Press Release

March 13, 2009

Bearcats Gear Up for NCAA Championships

By Ben McKim

Tyler Shaw, Ben McKim and Emily Churchman sign the NCAA Winter Festival Banner in Houston.

It is officially day four of our trip, and day one of competition. I won't be competing today, but Tyler Shaw will. I am competing tomorrow at 2:05 p.m.

This trip has been quite the eye opener. It's an honor just to make it to the national meet, so for the first few days the events were kind of a celebration. If I could sum up our trip so far in one word, it would be "funny". It seems like all sorts of little odd things happen to us that are just so random that they are funny. But a few of the highlights so far has been: seeing NASA, touching sting rays and working the "Yes Clinic", where we taught kids from the Houston area about track and field.

The first part of the week was a lot of fun, but as I said earlier, it is now time to compete. I need to stay relaxed, but I have a hard time of doing that, either way, the game face is on, and we'll see how things go, God willing.