October is a busy month for Jewell’s fall sports. This year, the teams are looking at some crucial wins with a lot of talented players.

Football

Despite sophomore Tabren Yates leading a typically successful Cardinal Offense, the football team is sitting at a 1-5 record so far this year. There is no doubt that the “Agents of Change” have been showing signs of improvement every week — displayed by their win against Kentucky Wesleyan College a couple of weeks ago. With five more games to play, the team will hopefully utilize its talents well.

Volleyball

The volleyball team definitely has the talent to win a lot of games, whether it’s senior Haidan Baade recording her 1000th career dig at the team’s first Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) win this season or sophomore Bella LaPorta leading the charge with 284 kills. The team hopes to gain some traction within their GLVC standing in their upcoming Oct. 14 tournament against Lake Erie College.

Men’s Soccer

Currently the men’s soccer team is sitting at a solid 2-4-3 record with a three-way tie for most goals on the team between junior Cole Bulgren, junior Ethan Nichols and senior Carson Lee. They are looking at three remaining conference heavyweights at the GLVC with Quincy University, University of Illinois Springfield and Truman State University, respectively, for the rest of their season.

Women’s Soccer

Despite senior Corrine Hughes having an impressive eight goals so far this season, the women’s soccer team is sitting at a record of 1-11-1. The talent on the roster shows that it is entirely possible they turn their luck around as they face three conference rivals in the weeks ahead to round out the 2022 season.

Men’s Golf

It has been a rollercoaster of a season for the men’s golf team — having reached the heights of second place in the Kansas City Cup and third place at the Rockhurst Fall Invitational. Sophomore Aiden Sanders leads the team with the lowest score average of 75. The team has one final tournament in the form of the Oct. 24 and 25 Tulsa Cup in Oklahoma.

Women’s Golf

The women’s golf team received high placements at both the Kansas City Cup, third place, and Rockhurst Fall Invitational, second place. Senior Frida Hammarlund leads the pack with the lowest average score of 75.8 and was recognized as GLVC Player of the Week in late September. The team will play two more conferences this season: the Midwest Classic on Oct. 17 and 18 in Maryville and the Tulsa Cup on Oct. 24 and 25.

Men’s Cross Country

Performance for the men’s cross country team is high as they head into their final two competitions at the Baker Invitational and GLVC Championship. At the Oct. 8 Haskell Invite, the team placed fourth overall in the men’s 8k and five runners beat their career best time: senior Christian Santiago, sophomore Matthew Ingle, junior Harley Branch, sophomore Fabian Reyes and sophomore Samson Selleck. Santiago and Ingle both finished in the top 10 with eighth place and 10th place respectively.

Women’s Cross Country

The women’s cross country team is staying strong with two competitions left for the season at the Baker Invitational and GLVC Championship. The team placed sixth in the women’s 5k at the Haskell Invite with five runners beating their career best time: sophomore Lottie Vickers, sophomore Brooke Ware, first-year Lauren Flickinger, sophomore Carly Thacker and first-year Lillian Bogard. The team will face 15 college and universities at the GLVC Championship on Nov. 5, but overall their consistent performance should lead them to a good finish for the 2022 season.

Men’s Swimming

Having only started their season this past weekend, the men’s swimming team is off to a hot 2-1 start, having beaten both Maryville University, 226-31, and Truman State University, 121-83. The team scored four first place wins at the Truman State University competition: graduate student Austin Wolfe in both the 800 and 400 free, junior Conner Sawyer in the 100 free and junior Jose Carlos Sanchez in the 200 IM. The Cardinals will have to keep up their momentum through February to achieve their goals for a successful season.

Women’s Swimming

The women’s swimming team is showing signs of a winning season sitting at 1-1 after beating Maryville University, 187.5-59.5, in their opener. At the Truman State University competition, first-year Maddie Atwood placed first in the 50 free and sophomore Martina Torrent achieved first in both the 200 IM and 200 breast. It is no doubt this younger squad will have success throughout their season. 

The men’s cross country team run this distance in every race they compete in. The women’s team complete 6 kilometer races. Both teams train year round, putting in miles to improve their speed and endurance.

In the spring, the athletes compete in track and field, competing in many events including the steeplechase, the 1,600 m and more. Denver Strong, senior mathematics and physics major, as well as cross country runner, said that running keeps him sane.

“It’s been shown that just running, or doing exercise in general is good for your mental health,” Strong said. “I think I keep running because of that.”

Strong sees cross country as a way for his brain to take a break. When he’s running, he doesn’t think, and for him it is a relief from the everyday stress of college life.

For runners, the right footwear can be the difference between a good and a bad race.

Alexis Mijares, junior biology and Spanish major and cross country runner, loves being outside. She said that running outside is comparable to worship for her, bringing her closer to God’s creation. She also feels a strong bond with her teammates, seeing them as a source of support and relief in her college years.

“I think it’s probably different than a lot of other sports, with the nature of running,” Mijares said. “On the easier [runs] we get to hear about each others days and what’s going on in everyone’s lives and on the harder ones we have the opportunity to push each other and help each other.“

This year, Mijares and Strong are excited for the season, but worry about how the new change in coaches will affect the training and overall moral of the team.

Since Strong was recruited, he has had four different coaches. Each coach has a different training style and different expectations for how they want a team to succeed. Strong noted that the team itself has talent. He noted that the first year recruit is faster than him and sees this as a plus. But any team needs a coach and with changes nearly every year building a strong team has proven difficult.

“When you don’t have a consistent coach, your training isn’t going to be as good in general,” Strong said. “You go from one workout a week, to two or three workouts a week and back to one. You’re just not going to get as good of results. And I think people not getting results just leaves them with less faith in the team.”

Mijares also mentioned that the injuries plaguing the team provide another obstacle during the season. Mackenna Fulton, first year nonprofit leadership major and runner, is currently healing from shin splints while junior runner and elementary education major Brittany Marr rolled her ankle in the first meet. Injuries hurt morale, but the talent is similar all across the team so the injuries should not prove detrimental to the overall performance.

Strong and Mijares both hope that with the new athletic director and a new coach, this season will provide the much needed consistency. They have already completed their first meet, and the next is Sept. 15 at Missouri Southern State University.

“Jewell’s cross country team was good at one point,” Strong said. “Once we get the consistency and we start getting results again, we’ll be pretty solid.”

Photos originally published in a photo feature by Danielle Regnier.

The women’s team ran well, with notable performances in the Jewell invitational (second place) as well as in the ESU invitational (fourth place). As for the men’s team, the team was not large enough to score in any meets.

Both teams faced challenges throughout the year, and had to compete with a small number of people, making competition especially difficult.

Sophomore business administration and spanish major Danielle Regnier said, “Our team is three sophomores and three freshmen, with one junior, so it’s a really young group, which means less experience.”

Junior psychology major Jonathan Morris describes a similar situation faced by the men’s team.

“As a team, especially for the guys, we were extremely small. Small enough to the point where we couldn’t even score in a cross country meet due to not having a full team,” said Morris.

Junior Jonathan Morris in a cross country race. Photo by Dani Riegner

Despite the small numbers, the team viewed the season in a positive light.

“I think [the season] was successful in helping us gain experience,” said Regnier.

The men’s and women’s teams both dealt with various injuries throughout the year, which was especially challenging considering the small size of the team, even at full health. Regnier also describes this as a learning experience, and their success through perseverance as a confidence booster. “Many of us battled various injuries, but we’re a strong group and we always pulled through.”

As the season went on, the team dynamic evolved, and by the end of the season, both the men’s and women’s teams were a very tight-knit group.

“At the beginning we weren’t all that talkative, kinda went through the daily grind by ourselves. But about 2 or 3 weeks in we had a dinner at the coach’s house, bonded a lot and from then on it was a pretty good time at practice. Everyone put in the work, got faster and just ran really well overall,” said Morris.

Regnier shares a similar sentiment, and credits much of the team’s success to team chemistry. “Our team became very close this season. The chemistry we have from training and racing together is amazing. We supported each other a lot and I think that helped immensely during the season. We started as an inexperienced, young group but we finished as a family,” said Regnier.

All in all, the teams’ experience this cross country season was a positive. Both the men’s and women’s team gained valuable experience and built a team chemistry that they hope will serve them well in future seasons.

“We started the season with 10 girls and by the conference meet we only had five toe the line and finish. After everything we still placed 8th, bettering ourselves from last year and our eyes set on continuing to move up to that 6th place spot,” said Liria Gutierrez, senior.

The women’s team had an overall successful season. The team placed third at Missouri S&T’s Jackling Jocks Invitational, beating conference rivals Missouri S&T and Drury. Elizabeth Stevenson, sophomore, Danielle Regnier, freshman, and Gutierrez all finished in the top 15 runners of that race.

“It was exciting in that conference was only two weeks away and we felt stronger than ever,” said Gutierrez.

The men’s team was not as successful at that race, coming in last place. The men’s team also came in 34th out 37 in the Roy Griak Invitational at the University of Minnesota, while the women came in 18th. The men’s team is relatively young, with three freshman, four sophomores and one senior.

Photo courtesy of Kyle Rivas

The NCAA Division II Midwest Regional was held Nov. 7. Dylan Zinszer, sophomore, and Kathryn Lofland, freshman, both ran personal bests at the NCAA DII Midwest Regional this weekend. However, neither team qualified to go to the championships, ending the team’s season.

Photo courtesy of Kyle Rivas.