Cardio for a Cause 2013 Edition

The fourth ever Cardio for a Cause will be starting at 8:00 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11 and will continue until 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 12 to end at around halftime of the men's basketball vs. Cleveland State that starts at 7:00 p.m.

Riders have an opportunity to sign up for 10 minute riding periods and the wheels will continuously turn for 24 hours. A portion of the proceeds from the event will go to the Friendship Circle and other money will support the Detroit Titans Strength and Conditioning Department.

Check out DetroitTitans.com for more info or other news about the Detroit Titans.

Tweet about this year's event with the hash tag #UDMCardio13

It's 8pm and Damie Danseglio from men's lacrosse is the first rider and Danseglio wrote the first blog of the event.

At the strike of 8 o'clock, I felt very fortunate to start off something truly great; Cardio for a Cause. For a short time, it felt awesome to be a part, as well as to think that all the other Detroit Athletes and coaches from the lacrosse team, to softball, track and field, the basketball teams, and to the rest of Athletics. We'll be on a bike for 24 hours straight throughout the night leading into Tuesday morning, The important thing to remember above all, we're not doing this for ourselves or self-satisfaction, but we do this to raise hope and awareness for the ones that wish and dream to take on challenges and tasks at full strength, like we do 24/7. Faith and Focus leads the way. -Damie Danseglio, Men's Lacrosse Still going strong at 10pm. Sarah Martinez checks in after her ride. This is my fourth and final time :( that I will be participating in Cardio for a Cause. I really like that the Detroit Titans put on this yearly event. I really feel that it helps out many and it is also fun participating with fellow teammates and having fun while biking for ten minutes. -Sarah Martinez, Women's Track and Field More from men's lacrosse as time continues to pass. It feels great to know that taking such a short break from my day can be put to good use with Cardio for a Cause and that the Detroit Titan family can come together and keep the bike going for 24 hours. -Chris Mandell, Mens’ Lacrosse Cardio for a Cause is a great way to raise awareness through a school as well as through a community because it brings the two together for a greater cause.  Cardio for a Cause has brought UDM closer to its community which as stated in our school mission statement is exactly what we try to do here.  -Alex Wesche, Men’s Cross-Country/Track and Field

This is my third year participating in Cardio for a Cause, and it still feels just as great as the first time to be a part of something greater than my sport by just taking 10 minutes out of my night. It brings the Titan family closer together to achieve something for a greater good, and it’s something I’m proud to be a part of.

-Julia Fernandes, Women’s Tennis

Cardio for a Cause is a great way to keep our student athletes active outside of their main sport and for just 10 minutes of our day, it is great to know that we are helping others from this charity and bringing the Titan family even closer together. Keep on pedaling!

-Troy Dennis, Men’s Lacrosse

Aloha from Hawaii!!

Hawaii

Senior Nina Carter from women's soccer talks about the team's travels to Hawaii

HAWAII -- Aloha! Our trip to Hawaii began at 4:30 a.m. Thursday morning with us packing up and waving good bye to the campus of UDM. After a long 14 hours of travelling we finally arrived in Honolulu after a layover in Phoenix, AZ. We arrived at 2pm local time which is 8pm back in Detroit. Although we were exhausted we still managed to make it down to the beach for a quick evening swim in the beautiful turquoise ocean. After some persuasion we managed to get a Coldstone pit stop on the walk back to the hotel. Nobody had trouble sleeping that night due to the jet lag and ice cream coma. Friday morning brought a tough practice to remind us why we were really here in paradise. After, our coaches gave us the rest of the day to enjoy the beach. 

The beach was amazing. Everyone went in the water, even though some had to be thrown in by Abby McCollum, including Strength and Conditioning Coach Joe Toferri who didn't want to get his hair wet. Some of the girls left the beach looking more lobster-like than others (cough, cough, Martha Dunbar), but other than that it was a great day! We showered up and headed over to the stadium to scope out the competition and watch the Ball State vs. Hawaii game. We then went and had a great team dinner preparing for the game the next day.

Saturday morning began with a jog along Waikiki Beach and a stretch on the pier, even at 8am the sun was scorching. After a little shopping the team rested until game time. We started off a little rusty allowing Ball State to score a goal early in the game. We came out strong in the second half and Beka Dornbos evened up the score, eventually sending us into double overtime and ending with a 1-1 draw. We woke up and had an awesome breakfast on Sunday morning and are now relaxing and looking forward to facing the Rainbow Wahine today. Look for another blog coming soon about our awesome trip to Hawaii! Mahalo!

My Summer at Chrysler

By Sheldon Keyte
Sr. - Detroit Men's Golf

This summer, I began a four month internship with Chrysler in their Corporate Accounting department. I was put in touch with Chrysler through UDM’s Career Education Center’s “Career Fair”. It was a professional event that allowed me to meet with company representatives and discuss my possible future with their respective companies. I would recommend attending this event to anyone who is looking for employment opportunities.

I began my internship on April 30 and it will end on August 31. I was very excited to start a new experience. I had worked at my local golf course in Kalamazoo for the last 4 years, but you can only clean carts and serve hot dogs for so long before you need something different.

My work at Chrysler has been more rewarding than I ever expected it to be. I had an image of what I thought working in corporate America would be like: strict, stuffy and constraining. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The people I work with on a daily basis are extremely friendly and always willing to help out. I have a flexible schedule and my work is interesting. I am actually contributing to the company, doing jobs that will continue to be done long after my internship is over.

I have enjoyed my time at Chrysler and hope to eventually turn it into a full-time position, but I am ready to join my teammates for one last run at a Horizon League Championship. I have not been able to practice as much as I would like to because of the internship, but I’m excited to get into the swing of things during our fall season.

We are going to have a young, talented squad this year and the guys have been practicing hard and playing well this summer. The expectation is always the same for this team, win a ring. Our coach and captains make that clear to us every year.

I look forward to being a part of our team’s journey towards this goal.

Go Titans!

Everything Happens For a Reason - Lindsey Lammers

Lindsey Lammers

Sophomore – Women’s Golf

Being unable to compete during the spring season has definitely been frustrating to say the least.

The spring season is a time for us to really hone in on our games and push each other to improve knowing that the Horizon League Championship is coming in late April. Not being able to play or practice with the girls has been difficult because I have felt so helpless. While they are all working hard to better their abilities on the course, I have not been able to hit a golf ball or even a putt in over a month. Instead of this, rehab has been my best friend. This consists of doing a variation of stretches four times daily, in effort to get my range of motion back as well as scar tissue massages. On top of this, I see a physical therapist twice a week where I do wrist exercises and ultrasound treatments.

My trainer has also been working with me every day to keep me in shape by doing cardio and core exercises. Training has been a great outlet for me to let out my frustration and push myself physically, knowing that I can’t on the course. Rehab has played a huge role in bettering my wrist, and it is clear why so many people have placed an importance on following these simple, but tedious exercises. It definitely has not been easy, but as I see my wrist recovering every day, I know I am doing what is needed to ultimately get back on the course.

My goal since the day of surgery has been to return and contribute to the team before the end of the season. Staying positive and optimistic has kept me mentally strong and is also pushing me to work hard in hopes to return as soon as possible. I have been trying to really apply myself in every area that I can because I know my teammates are working equally as hard on the course. Every extra exercise, workout, putt, or practice we do gets us one step closer to winning that championship ring.

Everything happens for a reason, and I believe with the support and help from my teammates, trainer, and therapist, I will return healthier than ever.

DetroitTitans.com

Team Yellow Forever

Senior Matt Nedwicki

By Matt Nedwicki - Men's Soccer
April 10, 2012

This past winter was my fourth off-season with the men's soccer team and I have to say, one of the most difficult. On average, we lifted twice a week, as well as doing some sort of conditioning twice a week (stairs, long distance, etc.). In addition to our strength and conditioning regimen, we also played soccer three times weekly. It's not that I dislike running and lifting, but the highlights of my week were definitely the actual soccer practices. Two of these three practices were from 10-11:30 P.M. inside Calihan Hall playing futsal—a type of soccer played with a smaller, heavier ball. Futsal is intended to work on quickness of play as well as ball control.

At the beginning of the semester, we were divided into three teams of 7: Yellow, Green and Red. With these teams, we played in a mini-league every Tuesday and Thursday night. Each team would play the other two once a practice with the cumulative points leader at the end of the semester being crowned champion. The teams were divided with an eye for parity, but to be honest, Team Yellow was far superior in every aspect. Although dashing good looks don't often play much of a factor in sports, it must have been disheartening for the Green and Red teams when they compared themselves to the Yellows. I can only think that it was jealous rage that drove them to injuring 4 of the 7 Yellow stalwarts before the season was through.

With their far superior teammates out of the way, Red and Green could now focus on battling for the championship amongst themselves. It was a hotly contested title race that came down to the very last night of games. Team Red, who had held first place for every week of the semester but two, were able to hold off a charging Green Team to capture the first inaugural men's soccer Futsal Title. Although I was only able to participate in half the season due to injury, I looked forward to each of these Futsal nights. Enjoyment was had by all, and more importantly, we improved as a group. Team Yellow forever.

College Athletics Reality Check #1 - There is No Offseason

Junior Nina Carter

By Nina Carter - Women's Soccer
April 10, 2012

The Titans women's soccer team has been hard at work even though we are technically in our “offseason”. College athletics reality check #1: There is no such thing as an offseason. Since we play in the fall and typically that lasts until mid-November depending how far we go in tournament play, the majority of the school year is left preparing for the following season. Just because we don't have any games doesn't mean we're not playing. A typical week of training for the women's soccer team consists of 7 AM conditioning and weightlifting on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:45-1:45 PM practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 10:15 PM futsal games on Wednesday nights. For those of you who don't know what futsal is, it is a game of soccer played in a gym with a smaller and heavier ball. Futsal is aimed to develop player's ball control, and let me tell you these games can get pretty competitive.

Initially we had three spring games scheduled, U of M, Madonna, and Northwood. On February 12^th we travelled to Ann Arbor to face the Wolverines and were interested to see how we matched up to the Big 10 school. The game was a high intensity fast-paced game but we kept up and showed that we are not to be taken lightly. Our second spring game was against Madonna who we had various opportunities to score on during the game but we used it as an opportunity to play. against a local program. Our game against Northwood was rescheduled twice due to the crazy weather we have been experiencing and unfortunately we were not able to play them this spring season.

We still have conditioning twice a week along with other individual workouts. As the school year draws to a close, the team prepares to move back home which ranges from Thunder Bay Ontario to Toronto to Virginia to the very suburbs of Detroit. This doesn't mean a break from soccer though because now it is time to start preparing for the rigorous preseason in August that will come much too quickly for some. Because in all reality there is no offseason, no such thing as “down-time”, because when one season ends, the next begins.

First Annual Titan Track & Field Handicap Races

The Handicap Races took place on March 22 at Titan Field. They are one-on-one races set up by the track & field coaching staff in which athletes are paired up with the faster runner being given a handicap (added distance to run) based on their speed.  Each athlete was tested over an 80m sprint the previous week and the distances were calculated based on those performances.  The top ten men and women were chosen to compete in the Handicap Challenge, with each pairing in the first round involving a woman v. man, with the winners advancing to the second and third rounds.  Jasmine Greene was the eventual winner in the final round with a time of 10.42 seconds for the 80m sprint, narrowly beating Joe Raffin who also ran 10.42 but had to cover 89.9m, Taylor Hennrick 10.57 covering 90.8m, Vince Lefler 10.59 covering 91.6m, and Ja’Quan Patterson 10.86 covering 91.5m.

Greene edged Raffin in the top left corner

By Jasmine Greene  - Women's Track and Field

Freshman

Coming into the handicap races I didn’t know what to expect, so I wasn’t that nervous, but as I walked onto the track that all changed.  I saw the coaches had brought the starting blocks, starting gun and automatic timing camera, that made my heart start racing and I started feeling the butterflies.  The pairings were announced and the smack talking from the guys made my nerves kick in, adding to the intensity.  Warming up I was getting more anxious to race.  Finally the prelims began, I had to run 80m and the man I was paired up with had to run 90.8m.  The first race was pure fun, I was able to win my race which was a relief, especially because my competitor was telling me he was going to smoke me! 

 

In the semifinal race I was strictly thinking about making it to the finals, this time I was matched up against another female. I had to overcome a handicap of 2.0m meaning I ran 82m and the person I raced against ran 80m.  I was able to overcome the distance and was the only female in the finals.  Even though the guys had an 8-11 meter disadvantage I was still worried.  Before I got in the starting blocks I listened to all of my teammates cheering me on, which made me pumped!  The gun went off for the finals and I just took off without thinking, all I wanted to do was get to the finish line first.  When I finally reached the line Joe Raffin was right beside me, and the others were closing quickly, it was such a tight race they had to go to the photo finish.  Finally coach announced that I was the champion, my time 10.416 seconds to Joe’s 10.417 seconds, I was ecstatic.  Overall the whole handicap race experience was fun and exciting and I can’t wait until next year to defend my title!