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Students Start First SBC Cross Country Team
By Laura McKenna '10
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Long before the majority of the campus has rolled out of bed in the morning, six students meet at the gym at 7am, ready to run. These women show their dedication to a sport they love, which the school has yet to formally acknowledge. This fall, Sweet Briar will be offering this sport not only as a class, but as a club as well.

Never before seen on SBC’s 3,200 acres, the cross-country team will utilize the eighteen miles of trails to prepare for the meets. Operated by students and functioning as a team, they plan for a busy season Fall 2007.

The Cross Country Club recently received approval from ICC to function as a club sport. Composed of students from the class of 2010, the team will compete in meets and accept the same responsibility as other clubs.

No requirements or prior experience is needed to participate. Anyone who wants to be involved can come out and run. There will be regular practices and meets in the fall.

Those that don’t enjoy cross-country, may dread the walk to Fletcher, and feel as though the distance to Guion seems like half of a marathon.

However the course of the average meet is a 5k (3.2 miles). The state meet is slightly longer at 6k (3.7miles). The students overtook the challenge of starting the club, and hopefully will be up to the difficulties of running a 5k.

"I am really excited about running cross country in the fall because I have missed the energy and support that comes from running for a team,” said Carlisle Adams ’10, one of six runners in the class. “I think that we are going to have a great group of runners and that we are going to have a ton of fun and that running for Sweet Briar will be a really great experience.

With the short cross-country season beginning in the fall, getting in shape over the summer will prove essential. Practice will not begin until students arrive back at school and the meets begin shortly thereafter. The majority of the meets will be close by.

The tentative schedule will be as follows: Roanoke on 9/1, Washington and Lee or Charlottesville on 9/8, James Madison on 9/15, Virginia 10 Miler on 9/22, Virginia Invitational on 9/29, and Washington and Lee or Eastern Mennonite on 10/6.

Suzanne Ramsey, who currently is the running teacher and works for college relations, will be coaching the club in the fall. She ran cross country and track while attending Liberty University and Oral Roberts University.

Ramsey has been running since 1983 in races and ultra marathons (42 kilometers, 195 meters or the equivalent of 26 miles, 385 yards). “I just love it and that is one reason I wanted to start it here, hopefully one day we will host meets,” she said.

Within the next two or three years Ramsey has hopes of making the club sport into a team sport with the assistance of the athletic department.