2008 Woodie Awards
Letter to the editor
Issue date: 12/4/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Sports accomplishments deserve equal coverage
A lack of media coverage is nothing new for a cross country runner. With this in mind, cross country runners rejoice when they receive even the smallest mention in the newspaper. Unfortunately while the article written in the Nov. 30 issue of The DePauw provided some recognition, it was poorly written, misinformed and an ill representation of what the women's cross country team accomplished at the NCAA Div. III National Championship.
It was disheartening to find that after taking 7th place at the championship, the highest placing of any DePauw cross country team, the team was barely mentioned. While we recognize that we were not the only team in competition at the time, we were the only fall sport to advance to the national championship and as a result are disappointed that we received such little recognition while other teams received larger articles about both regular season and upcoming competition.
Small article size aside, the article included many errors in its reporting as well. The team was in fact ranked 14th, not 17th, going into the national meet; the team is graduating four seniors, not two; and Alison Case's name was misspelled.
Had a longer article been written, maybe it could have mentioned that the race was a 6-kilometer race, run in 30 degree weather with snow flurries. How about the fact that 280 runners participated and DePauw's top five all placed in the top 100, a feat hard to achieve. What about the intense race strategy for a course that was unbelievably narrow? Or the fact that freshman Laura Ardington fell in the first half mile and ran the remainder of the course with a bloody knee and elbow? How about telling the story of the teammates who drove 10 hours to stand half naked with their chests painted with tiger stripes?
There's nothing that can be done now, but we can ask that in the future The DePauw staff (and even the DePauw University Web site for that matter) will take the time to consider covering all sports teams' accomplishments equally.
Taylor Penrod, Lauren Hill and Bailey Diveley
senior co-captains,
women's cross country team
A lack of media coverage is nothing new for a cross country runner. With this in mind, cross country runners rejoice when they receive even the smallest mention in the newspaper. Unfortunately while the article written in the Nov. 30 issue of The DePauw provided some recognition, it was poorly written, misinformed and an ill representation of what the women's cross country team accomplished at the NCAA Div. III National Championship.
It was disheartening to find that after taking 7th place at the championship, the highest placing of any DePauw cross country team, the team was barely mentioned. While we recognize that we were not the only team in competition at the time, we were the only fall sport to advance to the national championship and as a result are disappointed that we received such little recognition while other teams received larger articles about both regular season and upcoming competition.
Small article size aside, the article included many errors in its reporting as well. The team was in fact ranked 14th, not 17th, going into the national meet; the team is graduating four seniors, not two; and Alison Case's name was misspelled.
Had a longer article been written, maybe it could have mentioned that the race was a 6-kilometer race, run in 30 degree weather with snow flurries. How about the fact that 280 runners participated and DePauw's top five all placed in the top 100, a feat hard to achieve. What about the intense race strategy for a course that was unbelievably narrow? Or the fact that freshman Laura Ardington fell in the first half mile and ran the remainder of the course with a bloody knee and elbow? How about telling the story of the teammates who drove 10 hours to stand half naked with their chests painted with tiger stripes?
There's nothing that can be done now, but we can ask that in the future The DePauw staff (and even the DePauw University Web site for that matter) will take the time to consider covering all sports teams' accomplishments equally.
Taylor Penrod, Lauren Hill and Bailey Diveley
senior co-captains,
women's cross country team
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