The Collegian

Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: Sports

Sarah Kauk

Interviewed by Marieke van der Vaart

C: What will you miss the most?

SK: The hardest part is you can't just pick it up. When you're done, you're done. I hope here and there to get involved.

C: What are some of the lessons you've learned?

SK: It's a balance of working on your technique and still enjoyin it. It's fun to fly through the air. It's taught me a lot - learn in how to manage time, but then life lessons too. One of the biggest [lessons] is having goals and then not achieving them - getting past failure. Not letting them hold you back.

C: If you could do it over again, would you do anything differently?

SK: I would definitely still do the sport - I almost quit a couple times - but I'm so thankful I didn't because I've grown so much. I wouldn't trade my experience.

C: What are the perks of being a senior athlete?

SK: People are supposed to listen to you. It's fun to interact and help along freshmen and sophomores. To help them see the bigger pictures - to be there for them and be an encouragement for them.

C: What are you planning to do in the future?

SK: I still have to figure out the details, but, God-willing, I'll be going to school for physical therapy at North Carolina.

C: Why do you want to be a physical therapist?

SK: It pairs well with having injuries and working with P[hysical]T[herapist]s. I'm a curious person and I also enjoy involvement with people. It pairs knowledge of the body and helping.

Evan Steward

Interviewed by Jeff Ventrella

C: What are your events, how'd you get into them and for how long?

ES: I came here mainly for jumping events: pole-vaulting, long-jumping. When I got here I got better at those. Coach really improved my long jump so I stuck with that and my pole-vaulting has improved as well. I came in only on track, and then sophomore year I started playing basketball.

C: Is there anything in particular about either sport that you really like?

ES: I've always just enjoyed the team aspect of basketball, and being out there with the other guys. For track, it's more individualized, but it still comes together as a team. You're competing against yourself basically in track, you get better every week, and then you compete against the other teams at conference.

C: What are you looking to do once you get out?

ES: I'm a PE major, with a bio minor. Neither of those have anything to with what I'm doing when I get out of school. I've been wanting to be an air traffic controller, and I'm going into that field when I graduate.C: Do you have any advice, anything you want to say to the juniors, sophomores, freshmen, future freshmen coming into Hillsdale track?

ES: Hillsdale starts out tough, but I believe that's anywhere, coming out of high school going into college, transitioning. That was a pretty heavy change. It's definitely a tough transition and it definitely gets better. Every year has been better for me.



Nate Thompson

C: What events do you do?

NT: I do mid-distance, eight hundred and the mile mostly, usually the eight hundred.

C: Do you like one or the other better?

NT: I've always preferred getting used to one, just every race is a lot different when you run when you race it all the time. I prefer doing one, you get used to the race.

C: Once you leave Hillsdale do you want to keep running?

NT: Not on a competitive level. Just stay in shape, and I've always liked basketball and other sports more, I just happened to get into track -it's probably what I'm better at.

C: Would you be interested in coaching at some point?

NT: Yeah I'm sort of looking into it. I want to teach at a classical school so I'm keeping that open. I'd like to coach.

C: Is there any sort of legacy or mark that you would like to have left on track and field here, specifically the eight hundred or the mile event after you're gone?

NT: I'm not getting any scholarship money for running, and I've gone through times where it was kind of a tough decision to decide whether I was going to keep doing it or whether I was going to spend my time elsewhere just because it's such a large amount of time. I decided I was gonna do it, and it was just going to be more about trying to be a mentor to a lot of the guys and getting to know them. It's a lot about building relationships on the team and trying to be an example for younger guys.

C: Did it get easier after that?

NT: Yeah it was. I did start enjoying it a lot more. It's been really tough trying to balance school and track, but I've really enjoyed it. I've done it. I'm really glad I made the decision to keep doing it.



Dave Hebert

C: What's your event, and how did you start that?

DH: Four-hundred hurdles, and I started that my sophomore year here, just as something different to do . . . It's a lot more fun, it kinda breaks the race up into ten smaller races.

C: How would you say the track and field program - and specifically the runners, the hurdlers - how has that changed since you started doing that here?

DH: It's been night and day. My freshman year we finished seventh at the indoor conference championships, and nobody cared. In fact, all they really cared about was getting back for the president's ball. But now, everyone really cares, everyone gets really into it.

C: Do you have one particular memory or experience in your time here that sticks out?

DH: I'll never forget the time we almost died coming back from Findlay. The roads were so bad, we were driving ten miles an hour on the highway. We had to get a hotel, and it ended up being a lot of fun that night. We played in the pool and the hot tub, had a good time.

C: Do you have something that you want to leave behind here for future hurdlers?

DH: You know, I've never really been concerned with leaving behind a legacy, but maybe there was one I did leave behind. Maybe just to keep trying, no matter what.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools