Jenny Lopez and Anthony Peters just may walk their way to the Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro in August, but, if they don't, their St. Ambrose track and field coach is convinced his two Fighting Bees national champions can certainly stride to Tokyo in 2020.
For each young athlete, preparation for a long walk in Japan happily would include countless training laps around a state-of-the-art indoor track in the new St. Ambrose Wellness and Recreation Center. In March, Lopez and Peters each won their respective 3,000-meter race-walk finals at the NAIA Indoor National Track and Field Championships. Weeks later, both met rigid qualifying standards for entry into the U.S. Olympic Trials in Oregon in June. The next step is a big one: qualify for the U.S. team that will travel to this summer's games in Brazil.
Earning a trip to Rio is sure to be a challenge against older, more experienced athletes, said SAU Head Track Coach Dan Tomlin '05, '10 MBA. Barring that, he said, reaching the Olympics four years from now in Japan is a very realistic goal for both student-athletes.
"I think Anthony's best chance is going to come in 2020, when he's stronger and more mature as an athlete," Tomlin said. "Likewise, for Jenny."
Plus, he said, "Between 2017 and 2020 they will be training year-round in a facility that will suit their competitive needs. It is exactly what they need. It's an ideal training facility that can be used 12 months a year."
You don't need to be an Olympic-caliber athlete, of course, to be excited about the fall 2017 opening of the new St. Ambrose Wellness and Recreation Center.
You don't even have to be a student-athlete, because the new facility is designed to serve the entire student body and all of the St. Ambrose community.
"We have made construction of this facility the foremost priority of the Building Our Future campaign because it will benefit all students," stressed Sister Joan Lescinski, CSJ, PhD, president of St. Ambrose. "The health and well being of every single member of our campus community is so important, and we are pleased to provide a modern and welcoming place where all of our students can study, socialize, work and play in comfort and convenience."
Devin Hartman, a junior work study student in Campus Recreation as well as an active participant in intramurals, is extremely excited about the new addition to campus life.
"Just to see the design plans around campus and know we will have all that room is great," said Hartman, an exercise science major who will enroll in the SAU Doctor of Physical Therapy program after his May 2018 graduation. "I think we will be able to pull more students to St. Ambrose when we have that. It's going to be the state of the art facility in the area. I think it's going to be a big draw."
Hartman certainly understands the benefits the new center will bring. As a fitness-focused student, he struggles to find space at peak hours in the crowded weight and cardio room currently available in the PE Center. A 5,200-square-foot, two-story training center in the new facility will be dedicated to general student use. Athletics teams will use the existing weight room in a renovated section of the PE Center.
As a Campus Rec coordinator and participant, meanwhile, Hartman said weeknight events that currently start at 8:30 p.m. and conclude at 11:30 p.m. are less than ideal for students. "Being able to have four more courts in the new building means we can schedule more games and not have to go nearly as late," he said.
Madison Schramer, a junior majoring in nursing, isn't likely ever to bounce a ball on a court. "I am a very non-athletic person," she conceded. She values her health, however, and so works out on a regular basis and makes use of the many group fitness classes offered by Campus Recreation.
Accustomed to a "super, super nice" commercial fitness center back home, Schramer has made do with a treadmill and two elliptical cycles in a North Hall cardio room. When she can, she joins the group fitness courses held in the kinesiology fitness lab in Hayes Hall. With a limit of 15 people per class due to the lab's small size, that's not always easy. The added space the new facility will provide will be very welcomed.
"For a change, it's an advantage to be an underclassman," Schramer said, looking forward to 2017. "All the upperclassmen are jealous."
Julia O'Conner, a second-year student majoring in kinesiology, also will enroll in the Doctor of Physical Therapy graduate program after she earns her undergraduate degree in 2019. She said she was attracted to St. Ambrose by the Center for Health Sciences Education at Genesis, a building equipped with new technologies and one that is the envy of many universities.
Kinesiology facilities in Hayes Hall pale by comparison, but O'Conner can accept the current accommodations, knowing considerably better kinesiology space is coming. The new building will include four classrooms and a physiology/exercise science lab equipped with cutting-edge equipment.
"I definitely think having up-to-date technology will help me learn more before I join the DPT program," she said. "I think I'll be able to draw a lot from that."
For student-athletes who comprise nearly a third of the entire undergraduate student population, the St. Ambrose Wellness and Recreation Center also will bring significant benefits, of course. Athletes will have access to a weight room all their own. And, for the basketball and volleyball teams particularly, more flexible practice schedules will better accommodate their academic schedules.
The new building also will provide an on-campus place to practice for an SAU dance team that has won three national titles in the past five years. Currently, both the dance squad and cheerleading teams practice in a small gymnasium at the St. Vincent's Center, two blocks from campus.
In March of this year, the dance and cheer teams combined to host the NAIA National Invitational Tournament in their respective sports. The 22 visiting teams and hundreds of athletes, coaches and parents who came to Davenport gathered not on the SAU campus, however, but in downtown Davenport.
"It would have been nice to host it here on campus," said junior dancer Kaci Greenleaf, whose squad won the NAIA crown for a second straight year.
That is just another reason she is excited to see construction begin on the new building. "I am eager to see what it's going to be like and I will use it," Greenleaf added. "I think it will make for a better college experience."
Speaking of national champions, Peters and Lopez, as well as their dozens of teammates, are looking forward to having a true indoor track and field facility. The 200-meter track will allow for effective winter training and racing. Pits for long jumpers, triple jumpers and pole vaulters will allow Tomlin's Bees to host indoor meets.
A year ago, Lopez and Peters trained prior to the indoor nationals on an indoor track an hour east of the Quad Cities. This year, the entire team worked out ahead of the national meet on the spongy turf at the Ambrose Dome.
"Practicing in the Dome is really hard," Lopez said. "Getting the track is really exciting. It will add to our campus and maybe we'll get more recruits."
Peters already was a nationally known race walker and age-group champion when he enrolled at St. Ambrose. He primarily was drawn to the school's academic programs, but it helped that St. Ambrose was close to his Bartlett, Ill., home and able to field a competitive collegiate race walking program.
Now, his choice is looking even better. After all, as seniors, Peters and Lopez may be working (and walking) toward Tokyo in a facility worthy of a gold medal.
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