Having It All

10-1-90

Having It All

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports. Concordia won the MIAC women's golf title. The 8-2 women's soccer team broke into the nation's top-20 for the first time ever. The volleyball team had a 1-0 week. And the women's cross country team, winning impressively at Northfield, probably earned a top-10 ranking.

Women's sports are obviously thriving at Concordia. The success of Cobber women in so many sports is an indication that women are afforded a good deal of respect around our entire campus in general and in the athletic department in particular. That fact is something Concordia should be proud of. And is.

Like at most colleges, women's sports at Concordia have pretty well tracked the most recent rise in the women's movement, beginning in the late '60s. With the push to break free from stifling sexist roles of earlier years, women have achieved participation in spheres of American life, including sports, that a child of the '50s could have never imagined.

Men, by and large, have been dragged, kicking and screaming, into this new reality. The nations's male coaches and athletic directors were, on the whole, probably no better or worse than any of the other males who were forced to share their once-exclusive domains.

But this new reality is now so widely accepted, by both men and women, that men who long for the "good-old-days" sound pretty silly, like those who long for segregation and "Jim Crow."

Nowhere at Concordia is the success of women's athletics more evident than on the cross country team. The Cobber women are led by three of the most interesting and talented student-athletes on campus, senior all-MIAC runners Chris Fredrick, Molly Weyrens, and Sharon Espeland. If you have a daughter, you'll want her to grow up to be like these three gems.

Chris, Sharon and Molly are the beneficiaries of the earlier battles for equal opportunity in athletics. And they have made the most of those opportunities. Their achievements as students, athletes, and involved campus citizens have even allowed them to experience a college-age version of that follow-up question in the women's movement: "Now that a women can `have it all,' how does one make choices and set priorities?"

Chris Fredrick, from Foley, Minn., finished 7th at the MIAC Cross Country Championships last year. She is an all-American at 800 and 1500 meters, a multi-time all-MIAC runner, a 3.77 GPA student in English writing, and editor of the campus literary publication, After Work. She has brains, finely honed athletic skills, and an intense, radiant presence.

If you ever get a chance to watch Chris glide around a track, or over a cross country course, take it. It's a treat. But you'll feel heavy. Chris seems to weigh nothing when she runs.

Molly Weyrens, from St. Cloud, is a self-admitted type-A personality, striving to be a B+. Molly is both engaging and hyper. One of her goals this year is to mellow out.

Molly's personally-designed plan to achieve that goal consists primarily of telling dumb jokes. And pestering taller people, which is nearly everyone here.

Molly, despite her diminutive frame, is a heck of a runner. She was 9th in the MIAC championship meet last year and has earned several all-MIAC honors in track.

She also manages to be a 3.6 GPA student in Corporate Fitness and English and is active in a host of campus organizations, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. And, as my mother would say, little Molly is `cuter than a bug's ear.' Sharon Espeland, from Bismarck, is the third all-MIAC runner on the team, having finished 8th in the MIAC Championships last year. Sharon is a long-legged blond who took up running late in her high school career and found she did it very well. As a sophomore here she qualified for nationals. Last year she came within 200 yards of getting the entire team to nationals.

Sharon, like her fellow "Three Amigos," is active in campus organizations and sports a hefty GPA, 3.70 in social studies education.

Though she seems oblivious to this, Sharon has also been a minor health hazard at Concordia these past few years.

Her presence in the gym, whether stretching or running, has distracted more than one gawking male jogger to miss a corner and run full speed into a wall.

Which sort of brings us to the "having it all" question that has arisen. Sharon and Molly were each nominated last week as one of Concordia's five Homecoming Queen candidates.

The fact that two Academic All-MIAC athletes can get on the Homecoming Queen ticket says a good deal about the whole-person criteria used in picking a Cobber Homecoming Queen. Being an air-headed bombshell does not get you on the ballot. Thus, getting nominated for Queen is a pretty meaningful honor.

The problem for Molly and Sharon was that this week's homecoming festivities, which require several appearances by the Queen and her Court, conflict with a pretty-important meet on Saturday at the University of Minnesota. That race will be the Cobber's first test of the year against national-power St. Thomas, the team that won the league title last year when the Cobbers finished second.

Should Molly and Sharon stay home and take part in the tradition-laden homecoming celebration, bask in some well-deserved recognition, and support the campus community they have worked so hard to enrich? Or, as dedicated athletes, do they owe it to Chris and the team to skip the community festivities and compete? Tough questions. The opportunity to "have it all"

inevitably means making tough choices.

In the end, after much thought, Molly and Sharon opted to stay and be part of Homecoming.

Those who attend homecoming events and meet Molly or Sharon will see why women's athletics at Concordia are so successful, in so many ways. Those who see Chris run at the U of M on Saturday will see the same.

These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle pyle@cord.edu . These articles are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Jerry Pyle.

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