Running for Nebraska: Reason for my Blog

August 9, 2010

Reason for my Blog

Hello Great Oak-ians!

I graduated from GOHS in 2010 and am now a freshman in college and running D1. At GOHS, I ran varsity for 4 years in XC/Track so I know how dedicated and determined you must be to be successful. I made this blog to share my experiences of collegiate running (hence, the title of my blog :) and I'll be blogging throughout my freshman seasons of Cross Country, Indoors, and Outdoor Track; keeping you up to date with how it is adjusting to a new school, surroundings, training, racing, NCAA procedures, etc. Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any questions!
I leave in 6 days for UNL, and so my journey begins!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Hey Sam! This is Anna! I hope you got my message on fb, anyway, just thought I'd go through all of these again and leave some comments (since you asked and so you don't feel like you're talking to a wall, cause you're not!) :) I still remember when I read this post. so exciting! I am so proud of you Sam, and I still look up to you and always will! Thanks for everything, I love you and hope you're doing really well! Best wishes and love always <3 :) Anna; July 19, 2011 at 11:08 PM

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Why Nebraska?

When I began the college search I knew that I wanted to continue running at the NCAA Division 1 level. I desired a school rich in pride for its sports with good academics as well. I found this in Lincoln, NE. College sports are a very big deal in the state of Nebraska and it shows in the school's facilities and coaching staff. I picked Nebraska because of all it had to offer me as a student athlete and because of the at-home feeling I got on my visit and with the team. Quite a few of my teammates have become a lot faster since their high school PR's and this was a good indicator to me that I could trust in the training tendencies of my long time Nebraska Cross Country coach Jay Dirksen. A graduate of South Dakota State in '68, Jay was an All American steeplechaser and has coached at Nebraska for 28 years producing a total of 3 NCAA National Champions, 1 U.S Olympic Trials Champion, 20 Cross Country NCAA All Americans, 39 NCAA Track and Field All Americans, 5 Big XII Cross Country Team Titles, 6 NCAA Regional Titles and 22 NCAA Cross Country Teams.

Before Nebraska

I ran four years of Cross Country and Track for Great Oak High School under coaches Doug Soles and Daniel Noble. I was a four year letter winner in both sports and went to Nike Cross Nationals all four years. Some notable awards include #1 Freshman in Riverside County in 2006 and Freshman of the Year, as well as the #3 Sophomore in 2007, winner of the Long Beach Invitational, the Mt. SAC D1 sophomore girls champion and Sophomore of the Year. My Junior and Senior seasons I was a team captain and the Most Improved athlete on the track team, Junior and Senior of the Year as well as 1st Team All-League in the SWL, a scholar athlete, a member of the 2008 Riverside County Academic Team winner (gohs xc), part of the CIF Southern Section team champion in 2009, and the tie breaker of Great Oak's 2009 Runner Up accolades at the California State Meet. In track I was the Inland Empire 1600m Champ, held senior records in the 1600m (5:02.54), 3200m (11:09.10), and 3 miles (17:19, xc); and was a California High School Heisman Finalist in 2010.