PEASE EMBODIES ACC GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Unselfish Act Awarded by ACC

( One of the best feel-good stories of the 2016-17 season...in our opinion.) 

Rachel Pease ran Cross Country and Track for the University of Louisville. After starting her career at IUPUI, the Elizabeth, IN native came to Louisville to wear the Red and Black. 

Rachel was not the fastest or the most lauded Cardinal on the 2016 UofL women's Cross Country team. One act, though, will keep her in our (and hopefully yours) hearts for a long time.

It's late October and the ACC is running the ACC Cross Country Championships in Cary, NC. A tough and challenging course. Eight Cardinals answered the starting gun for the event and Pease was one of them. 131 runners in al would cross the line. Three of them ending in a most memorable way. 

Pease was nearing the 50 final yards of her run. She was in position to finish maybe in the 110's of the race...but something much more important caught her eye as she trotted toward the line. 

Boston College's Madeline Adams was in trouble. Less than 30 yards from the wire and unable to go any further. On her left side, Clemson's Evie Tate was trying to hold Adams
up to help her get to the line. They were struggling.

Pease made a decision. 

She stopped and grabbed Adams right arm. Together, Tate and Pease pulled, half-drug Adams toward the line. Adams wasn't able to help much...hardly at all...spent, exhausted and unable to support herself with her legs...but the duo slowly got her closer. They got her to the finish line and laid her down gently over the line. It mattered not that they had finished 126 and 127th in the race. Adams was disqualified for receiving assistance to get to the wire. It mattered not. 

Two that hadn't just run by and gawked. Two that weren't concerned about their order of finish. Two that said: "I will help." 

They had run the good race and finished with honor...no matter what their final numbers 

Louisville finished 4th in the event. Pease was the final Cardinal runner to cross the line that day but the one that won everyone's hearts and admiration for sacrificing personal gain and finish to show was good sportsmanship truly embodies. 

It would be her final race in college. 

The top seven runners for the Cards out of the ACC would go on to participate in the NCAA Regionals...where Louisville came in second.

Pease was not one of those...finishing eighth. A minute and twenty three seconds behind Louisville's seventh place finisher. Had she kept running...maybe she would have got to run in the NCAA Championships with her teammates? Or maybe she decided that she wouldn't and more important business lay ahead.  How would you react if you ran up on the situation? 

Tate probably could have finished in the mid-seventies. She spent more than just a few seconds by Adams side. A slew of runners passed the duo before Pease arrived. 

We think they made the right call. And...our hats are off to Tate and Pease for embodying the true nature of spirit and competition. For creating a moment in time that we'll remember for a long time.

Congratulations...Rachel Pease and Evie Tate...2016-17 ACC Good Sportsmanship Award winners. 

A link to the finish below: 

LINK: 2016 ACC CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS


paulie
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