb Temple as the Most Improved and Merry Moussette wasvoted MostInspirational.

Hopkins briefly discussed his recruitingeffortsashe expressed thedesire to find two solid runners with distance experience for 1981

"We need twoyoungsters that will give us immediate help. Ittakes time to develop experience but if we can bring inone ortwogood girls every year,we'll soon be competitive with Division II schools," Hopkins said "One of the goals we'd like to realize in the near future isto move into Division IIbecause the bestrecruiting tool you can have is a top level competitive program."

The LBC women's cross country team isfast approaching that goal.

-Paul Stoltzfus •

Running with the future in mind

¥ nvolvement in sports is nothing •*• new for senior Julie Smiley,an activecompetitor inallwomen's sports while attendingLBC.

Although Juliehas been involvedin mostly team sports, she decided she needed something different.

"I wanted to participate in a sport that would lay afoundation for keeping me fitas I get older,"she said, "so I decided togo out for track since I had always had to run for training purposes in team sports."

"My senior year was my best," Julie said. "I got involved in track and cross-country and loved every minute of sweating time."

Julie has two motivations forrunning

"The first and most important reason Irun istorun fortheLord,"she said. "The second isto give me personal satisfaction."

Julie decided to run cross-country because "it is a more individualized sport."

"When you're running, it's just your mind against your conditioned body trying to beat the clock," she said.