Sept. 15, 2011
Nashville, Tenn. –
Meet one of the new faces of the Commodore Cross Country team, who will be competing in the Commodore Classic this coming Saturday at Percy Warner Park, starting at 8:45am CT.
Rebecca Chandler, freshman from Jacksonville, Fla.
What does it mean to be a Commodore?
For me being a Commodore really means being a part of this team, and not just any team but a team that is growing at a really amazing time right now. I’m very excited to be at this team at this point in time, because I can just see where we’re going and I’m really excited about it. I’ve never been on a team that’s been this close, and with girls that are so similar to me and that gets along so well.
Are there any upper classmen that you’re particularly close to?
All of them, I really love all of the girls. (We freshmen) love Louise Hannallah and how welcoming she is, she’s kind of like the mom figure, and so many other girls on the team are just so helpful. The seniors are such good leaders. Allie Scalf is a really good leader, too.
What kind of advice have they offered you?
Mainly just to be patient because they’ve been through this before. They know that it takes time to adjust and to figure everything out, so to just not worry about all the other stuff right now, and to just keep focused on your goals. They’re really goal oriented, they’re really all about team synergy. They’re all about that, and being patient individually and with our team, and just trying to reach that healthy, positive medium.
What’s the hardest thing you’ve had to deal with since you got here?
I guess probably the hardest thing is just getting used to this level of running. I feel like for a lot of the freshmen we were all the fastest from the places we were from, and now coming here we’re all on the bottom end of the food chain. You kind of got to get used to that. That really showed in my first race, because I’m not good at running in a pack, and I haven’t done that in a really long time, and I know that’s what I need to do to be successful because there are a lot of girls who are a lot faster than me here.
Anything you’ve done to prepare for Saturday?
What I’ve been doing is not only trying to help myself get in shape this past week physically through the workouts, but also mentally. I kind of have a race plan that I want to implement to try to fix what I did last time, which was to come out too fast, so I’ve been practicing in the workouts to be a little more conservative in the beginning and start to push more towards the end.
What are you most excited about for Saturday?
Beat Belmont. Beat Belmont and Alabama. It’s an exciting opportunity because it kind of gives the freshmen a chance to show what we can do. It’s a big responsibility that’s been given to us, it’s our home meet, we’re the ones racing, so it’s exciting that they’re giving us this challenge. I have a lot of faith in the people running on Saturday, and I’m really excited to see what we can do.
What impresses you the most about your coaches?
What impresses me the most is how well they balance each other out and work well together. Coach Riley is so good with the girls and I can see why she does all the recruiting, because she really helped me to make my decision to come here and I really feel like I can talk to her about anything and she’s always there. Coach Keith, he’s just really that driving force behind our team. You can just tell he really knows what he’s doing and he’s really invested in the program.