Bissette provides priceless leadership for ASU cross country

Chris Boyce - Varsity Sports

Flat areas are hard to find in the Appalachian mountains, which may be why Appalachian State University cross country runner Ben Bissette frequently dominates his competition.

Bissette, a senior, is in his final cross country season, and is one of the leaders on a team that finished first in the Southern Conference (SoCon) Championships held in Boone Saturday.

The team has thrived this season behind Bissette, but being in a leadership role is nothing new to the Hickory native.

"I feel like I've been a leader on the team for the last two years," said Bissette. "I feel like I am a leader on the team but not the leader on the team. I wouldn't say that there is one sole leader on the team."

Bissette's career as a runner began as a freshman in high school when he began using the sport to get into shape for wrestling.

Eventually Bissette realized he was a better runner than wrestler and became fully immersed in the sport.

Both of Bissette's parents were collegiate athletes Ñ his father, a golfer for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and his mother, a basketball player at Appalachian State.

As a junior, Bissette made huge strides as a runner, breaking ten minutes in two miles and qualified for the North Carolina State Cross Country Championships for the first time.

After being recruited by UNCC, Appalachian State, Western Carolina University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Bissette chose to become a Mountaineer because of both his familiarity with the region and the appeal of Appalachian State cross country coach Mike Curcio.

Bissette found an interesting transition waiting for him when he arrived in Boone.

"In high school, anybody who's number one from their team comes to college and realizes that they're now like 12th," said Bissette.

"It's a big adjustment period for any guy coming in because you think you're the big dog and you realize youÕre not as good as you thought you were."

Bissette started his freshman year as the Mountaineers' 14th runner but by the end of the season was second. "That was pretty uplifting for me," said Bissette. "I was on a natural high for about a year after that."

It was perfect timing for Bissette to step it up, considering Appalachian's star runner, Anthony Famigletti, would transfer the following year to the University of Tennessee.

The loss of Famigletti in 1998 hurt Appalachian cross country immensely, resulting in a third place finish last season at the SoCon Championships, the worst the Mountaineers have finished in sixteen years.

This season, Appalachian cross country has returned to its dominant form. They're currently at the top of the Southern Conference. According to Bissette, the best part of being on the cross country team is the social connections the runners have with each other as well as a chance to just get away from ordinary activities.

"Cross country gives you time to get away from regular college life," said Bissette. "While youÕre running, it gives you time to think about what you need to do. It gives you time to organize your days and reflect." But not everything works out perfectly, and time management can be a problem. "It's hard to manage your time and do team things like team dinners," said Bissette.

"It's really hard to manage your time and still have time to study because you take what a normal college student has, which is 24 hours, [and] you chop three or four hours off of that just because of practice. And also you have to get eight hours of sleep."

Boone itself has made a major positive impact on Bissette's performance for several reasons.

Because of Boone's trails, ASU cross country is able to run on dirt very regularly as opposed to pavement, and this decreases injuries such as shin splints and stress fractures.

"We can run for an entire year on the Moses Cone trails and not once touch pavement. It's such an advantage because it keeps the injuries down. Other teams, like N.C. State, have to train in town all the time because thereÕs not any trails," said Bissette.

Also, the mountainous uphills have proved an advantage for ASU runners because it builds endurance. Next for Bissette will be the NCAA Southeast District Meet in Greenville, S.C., on Nov. 11. Although Bissette's career as a collegiate cross country runner is nearly over, few will forget his contributions to Appalachian State cross country.

Flag football playoffs underway

Ty Brueilly - Sports Beat

On the first night of the first round of the Intramural flag football playoffs, Kryptonite showed the Goodfellas how good they really were, beating them 46-12. Sigma Alpha Epsilon defeated J-Hall Boys 28-6.

Vanilla Thunder squeaked by The Beamans 21-20. Team Booyah overcame the CCF Conquerors 34-14. The Noles swept the Lambda Chi Alpha Buddhas 50-0 and the Prince Of Wombles got one more step closer to being a king, beating Those Guys 40-14.

On the second night of the first round, The Copenhagens showed Ruff & Reddy that they were not too ready, defeating them 34-21. Pike Key overcame a close game to beat the Sig Ep Juggernauts 7-9.

Delta Chi Team beat the Outlaws 25-16. And in the lowest scoring game of the first round, the Apostles' CRU beat the Wilderbeasts 6-0. The Delta Chi Burnouts more than doubled the score on 4G, 30-12, and the L-Town Legion gave the 5th Year Seniors a different kind of L Ñ a loss Ñ beating them 27-19.

In the third night of the first round, The Master Badgers proved to be masters against Sigma Alpha Epsilon, 30-6. KEG shattered Theta ChiÕs second round dreams with a 62-6 win.

The Sophisticated Rednecks proved that even though they were sophisticated, they could still get down and dirty, defeating Delta Chi West Canaan, 34-20.

Kappa Sig gave the Knuckleheadz another reason to keep their name, beating them 9-6. County Jail threw Six Ways From Sunday into a football jail with no hopes of a bond, or in their case a second round game. RUF beat NO Team A 7-0. And in the final game of the first round, The Stunners stunned Catch 22 26-6.

The second round of the playoffs will continue through the rest of this week. The third week will start Monday at State Farm Fields.

Mountaineers look to get back on track against VMI

After heartbreaking loss to Chattanooga, Appalachian State focuses on Keydets with playoff picture uncertain

Ty Brueilly Sports Beat

After their first loss in 12 years to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Appalachian State University Mountaineers are determined to come away with a win this Saturday against the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) Keydets.

VMI comes into the contest with a 1-8 record, with their only win of the season against Charleston Southern University. The Mountaineers come into the contest with a 5-3 record.The overall record of the battles between the two teams is 16-4-2 in favor of the Mountaineers.

This should be a game that could help the Mountaineers adjust to the devastating loss of senior wide receiver Joey Gibson. Taking VMI's record into account, the Mountaineers should not really have too much to worry about, loss-wise, enabling them to adjust more easily.

"In my mind he's one of the top two receivers on this team," said quarterback Joe Burchette. "It really hurts to lose a guy like that. He's the go-to guy on certain routes. When he's not in there it's going to be tough to replace him.Ó

"He's been a clutch football player with us for five years and now somebody has got to step up," said Head Coach Jerry Moore. The question is who and the answer will come on Saturday. The Mountaineers also will come into the contest with a question mark beside the names of Karim Razzak and quarterbacks David Reaves and Daniel Jeremiah.

"We'll play him (Razzak) a minimal amount," said Moore. "I thought Jerry (Beard) played well in his place (against Chattanooga)."

Burchette will no doubt step up for the injured Reaves and Jeremiah. This game should also serve as a rejuvenator to this team after a heartbreaker in the final three seconds of the Chattanooga game.

"I'm not worried about the playoffs right now," said Moore. There's so many things that could happen in the next three weeks. All I am worried about is getting them back together and pump some life into them and go out and play well against VMI."

A win against VMI would help the team gain some confidence as well as some needed self-esteem. A win against the Keydets would also boost the team's playoff hopes a bit, where as right now they are standing on shaky ground, or turf, as the case may be.

"We've got some heat on us now to make the playoffs," said sophomore Steve Kitchens. "You never know, this conference is strange. We have to wade out and see what happens." VMI comes into the game with a question mark on their quarterback as well. Starter Joey Gibson recently suffered a collapsed lung.

The Mountaineers will also have to keep in mind that VMI's punter, Brent Barth, is the second longest punter in the Conference, averaging 40.3 yards a punt, and they might have to adjust a little on returning the ball.

So as VMI poses no real threat to Appalachian State, this upcoming game could accomplish some extremely important things for the Mountaineers Ñ mainly boosted playoff hopes, some major adjusting that the team needs if they want to win the rest of their games and, as Moore said, "life."