Cross Country

BEREA, OHIO --  One of Baldwin-Wallace College junior and Berea High School graduate D’Arcy Hlavin’s goals in cross country this season was to be an NCAA Division III All-American. This Saturday, Hlavin and senior teammate Ashley Scullion both will get a shot at realizing their goal when they join veteran Head Coach and Berea resident Bill Taraschke at the Division III National Meet at Hanover College of Indiana.

 

“I’m just really excited,” said Hlavin, who carries a 3.61 grade point average in pre-physical therapy, is a member of the Dean’s List and Alpha Lambda Honor Society and is the president of both the B-W Pre-Physical Therapy Club and ROTERACT, a student service organization. “I never really expected all of this (publicity and acclaim).

 

“This is a really awesome feeling,” continued Hlavin. “I kind of feel like I’m on top of the world. I put in a lot of time and work. Doing well over the past few weeks has really made all of that work worth it.”

 

Taraschke also feels that Hlavin’s hard work is paying off.

 

“D’Arcy has worked extremely hard since last spring to put herself in position for potential Division III All-America honors,” said Taraschke, who has coached cross country and track and field at B-W the past 23 years and has led his Yellow Jacket teams to 45 Ohio Athletic Conference titles.”

 

If you would have seen Hlavin last spring in outdoor track, it would have been a miracle as she missed her second straight spring season due to a leg injury. The work that she has done and the progress that she has made is what Taraschke is most proud of. Every honor bestowed upon D’Arcy is well-deserved. She’s earned every one of them through her hard work and perseverence.

 

“I’ve been training for the cross country season since about halfway through last year’s outdoor track season,” said Hlavin. “I kept seeing improvement from the injury. I’m not one of those nervous types of people, so I didn’t have any reservations about running coming into the season.”

 

Taraschke feels that Hlavin’s approach to rehabilitation has helped lead her down the path to success.

 

“We gave D’Arcy a rehabilitation and workout program that was aggressive,” said Taraschke, who also teaches in the Health and Physical Education Division at the College. “She knew it was going to be hard work, and to her credit, she did a fabulous job and we are so very proud of her. D’Arcy is a natural distance runner who is self-motivated and has outstanding individual initative. To be where she was at the beginning of outdoor track season until now is remarkable.”

 

“We’ve already peaked for the season in terms of workouts, so I have cut my running down from 40 miles per week to 25,” said Hlavin. “There is not a lot more I can do to prepare for this meet.”

 

Each season, Hlavin has gotten better and better and this season she is at the front of the line.

 

As a freshman, Hlavin placed 13th at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championship Meet and 61st at the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Region Meet. Her best race was a 19:31.36 timing in the 5K at Carnegie-Mellon (Pa.) University. As a sophomore, she placed fifth at the OAC Meet to earn All-OAC accolades and 50th at the Great Lakes Region Meet. Her best time was an 18:47 timing in the 5K at the Calvin (Mich.) College Invitational.  Then came this season.

 

Hlavin has had an outstanding season. She was the OAC individual champion on November 1 when she completed the OAC Championship Meet course at Marietta College in 23:10.18. Then she earned All-Great Lakes Region honors last Saturday when she completed the Otterbein College course in 23:10.16 overall to place 17th individually.

 

“We feel that both Ashley and D’Arcy have the talent and ability to become Division III All-Americans,” said Taraschke, “but they both know that they will need to run even better and make this race their best race of the season. One advantage that D’Arcy has this season that Ashley won’t is that she competed the Hanover course earlier this season and ran well. Ashley was injured and missed that meet.”

 

In Hanover in the second meet of the season on September 6, Hlavin placed third of 120 runners and covered the 5K course in 19:34.16.

 

In addition, Hlavin feels that Scullion is a key to her success this season and at the national meet.

 

“Having Ashley back is awesome,” said Hlavin. “It is so much better going through this (the rehabilitation, the season and the national meet) with her. I wouldn’t of accomplished all of this without her. She has helped me to get to where I am now.”

 

Scullion enters the national meet in just her fourth week of competition this season after missing the first five weeks due to a nagging injury that has cost her most of the cross country season the past two years.  When Scullion is healthy, she is one of the best middle and distance runners in Division III.  Last year, Scullion was the OAC Most Valuable Distance Runner at both the OAC Indoor and Outdoor Championship Meets and as a sophomore placed 144th of 279 runners at the NCAA Div. III National Cross Country Championships. She is a three-time OAC individual runner-up in cross country and a seven-time individual champ in track.

 

Scullion ran in her first meet of the season on October 18 at the Oberlin College Inter-Regional Meet and placed 44th of 232 runners. That was just a warmup. At the OAC Championships, she placed second to Hlavin in 23:14.60. She was just getting warm then. Last Saturday at the GL Region Meet, Scullion placed 13th individually of 233 runners in a season-best time of 22:53.63 overall.

 

Taraschke also is glad to have Scullion back and healthy.

 

“When Ashley is healthy, she is just one of the best,” said Taraschke. “We are hoping this Saturday that both D’Arcy and Ashley are each one of the best and then we can call them All-Americans.”

 

Spoken like a true coach.

 

FOR MORE B-W SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 or via e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Nick Minerd by phone at 440-826-2780 or e-mail at nminerd@bw.edu. You also can reach Head Coach Bill Taraschke by phone at 440-826-3322 or e-mail at wtarasch@bw.edu. You can access all of the latest Yellow Jacket sports information on its Internet web site at www.bw.edu/athletics.