(The Beacon)
By Stephen Kersh
Cross country team forgotten
I am a part of your University's men's cross country team. Last semester, my teammates and I put in an incredible amount of work and dedication to be the best Pilots we can be.
This workload was recently recognized at the NCAA National Championship race where we placed eighth. Sadly, this accomplishment failed to register with many people at our University.
Think about if either of our basketball teams made the Elite Eight. You would undoubtedly cover the accomplishment with a ton of attention and fan fare – and rightly so.
There is a discrepancy though, and it is not just with The Beacon but also throughout our entire institution. Our successes over the last decade have not been by accident, but through hard work. I am not trying to make our sport out to be something of terrible importance, but we deserve to be acknowledged for our accomplishments, as does everyone here, athlete or not.
The Beacon highlighted the women's soccer team loss to Florida State and the men's basketball team's recent losses but failed to write on our team. Why wouldn't you want to let the student body know that we have a high-powered, nationally ranked and recognized program here?
Give our students some light within the dark.
I assume that our recent success "slipped the mind" of whoever was in charge of putting the stories together and it makes sense when you have to devote so much attention to analyzing the basketball team's 20-point loss at Kentucky. But, you have done us, as a team, a major disservice. It is hard to run prideful in a Portland singlet when your own school newspaper fails to recognize the astonishing amount of work you put in every single day, just like every other Pilot.
