The St. Thomas Aquinas College Women's Cross Country team is in Joplin, Missouri for the NCAA National Championship. The team will be collaborating to share their experience in a daily diary.

Day 2: November 19th

Today, the team gathered at the one and only Denny’s for a scrumptious breakfast. We made interesting conversation with our hostess, learning about the town of Joplin and what activities there were to do around us. We packed the vans and traveled to the Grand Falls. We scaled and jumped across the rocks and over water, since we always find a good photo opp. The team went to Missouri Southern State University to finally complete a run through of the course, where we will make our last performance. It was there that the reality struck us. We took a moment to appreciate that all of our hard work had finally paid off. After that, we traveled to the local boys and girls club for some enriching community engagement. The experience taught us how something as small as interacting with those children could make such a big impact on their day. We decided to make an early night so we will be prepared for the rest of the weekend.

~STAC Women's Cross Country

Day 1: November 18th

Today we began our journey as a team to Joplin, Missouri to compete at the NCAA Division II National Championship for the first time in school history. It was a day of firsts, some girls have never flown, some girls have never changed time zones, and some girls have never played with pinecones (@Meaghan). We deSPARTed STAC at an early hour but our excitement outweighed our tiredness. Although we may have encountered some airport troubles, we kept a positive and optimistic attitude, the only casualty being a jar of peanut butter.  From La Guardia, we had a lay over in Atlanta, Georgia. According to our Snapchat filter it was 70 degrees, but our delicious meal at Buffalo Wild Wings was the closest we got to making it outside of the airport. From Atlanta, we touched down in Arkansas, from which we drove into Missouri and crashed after a long day of traveling. 

~STAC Women's Cross Country