79 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(10/03/12 4:00am)
Ball State cross country coaches Randy Heisler and Ali Bishel weren't thrilled with the weekend's showing at the Greater Louisville Classic. Running against 17 of the top 25 ranked teams in the country, Ball State placed 30th out of 31 teams, beating host Louisville.
(10/01/12 4:00am)
Ball State ran against some of the stiffest competition in the country at the Greater Louisville Classic on Saturday, finishing 30 of 31 teams, only beating host Louisville.
(09/16/12 4:00am)
Ball State's cross country team sprinted near the front of the pack on Saturday, finishing in fourth place out of 26 teams in the Terre Haute meet.
(11/11/11 5:00am)
The Ball State cross country team is heading to Toledo, Ohio this Saturday to compete in the Great Lakes Regional. The 6K meet begins at 1:15 p.m. Saturday Nov. 12 at Ottawa Park.
(10/29/11 4:00am)
Ball State finished eighth over all at the Mid-American Conference Cross-Country Championships on Saturday. Toledo came away with the championship title for the second consecutive year.
(10/14/11 4:00am)
A windy day for the cross-country team led to a second place finish at the Ball State Invitational. Although the sun was shinning Delaware County was under a wind advisory.
(10/01/11 4:00am)
After not competing last weekend, many fans may think the cross country team had time to rest and relax. That did not turn out to be the case.
(09/17/11 4:00am)
The Ball State cross country team had another strong weekend at the Indiana Intercollegiate 5K. The team placed sixth out of 21 teams.
(09/11/11 4:00am)
Ball State cross country brought home a second place standing this weekend in the Miami Open in Oxrod, Ohio.
(09/10/11 4:00am)
Ball State Cross Country is set to take off in their fist competition of the season Saturday at 10 a.m. The team will be heading to Ohio to compete in the 5k Miami Invitational.
(09/01/11 4:00am)
Former Ball State long distance runner Ali Bishel was named the new cross country and track & field assistant coach. The three-time NCAA Championship participant has moved from student athlete to student coach and is now settling in as the new assistant coach for the program this fall.
(10/28/10 4:00am)
After finishing 11th out of 12 teams in the Mid-American Conference Championships last season, most would think expectations wouldn't be too high for the Ball State cross-country team Saturday at this season's MAC Championships.
(09/09/10 4:00am)
The Ball State cross-country team will travel to Indiana State on Friday for the Sycamore Pride race as its second meet of the season.
(09/01/10 4:00am)
The Ball State cross-country team has high hopes and expectations for the upcoming season.
(11/24/09 5:00am)
Despite shedding three seconds off her season-best six-kilometer time, redshirt junior Ali Bishel finished in 67th place at the 2009 NCAA Cross Country Championships on Monday afternoon."You go into it to run the best race and beat as many people as you can," cross country coach Randy Heisler said. "Realistically you know your PR and those of the other people. It was a season-best time for Ali; so from that perspective she did well."After earning First Team All-Mid-American Conference and All-Region honors this year, Bishel missed being selected as an All-American by 20 seconds. The award is given to those who finished in the top 40 of the National Championships."Ali would be the first to tell you at the beginning of the year she hoped to win the MAC and be an NCAA All-American," Heisler said. "Those were very good and realistic goals, but she just fell short."Bishel's time of 21:04 was good enough for second among MAC runners. Toledo University's Ari Fisher finished in 43rd place overall, but only crossed the line 17 seconds ahead of Bishel."Fifth place and 70th place were separated by only about a minute difference," Heisler said. "That's how close the race was."Heisler thinks the pace Bishel set played a big part in her coming up a little short of her goal."We talked about not overrunning the first part of the race and I think that came back to get Ali," Heisler said. "She still had a season-best time, but if she did not overrun I think she would have had more kick at the end."Bishel's finished the race 15 places behind her 52nd place performance from two years ago in 2007."It is better to go out hard and not have it, then go out slow and finish in the back of the pack," Heisler said. "There were a lot of good runners that finished behind Ali Bishel."Although Bishel did not get her desired results, Heisler still looks upon this season on a positive note."We try to make sure she realizes even in falling short, she still had a very good season," Heisler said. "She needs to just keep building, get better and run faster."Next up for Bishel is the indoor track season and another chance at victory."We want her to take next week off and keep up her fitness level throughout the holidays," Heisler said. "Once indoors start we want her to just run fast, break records and qualify for the NCAA's."
(11/23/09 5:00am)
Before the 2007 season, Ball State University cross-country coach Randy Heisler didn't know Ali Bishel would be the number one runner on the team.Two years and countless accolades later, Bishel is gearing up for her second NCAA Championship appearance."Getting into the championships is more nerve racking than actually being there," Bishel said. "I am excited to be here and compete with the best in the nation."The championships are today in Terre Haute at noon.This time around, Bishel is looking past the atmosphere and wants to assert herself more in the race."I am taking a more competitive mindset into the race this year," Bishel said. "I have a goal in mind, so we will see how everything plays out." Heisler attributes this new competitive outlook to Bishel's maturity."Ali has matured both psychologically and physically as a runner," Heisler said. "She has gained a lot of experience and maturity comes with that."Bishel will be running as the lone Ball State representative for the second race in a row."Going to the line by yourself and looking around to see no one wearing the same colors is pretty difficult," Bishel said. "You are accountable for five or six girls and so it can be really challenging sometimes."With all her work throughout the season, Bishel knows she still has to come out and run her race."I come out to run and do not let the adrenaline take control of me," Bishel said. "I try and dig deep and think happy thoughts. I break it down and think about all of my preparation and practice."With only nine days separating the Regional and National Championships, Heisler knows the time to prepare cannot be made up."The reality of the sport is someone wins and then there is everyone else," Heisler said. "We have done everything we can to be prepared. Once she starts running, Ali is either ready or she is not."
(11/14/09 5:00am)
(11/03/09 5:00am)
When senior Sarah Kehe walked into morning swim practice Monday, she was greeted by her teammates like a long lost friend.When the women's swimming and diving team began practicing the second week of the semester, they started without Kehe.The senior missed preseason training because she was preparing for the cross country season. In all, Kehe participates in three sports: cross country, swimming and track."It's pretty challenging, but I've never known anything else," Kehe said. "I've done three sports since high school, so basically, I just take one season at a time."On top of her duties to these three sports, she also volunteers her time at Elmcroft, an assisted living home and sings in a local church choir, all while maintaining a 3.8 grade point average."A lot of times she'll run in the house, change clothes, grab something to eat and she's off to choir practice," Kehe's roommate and swimming teammate senior Kaitlin Jasmon said. "She is extremely busy and yet, she's always there."Some might wonder how Kehe has enough time in the day to do all of these things and still sleep. There are times when Kehe does not know how she does it either."I'm pretty sure I'm as close to crazy as you can get without being medically defined as such," Kehe said.While juggling all of these activities, Kehe has still found a way to excel. In 2008, she was a member of the record setting 800-yard freestyle relay team and has consistently been the number two runner on the cross country team this season.Today, most Division I athletes are told to specialize in a single sport so they can reach their full potential in that sport. Kehe's coaches have tried to convince her to drop a sport and specialize, but it has fallen on deaf ears."I've talked to her and asked her if she would consider taking a year to just focus on this or that," cross country and track coach Randy Heisler said. "She just gave me this look like I'm crazy and said, ‘I can't not swim. I can't not run; I have to do all of it.'"In order for Kehe to be able to compete in all three sports, some concessions had to be made by everyone. Heisler lost Kehe after Saturday's Mid-American Conference Championship and won't see her again until after the swimming and diving MAC Championship in February, causing her to miss the entire indoor track season, but gets her back in time for the start of the outdoor season. Women's swimming and diving coach Laura Seibold-Caudill did not have Kehe for the preseason training, which started earlier this semester. Men's swimming and diving coach Bob Thomas coached Kehe for three years in swimming and said that missing the preseason training has hindered her performance."I'd really like to have the opportunity to coach her for an entire season and see how much better she is," Thomas said. "It's one of those gut feelings you have that she'd be better if she could just swim for two more months. I'd like to see her swim year round. That would make a major difference."Despite the desires of her coaches to pick a sport, Kehe stands firm in doing all three."I can't give either of them up," Kehe said. "I love them both so much. Running and swimming have become a huge part of who I am, and I just can't give them up."Despite not spending the entire year with her teams, Kehe is still a vital part of each. Both Heisler and Seibold-Caudill said she brings a high level of excitement and leadership with her when she is with their respective teams."She's a great team player and definitely a major part of the team, and I know swimming feels the exact same way," Heisler said. Seibold-Caudill said from the moment Kehe walks onto the deck of Lewellen Pool, her personality allows her to step right back into her role as a leader on the team as though she has not been gone for months."I think she's a great leader for the senior class," Seibold-Caudill said. "I wish we had Sarah all season. She's a great role model for all the underclassmen. She's certainly a joy to have, a joy to coach and a great teammate."Jasmon has lived with Kehe for the past three years and said that even with her absence, Kehe brings leadership to the swimming and diving team."If you know Sarah Kehe, she has a very outgoing personality; she's very welcoming to other people," Jasmon said. "She's very easy to get to know. I think because of her personality, it makes it easier to adjust and for other people to adjust to what she's doing."All of the practices, volunteering and schoolwork does wear on Kehe. The hardest times for her are the first few weeks after she transitions into a new sport. Kehe said that it's not that she isn't in shape, but her body isn't in shape for that particular sport. Kehe said those weeks are when she relies heavily on her roommates and close friends to help keep her encouraged."Those are the weeks where every practice hurts and that's when it's a good thing that I live with people who obviously care about me and say, ‘You're fine. You can do this. You've done it before, its not big deal,'" Kehe said. "It's a big support system. My roommates all have boyfriends, so I have this huge support network of basically seven roommates, two teams and a couple handfuls of coaches to help me out."The support system isn't just for Kehe. When Jasmon was forced to go home over Winter Break in 2007 to have open-heart surgery, she missed a number of team-bonding activities. Jasmon said Kehe made a gingerbread cookie that she decorated to look like Jasmon and carried it around to all of the functions and took more than 200 pictures, put them on Facebook and tagged Jasmon in them so she could feel included and know that her team was thinking of her."I have about 200 pictures on Facebook and I'm not in any of them, but my cookie is," Jasmon said. "It's just those kinds of things that she does for people to make them feel included. No, I wasn't there but my cookie was everywhere. My cookie was a lot of places I probably wouldn't have been if I had actually been there."Heisler said that Kehe is an advocate for those less fortunate than her, which stems to her love of volunteering at Elmcroft."I love working with the elderly," Kehe said. "I have a gerontology minor, so I hang out at Elmcroft Assisted Living. I wouldn't even call it work, it's so much fun, I just consider it me hanging out with the residences there."After graduation, there isn't a lot of question about what Kehe hopes she will be able to do: triathlons. Kehe said she has the first and last legs of the triathlon down pretty well, but she has to improve on her biking.Kehe entered her first triathlon two summers ago at the Muncie Endurathon. She finished second to a professional triathlete in the event."I don't think I could have won because my transitions were slow because I'm not very experienced at triathlons, and I wanted to be comfortable," Kehe said. "If I'm going to run for an hour and a half or bike for three hours, I'm not going to rush getting ready for that. I don't want blisters or any of that."After her success in the Muncie Endurathon, Kehe said that becoming a triathlete is something she is definitely considering, if she can find sponsorship to do it. Whether she is sponsored or not, Kehe has a goal to complete two Ironman competitions by the time she is 40. She wants to complete two, she said, because anyone can do one and then quit, but it takes a true athlete to complete one and then begin to train for another.All three of her coaches, Heisler, Seibold-Caudill and Thomas, said they think she has definite potential as a triathlete."I've told her that I can see her five years down the road in Hawaii [where the Ironman championship is held] wearing next to nothing with numbers painted all over climbing out of the water and just loving every second of it," Heisler said.
(11/02/09 5:00am)
For the second straight season, the Ball State University cross country team finished in 11th place at the Mid-American Conference Championships on Saturday.Junior Ali Bishel led the Cardinals with a fourth place finish overall on the 6K course. Her time of 22:33 was under 15 seconds behind winner Ari Fisher from the University of Toledo in a tightly contested front pack.Ball State's top five runners scored 269 points with an average time of 24:25. Miami University won the meet with a team score of 44. The win gave Miami its second consecutive MAC Championship.Senior Sarah Kehe finished second for the Cardinals and 53rd for team score with a time of 24:20.3.Redshirt freshman Christine Talhelm, senior Lisa Arrowsmith and freshman Allison Blanck rounded out the scoring for Ball State with times of 24:31.3 (62th), 25:16.9 (79th) and 25:23.4 (84th), respectively.Coach Randy Heisler was unavailable for comment.COMPLETE TEAM RESULTS 1. Miami 44 2. Toledo 63 3. Akron 104 4. Central Michigan 116 5. Kent State 143 6. Eastern Michigan 157 7. Bowling Green 212 8. Northern Illinois 218 Ohio 218 10. Western Michigan 250 11. Ball State 269 12. Buffalo 317BALL STATE INDIVIDUAL RESULTS 4th - Ali Bishel - 22:33.0 54th - Sarah Kehe - 24:20.3 62nd - Christine Talhelm - 24:31.3 79th - Lisa Arrowsmith - 25:16.9 84th - Allison Blanck - 25:23.4 97th - Emilee Zets - 26:33.6 98th - Andrea Korzan - 26:37.6 99th - MaryKate Mellen - 26:47.8