My Championship Experience - Women's Indoor Track & Field Edition

My Championship Experience is a diary blog written by Summit League student-athletes detailing their experiences at each of the 19 Championships. 

South Dakota junior Bethany Buell's championship experience at the 2013 Summit League Indoor Track & Field Championships:

The Summit League Indoor Championships was such a great experience; especially being able to host the event at home.  I was really excited to know that I was able to invite friends to come watch us compete at the DakotaDome that normally can’t come to watch.  Having extra support at home is such a different experience from being on the road.  Traveling is fun, but it isn’t the same as being in the Dome that I’m so familiar with. 

Since I didn’t compete until Monday, Sunday was a great day to be able to have fun supporting my team.  I was able to focus my attention on to my team and encourage them since I wasn’t worried yet about competing myself.  The hyped up atmosphere of Sunday’s competition really set the tone for how the rest of the meet would go.  I was glad to see this atmosphere carry over into the next day’s competition as well.  If anything, it continually amped up as the competition wore on.  This was really awesome for me because I could get excited for my own event.

As I was warming up on the runway, I kept hearing the announcer report the various league records that were being broken.  I could tell that it was a really competitive league meet; maybe the most competitive one I had been a part of to date.  Even during the pole vault competition, I couldn’t help myself but to stop and cheer whenever I saw a fellow Yote running around the corner.  The league meet is the time that you aren’t as focused on your individual efforts, but more so what you can contribute to the team. 

Being able to see our women’s team place two spots higher than we were supposed to place (and get so close to second overall), was so exciting.  I know my teammates gave everything to try to score points for that meet and it showed!  Then, to see our men’s team dominate and take home the gold was quite an experience.  I am so proud of all of the track Coyotes and so proud to be affiliated with this team.  We have an amazing team backed up by phenomenal coaches and it all came together at The Summit League Championships.   

-Bethany Buell

Don’t forget to check out the next edition of My Championship Experience as it follows the Men’s and Women's Basketball Championships, March 9-12 and throughout the 2012-13 season for coverage at each of The Summit League Championships.