Bryan College Triangle

by Kaity Kopeski
Editor-in-chief

The men’s cross country team placed first in the Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament on Saturday, held at Montreat College (Black Mountain, N.C.), scoring 20 points and qualifying for the NAIA National Championships.

The Lions swept second through sixth places led by junior Bryson Harper. Claiming the third through sixth spots were sophomore Jason McLeod, senior Zach Buffington, senior Josh Bradley and sophomore Drew Thompson.

The women placed second in the conference with four runners, juniors Ericka Simpson and Alyssia Lindsay, senior Catherine Anderson and sophomore Liz Olsen, qualifying individually for nationals.

In cross country there are two ways to qualify for nationals, either win the conference as a team, or qualify as an individual. To qualify as an individual, the runner’s team has to place in the top six. The individual runner has to place in the top 15 runners, plus, once the winning team’s runners are eliminated, the runner be one of the top five runners.

Although the men’s team won the AAC championship, only the top seven runners will compete at nationals, according to head coach Rodney Stoker, who, after the conference win, was named AAC Men’s Coach of the Year.

“I felt this was one of the best races all year,” said Lindsay about the weekend meet. Lindsay said all the “small things” like 6:15 a.m. runs and workout sessions, early bed times and eating healthy, “came together,” setting the Lions apart from the other runners.

Now the runners are focused on Nationals, to be held in Vancouver, Wash., on Nov. 20.

Last year the men placed 27th at nationals. Stoker said the plan for nationals is “the same as it is with any race—to compete at the highest level possible and let the outcome take care of itself.”

By Tim Baldi
Staff Writer

How safe are we walking through the college parking lots at night? Is our property in danger whenever we leave our dorm rooms?

Over the past semester, a group of students in Randall Hollingsworth’s Small Group Communications class have completed a project seeking to improve the safety of students, possessions and school property.

Freshman John Youngblood, juniors Matt Green and Johnny Cannon, and senior Caleb Haynes together have sniffed out some significant ways to improve campus security. Photo courtesy of Tim Baldi.

Freshman John Youngblood, sophomore Matthew Green, junior Johnny Cannon and senior Caleb Haynes participated in the interviews, surveys and research used to investigate the methods and success of Bryan’s current safety procedures.

The group interviewed Vice President of Operations Tim Hostetler, Dean of Students Bruce Morgan, Vice President of Enrollment Management Mike Sapienza and Resident Director of Woodlee-Ewing dorm Tim Shetter.

External threats

In their interviews, Hostetler and Sapienza said that Bryan has Night Watch staff but no official security team.

Night Watch workers function as eyes and ears to report wrongdoing to the police, lock doors and let students into their dorms past curfew, said Green.

Night Watch is effective in what it does, according to Hostetler, but it only deals with non-students coming on campus at night.

Night Watch patrols campus every night from 9 p.m. until 7 a.m.

When a decorative pond was vandalized in the cafeteria the night after spring banquet, a Night Watch worker assisted students in cleaning the mess by providing access to water vacuums, mops and buckets from around campus.

Read full story »

by Catherine Rogers
Staff Writer

Bryan College track and field team competed in Clemson (S.C.) University’s Tiger Tune Up this past Saturday where they took four top-five finishes and qualified four runners and a relay for the near NAIA Indoor Track & Field Championships.

“We had a good weekend,” said Head Coach Rodney Stoker. “I didn’t have a lot of expectations. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on the young kids, but one of our guys, who’s been All-American a few times, was expected to win his race, and he did.”

Stoker was referring to senior Josh Bradley, who took the top spot in the men’s 800-meter race with a season best time of 1:54.36. Read full story »