THE CONFERENCE MEET

      Finally, after a whole season of training, the weekend of the Conference was finally here! The team left Friday afternoon, and made our way to Decorah for our biggest meet of the season.  After stopping on the way at an awesome restaurant, we finally got to the hotel. The nerves were getting to me, and what was actually about a two hour car ride felt like years.  The hotel we stayed at was very interesting, and scary, but that’s Decorah for you:) After getting settled down, we had an awesome team meeting in the lobby in which we all shared motivational quotes and discussed our game plan for the race. The Next morning,  we got up early and went to the course. As a whole, the race didn’t go as well as we planned as we finished 7^th on the guys side,  but I was lucky enough to witness our captain, Kyle Heineman become the first male Kohawk to win the individual conference title.  For me personally it was great to see our teammate succeed, and it really motivated all of our younger guys to step up for the years to come. Apollo Ohno once said “If I have given all I have and still do not win, I haven’t lost , some people remember the wins and losses, but I remember the journey.” Overall it was a rough day, and a poor race on my part, but I learned a lot from the experience, and I know the next three conference meets, I will be able to look back at today, and improve as a runner.

Beginning of Conference Week

Conference Meet at Luther This Weekend!

This coming week is the Conference Cross Country Meet at Luther College in Decorah.  There will be eight schools at this meet, including Wartburg, Cornell, Simpson, Central, Loras, Luther, Dubuque and COE!!!!!  It's Thursday today, and it's amazing how many people have come up to me this week to wish me good luck!  Coe is really like one giant family.  I love how all of the teams support one another.  Thanks to everyone for wishing the team good luck; it's really going to help come Saturday!  Until the next adventure.....Ryan Rey

Ryan and The Writing Center's Excellent Adventure to Madison

Madison, Wisconsin is a fun place for a Writing Center Conference!

They have a BIG CHAIR in Madison, Wisconsin

This past Thursday, a group of Writing Center Consultants left to go to Madison, Wisconsin for a Writing Center Convention.  We were there to give some presentations about research our writing center had done and to see and maybe steal ideas from other writing centers in the midwest.  One conference that really stuck out in my head was given by the writing center at Notre Dame University.  They talked about how writing formally and informally is basically two different languages and I'd never really thought about it like that.  Because I sat through this presentation, I know that it definitely made me a better writer.  After the conferences I was lucky enough to meet up with some friends who live in the area.  I was very lucky to get a real tour of Madison, which included storming the Capitol Building (just kidding; but we did get to go inside), eating at Five Guys, sitting in a giant chair and purchasing a monocle.  Sadly, the day had to come to an end and we headed back to the hotel knowing that our own presentation was looming the next day.

The next morning I woke up and I was extremely tired because I'd let my roommate/teammate Jon Ameling talk me into staying up until 4 in the morning watching "Scream", so we could find out who the bad guy was.  (I still can't believe it's Shaggy from the Scooby Doo movies:  he seemed like such a good guy!)  Luckily, Mountain Dew came in to save the day again, and our presentation went very well.  We returned to Coe shortly after our presentation, tired but happy it was a success!  I can't wait until the next writing center trip two weeks from now in Miami!  Until the next adventure.....Ryan Rey

Cross Country Meet in Osh Kosh and Fall Break

Running at the OshKosh Meet

This past weekend, we were able to travel via coach bus to another gigantic Cross Country meet in Oshkosh , Wisconsin.  One of my favorite things about going to all of these meets is the food!   On the way to Oshkosh, we stopped at a place called "Noodles and Company" which I had never been to before!  It turned out to be the best spaghetti I have ever had!  Besides the food, this meet was really exciting for me because lots of my teammates from high school were also going to be racing at this meet.  Some of these teams included the University of Wisconsin at Osh Kosh, Benedictine University, Aurora University, and North Central College.  Even though it was ridiculously windy, I ran my personal best by about a minute.

After the meet, my dad picked me up and brought me home to Plainfield for fall break.   Fall break means no school Monday and Tuesday!  It was nice to see everyone in Plainfield and run with my high school Cross Country Team and have my mom cook and clean for me again.  (Just kidding; she can't cook!)  Lucky for my parents, another freshman at Coe was nice enough to give me a ride back to school.  So here I am, Sunday night, waiting for another adventure to begin and packing for my adventure to Madison later this week.  Until the next adventure.......Ryan Rey

Midterm Madness :(

This week marked the halfway point of my first semester in college.  Time really flies when you're having fun, but I knew it was time to crack down because I had midterm exams and papers due this week!  The first exam I had was in Accounting and I was really nervous.  I studied for this midterm harder than I'd ever studied for any test in my life!  I'd like to give a "shout-out" to the makers of Mountain Dew for making this studying possible!  Overall, my studying paid off and I got an "A."  Also, I had to write two papers, one for my FYS class and one for Western Masterworks and had another exam for my Politics class.  Basically, all of my teachers decided to pile on the hard work this week!  So far I would have to say that my FYS class is definitely my favorite, and not just because Professor Hayes reads my blog!  Until taking my FYS class, (which is on sustainability) I never realized how much we can do to help our environment and the generations of the future.  I look forward to the rest of the semester!  Luckily, after seven difficult days, the midterm week was finally over.  I know next week will be much more exciting!  Keep reading!  Until the next adventure......Ryan Rey

Friday Night: Feelin' Like a Kid Again!

After our home meet, I spent the night finger painting in the U (the cafeteria) until 1:00 in the morning! This was a program put on by the Student Activity Committee (SAC) with coloring, projects and snacks. College is so awesome; it's like being in kindergarten all over again!  Also, stay tuned because I have lots of awesome adventures coming up, including going to Osh Kosh with the team, going to Madison with the Staff of the Writing Center and then going to Miami (yes, Miami, Florida!) with the Staff of the Writing Center.  Until the next adventure.......Ryan Rey

Week of the Home Meet

Charlie Kohawk Came To Our Home Cross Country Meet!

The week of September 25-30 was full of awesome things (and makeup work).  (I had makeup work to do because I had missed the Friday before in order to run at the Griak meet.)  I am going to concentrate on what happened at our home Cross Country meet that Friday.  That Friday afternoon, Coe hosted a Cross Country meet against cross-town rivals, Mount Mercy University.  More importantly, this meet was also against the Coe Cross Country alumni.  I was so excited; I had raced in home meets in high school but had never seen so many of my classmates at a Cross Country meet.  Everyone came out to support our team; Charlie Kohawk was even there!    It was a great race and meeting the alumni was an awesome experience.  After the race, everyone on our team headed back to Coe for Senior Cross Country banquet at the PUB.  When most people say "banquet" you think dressed up, fancy food, etc.  but this was so much better!  Instead of getting dressed up, we wore our sweats from the meet and instead of having that cruddy fancy food, we got cheeseburgers!  The thing that really stuck out in my mind about this banquet was at the end when all the Seniors had a chance to speak.  Their assignment was to talk about their last four years here, running for Coe and offer some advice to the current underclassmen.  At this point it really hit me that Coe College's Cross Country team is building more than just runners, it's building leaders and people who are going to be successful in the next stages of their lives.  I know I made the right choice in choosing Coe!  Until the next adventure....Ryan Rey

Coe College's Adventure to Minnesota

A bunch of us with ROY GRIAK!

Sponge Bob and I at Mall of America

The weekend of September 24th, the whole Cross Country Team traveled to Minneapolis for a giant Cross Country meet.  At this meet, there were over 300 colleges and thousands of high school and college runners competing.  This meet was named after legendary retired coach from the University of Minnesota, named Roy Griak.  Coming into the meet with that many people, the chances of me getting to meet Mr. Griak were slim to none, but after hours of searching and running around meeting new people, I was finally able to meet the LEGENDARY Roy Griak.  Overall the meet went pretty well, but the highlight was really getting to meet Roy Griak.  After our meet on Saturday, our team got to go to the Mall of America and I was so excited!  Most people spent their day shopping, but instead of shopping, I spent my day at Camp Nickelodeon riding the rides!  It was lots of fun!  On Sunday we had the long bus ride back to Coe.  One thing that is really great at being at a school like Coe is how close our Cross Country team has gotten.  As the season has progressed, we have become more and more like a family.  Until the next adventure, keep reading, or until anyone else gives me a better tag line......Ryan Rey