WVU Cycling Club in High Gear
By Janey Cink
In the year of the Tour de “Lance,” one WVU student club is gaining mileage out of America’s newfound admiration for cycling.
The WVU Cycling Club—a mix of 50 or so novice and advanced riders, ranging in age from 18 to 30 —is preparing to hit the road for its ninth year.
Two groups in one, the club is made up of recreational cyclists—faculty, staff, and community members included—and team racers. They have been known to frequent the mountainous terrain at Coopers Rock State Forest just outside of Bruceton Mills and Big Bear Lake in Hazelton, two of their favorite spots in West Virginia.
The racing team of 10 to15 students represents WVU in Division I of the Atlantic Coast Cycling Conference, which includes the University of Maryland and Virginia Tech.
Five-time conference champs in mountain biking, WVU racers rule the trails, but they have never made it to nationals in road racing. Chris Phillips, a junior in his third year on the team, thinks this could be their year.
“Coach Mark Ernsting, who just retired from the pro cycling circuit, has been really great at putting together the training program,” he said. “We do a lot of group training rides—little drills and simulation races. It really keeps us focused on events and team tactics and strategy for races.”
Training can, at times, be grueling with daily rides in Preston County, West Virginia, and southern Pennsylvania. These can take anywhere from two to six hours, even in the winter when roads are covered in snow and ice.
Besides competing in mountain bike races in the fall and road bikes in the spring, WVU hosts two mountain bike race weekends, one in early September and conference championships in mid-October.
The Mountain State, hailed as a world-class destination for mountain biking enthusiasts, offers an abundance of trails, beautiful scenery, and variety of terrain, noted Phillips, who also mountain bikes professionally for Gary Fisher. It is also a great way to meet friends and get exercise.
“For me, it was a good way to go out and meet new people,” he said. “As far as a college student, it’s a great way to get around campus—so much quicker than driving—and it’s a really healthy sport that you can do when you’re young and when you’re old.”
People of all ages and skill levels are invited to join the Cycling Club, he added, and the group keeps extra bikes on hand that have been donated by WVU alumni.
“We’re always looking for members,” he said. “The more the merrier. We’ve had a couple of people we’ve had to drag out on rides and now they’re hard core. It takes just a couple of rides to get them hooked.”
Along with group rides, they organize community projects, trail maintenance events, and social activities. Last semester, members staged a Spinathon and raised more than $500 for The Shack Neighborhood House, a community center providing year-round recreational, educational, and social programs for families in Morgantown and the surrounding area.
Simply the Best
By John Antonik
There had to be plenty of times this past spring when Megan Metcalfe was in her car driving to Washington, Pennsylvania, every day wondering if this was all worth it. Well on June 12, it was.
The senior became only the third female NCAA track and field national champion in WVU history by winning the women’s 5,000-meter run with a time of 16:31.88 at the 2005 NCAA Championships at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, California. She joins 1995 outdoor national champion Pat Itanyi and 1999 indoor champion Kate Vermeulen as the school’s only female national title holders.
Metcalfe’s journey to a national title was truly a remarkable one.
Her spring semester consisted of getting up at 5:30 a.m. to put in a four-mile run before taking off for a full-day’s worth of work in Washington, Pennsylvania, fulfilling her internship requirements for her master’s degree in physical therapy. After work, it was back down Interstate 79 to the Coliseum in time for an 8:00 p.m. workout with distance coach Sean Cleary. She ate dinner at 9:30 and was in bed by 10:00 just so she could get up and do the exact same thing the next morning.
Because her schedule was so busy, the championship race was only the third time she ran the 5,000 competitively during the outdoor season.
“This is just a great story,” says Cleary, who recruited and trained Metcalfe. “You graduate with your master’s in physical therapy, you’re an All-American, and in your last straightaway of your NCAA career you find a way to win a national title. She’ll probably go down as the finest female track and field athlete to ever come through this program.”
Need proof? She earned a remarkable (and school-record) nine All-America certificates in two different sports during her fabulous career.
“This is just a huge honor and it’s a good mark on your career,” Metcalfe says. “The NCAAs are the most competitive racing for people my age and it’s pretty awesome to finally do it. Anyone who runs in NCAAs has more heartbreaks than good moments and it’s nice to end on a good one.”
The hard way turned out to be the best way. Megan Metcalfe not only has a promising career in physical therapy to look forward to, but she also has a national championship to cherish for the rest of her life.
Coach Nehlen Inducted into Hall of Fame
Don Nehlen has come a long way from the days when he used to sneak into Faucet Stadium as a young kid because he didn’t have the money to see Canton McKinley High School football games. So far in fact, that on May 18, Nehlen and 12 others were introduced as the newest class of inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame in New York City.
“It’s a great honor for me, it’s a great honor for West Virginia, and it’s certainly a great honor for all the coaches that worked with me for 21 years here and 12 years at Bowling Green,” said Nehlen.
“Having been a Mountaineer my entire life and having played here when the stadium was first built and to play for this coach was not only a great privilege but also a great learning experience,” said WVU coach Rich Rodriguez. “I’ve been fortunate to have followed him here at West Virginia University and I still draw on some of the experiences I’ve learned as a player and then as a student assistant and volunteer coach.”
West Virginia’s winningest coach joins an impressive 2005 inductee class that includes Alabama linebacker Cornelius Bennett, Notre Dame Heisman trophy winner John Huarte, USC All-American tailback Anthony Davis, and Pitt All-American offensive tackle Mark May.
Auburn’s Pat Dye and Nehlen were the only two coaches inducted this year. Nehlen said the two are among just 166 coaches ever to be enshrined.
“Being in the Hall of Fame is almost a dream come true. I have a hard time really believing it, and I never thought it would happen,” Nehlen said.
The induction ceremony will take place at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on December 6, and the enshrinement is scheduled for August, 2006, in South Bend, Indiana. Nehlen is just the ninth coach or athlete with WVU ties elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.