Thursday

Happy holidays everybody!

DCXC Nation

This is SPARTA!

Hey everybody,

I haven't been updating this as frequently as I would like, but I just started working and really haven't had any free time to do anything else.

This blog was supposed to chronicle the 2008 season of our girl's team, but something MUCH MORE IMPORTANT has come up.

Team, readers, the time has come to unite against a force that threatens the running community. I am not talking about Lax bros, football meatheads, or MRSA, but a much graver danger. DOGS! I am talking about dogs!

On my run this morning, a woman lost control of her furry friend, which chased me down, bit my hand, and then bit my inner thigh. I am sincerely thankful that I can still have children, if you catch my drift. Fido is probably sleeping at the foot of a bed somewhere, dreaming of his victory. I, on the other hand, am watching Hitch and getting ready for my hospital visit (my first) in the morning. Later, if I get around to it, I'll take a picture of my gnarly battle wounds and post them here. I'm not really able to put pressure on mt right leg, and my wrist may be broken. Sweet.

But I'm not here to ask for sympathy, nor do I want you to take pity on me. There are more important issues to discuss here. Everyone be safe this break, keep your dogs on a leash, and keep them away from me. I will not hesitate to battle your dog if he or she is sniffing my ass for trouble.

This is Sparta.

--DCXC Nation

Oh, and One More Thing

And one more thing...

If anyone wants contribute to DCXC Nation, let me know. I'm open to any writing you guys (and girls) want to have posted, both fiction and non-fiction. I think it would be cool to have a pretty liberal interpretation of what we can include on a blog.

That should do it for today,

--Mansuay's facial hair

In Light of Those Sub Par Team Emails

A Confession:

In between seasons I really don't have anything to write about. Of course, I could talk about things going on here in Jersey, but I really don't intend on using DCXC Nation personally, nor do I think most people want to read about my exploits on a daily basis; those stories will be saved for dinner discussions come spring semester.

Instead, let me tell you a little bit about why I started this blog...

I have never assumed my life to be interesting enough to dictate in such a public setting. In light of the recent popularity of team emails, however, I thought it would be cool to describe -- through anecdotes, performances, and opinions -- the very distinct personality that characterizes our team. We have come into our own in the past two years. We are a force to be reckoned with on the conference, regional, and national levels. In my (probably hugely biased and ill-informed) opinion, we are also among the most down-to-Earth, normal teams in D III. So that's it. I wanted to express our dynamic on a public forum so that A) we can all read and respond to these posts, and B) interested students can check us out to see whether or not Dickinson is a good fit for them.

Chances are, however, this will not take off and I'll be left updating this blog for a while until the semester rolls around and I can't procrastinate doing work any longer. If that's the case, so be it, I'll have some fun while it lasts.

Well here I go again, wasting words on lower cases and capitals.

--DCXC Nation

I Open at the Close

For 25 years you have endured, information-less in an information age, and now on the eve of 2009 I am proud to present DCXC Nation, the Official, Unnofficial Home of Dickinson College Cross Country and Track and Field from Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Since this is our first chance to introduce the program to the World Wide Web, I would like to start by recapping the 2008 cross country season.

A long story short, the DCXC guys beat Haverford: Beat them at conferences, beat them at regionals, and beat them at nationals. Coming into the fall season having finished 24th at the 2007 National Championship, the Red Devil men improved their ranking to 15th in the '08 competition held at Hanover College in Indiana. Junior Greg Leak lead the team to the school's first ever conference championship -- both the team and individual titles -- and performed exceedling well in each stage of the championship season. Also adding to the varsity's performance were juniors Nick Karwoski and Andy Gregor, sophomores Brian Krusell and Mike Tarkoff, and freshmen Ted MacDonald and Dylan Straughan. Seniors Justin Frisco, Michael Blake, and Brandon Jones shared captain responsibilities.

In an award ceremony of epic proportions held at Misenos Pub, Greg Leak walked away with Most Valuable Runners honors and a pocketful of girls' phone numbers. Congratulations, Greg!

In the future, this blog will not be so formal nor will it be so boring. I hope to chronicle all of the badass training that goes on in Carlisle, our successes (and hopefully far fewer failures), all while painting a portrait of one of the most attractive programs to ever grace Division III athletics.

Thanks for checking us out. See you on the track in 2009.

-- DCXC Nation