Lipscomb track star Jonathan Schwind overtakes opponents, aims for nationals

Lipscomb track star Jonathan Schwind overtakes opponents, aims for nationals

As the Lipscomb track and field team approaches the final stages of its season, one name has stood out among the rest as Lipscomb’s most dangerous weapon. That name is Jonathan Schwind. Schwind is a junior finance major from Suwanee, Georgia.  He graduated from Lambert High School and joined Lipscomb after being scouted by assistant coach Benton Reed. “Coach Reed was the guys’ coach at the time, so he made a trip down and visited our houses, and he even had dinner with us one night,” Schwind said. “All the other coaches would talk on the phone and stuff, but I was like, ‘Okay, this coach is really interested. He came to my house from all the way up here.’” That would be the start of Schwind’s career as a Bison, and although the collegiate level has been a challenge, Schwind has been able to put in the hard work with his coaches and teammates that’s allowed him to achieve the standout season he’s experienced this year. “In high school there’s usually one or two fast guys on a team,” Schwind said. “Now you come to college, and everyone was a top guy at their school, so being able to run with the guys on the team really pushes you and helps you a lot.” “This year I think we’ve just been able to get him more strength,” track and field director Bill Taylor said. “He’s got pretty amazing range, but his sweet spot and the stuff he loves is the eight and the fifteen.” The 800m and the 1500m races are definitely where Schwind has found his stride. At the...

Lipscomb cross country warms up in second home meet at Vanderbilt Classic

During Saturday’s meet, there was a 30 degrees difference in temperature from the Bisons’ last race at Vaughn’s Gap, the Belmont Opener. Two weeks ago, the men’s and women’s cross country teams were running out of clothing items to remove in the sweltering heat. Two weeks later at the Vanderbilt Classic, they were struggling to find enough to put on. At around 60 degrees, the brisk, overcast morning lengthened their warm-up some, but overall the temperature was welcomed by the participating athletes and fans alike. With nearly double the attendance from the Belmont Opener, Vaughn’s Gap was electric. “We’re thrilled with our women’s performance today. We finished 4th overall without our top three women out there, so, great performances,” head coach Bill Taylor said. Despite withholding Sally Larson, Danielle Walker and Madi Talbert from the competition the Lady Bisons showed that they still have a lot to bring to the table. The trio of runers will compete in Boston in two weeks and coach Taylor is hoping the girls will make a statement. “Maybe not visible to everybody because of not running our top three, but we’re really happy and we feel like it’s setting us up awesomely for the end of the season,” Taylor said. Lipscomb sophomore Barbara Ball finished with a time of 17:43.54. Ball, who is the current Atlantic Sun Runner of the Week, stepped up for the Lady Bisons in her teammates’ absence. “Today was great. The weather was so much better than our last race here,” Ball said. “We added a few girls which definitely helped out the pack. Our solid pack was able...

Lipscomb cross country open with great effort in heat at Belmont

300 cars lined Highway 100 at Vaughn’s Gap where the 2014 Belmont Opener took place. The sunshine was reflecting off of the bright green grass, however the striking visuals were not enough to mask the 94 degree heat that weighed heavily upon the contestants. “It was hot. Tough conditions, tough course,” said head coach Bill Taylor. After the women’s race a girl could be seen being lifted into an ambulance. Luckily, most of the contestants were able to recover quickly. Lipscomb freshman Paige Stoner enjoyed her time at her first ever college meet. “The whole thing was really exhilarating to be with so many girls, that’s so different from high school,” Stoner said. “It helped a lot to know that I have teammates that I need to push myself for.” Lipscomb sophomore Barbara Ball was excited for the team to get out and race for the first time of the new season, and to be able to put all their hard work to the test. Lipscomb held back a number of girls from racing in the meet and Kaitlyn Llewellyn, a senior at Lipscomb, mentioned that working with less people was something to get used to. “It will be nicer next week when we have more depth,” Llewellyn said, “It was pretty hot so times weren’t great, but it was a good way to start the season. It was a lot of fun.” Coach Bill Taylor said that the girls ran well, and that their effort was there. As for times, errors and protests delayed the results for the Belmont Opener. The women’s race was being reviewed due to...

Track and field finds success at Vanderbilt invitational

Neither rain, wind nor cold weather can keep the Bisons from competing and succeeding. The Lipscomb Track & Field team competed in the two day Vanderbilt meet this past weekend. Vanderbilt, The Ohio State, Belmont, Austin Peay and Alabama A&M all took part in the meet. “This was the best meet we’ve had at Vanderbilt since I’ve been at Lipscomb,” Coach Bill Taylor said. “Traditionally, for some reason, we’ve struggled for the most part at this meet.” Setting the stage on Friday was Dani Walker winning the Invitational 1500 meters and setting a new school record with a record time of 4:21.34. Right behind her was Madi Talbert, who moved to No. 3 on Lipscomb’s all-time list. Ki’Ana Christy has really been excelling during this outdoor season. She has broken her jumping record for the second week in a row by jumping 11.36 meters. Setting her own personal record was Jazmyne McGill. She threw 38.09 meters in the hammer and in shot recorded 11.38 meters. Del McSpadden also found success in the hammer throw with a throw of 39.08 meters. Tucker Peabody found himself on the podium winning second place in the 200 meters with a 21.03 time. Peabody also came in second in the 100 meters crossing the finish line with a time of 10.55 “It’s very challenging to do the events in bad weather,” junior April Terry said. “In the rain it’s so easy to fall and slip. During your events, you have to have confidence, and you must trust yourself.” Confidence and trust are something the team proved they all possess throughout this meet. D.A. Lowery...

Women’s and men’s cross country teams both earn A-Sun championships

Lipscomb’s women’s and men’s cross country teams are each Atlantic-Sun Conference Champions.  The victory for the women’s cross country team makes this their third consecutive time winning conference. For the men, they’ve earned their first A-Sun title. Coming into the race, both teams were ranked number one in the coaches’ poll. Lipscomb’s men and women had four runners finish in the top seven. The top runner for the women’s team was freshman Sally Larson, who finished fourth in the race. “It’s awesome to have conference on our home course,” Larson said. “We have really fought with everything we had today. It was great to have so much school support here. I’m just thrilled for our team, and I’m really looking forward to the next 3 years here.” Besides helping the Lady Bisons win conference, Larson has been named Freshman Runner of the Year. Juan Gonzalez also had been named Freshman Runner of the Year from the men’s team. “Everyone was ready for this. We have been training so hard from summer up until now,” Gonzalez said. “We all knew this was going to be a hard race, but in the end, we were going to do whatever it took to finish.” Gonzalez and Larson ended their interviews giving all the credit to the Lord by saying, “All the Glory be to God.” Coach Bill Taylor was named both the A-Sun women’s and men’s coach of the Year. Other individual honors are as follows: WOMENS All-Atlantic Sun – First Team Selections Lipscomb – Sally Larson Lipscomb – Tessa Hoefle Lipscomb – Madelin Talbert Lipscomb – Dani Walker   All-Atlantic Sun...