Softball Completes Day Two of OKC Challenge

Freshman pitcher Sydney Warinner checks in with a recap of day two of the 2016 Oklahoma City Challenge.

Day two of the OKC Challenge began as both teams arrived at the Marshall facility at 5:45 a.m. to warm-up. When the clock struck six, Coach Molly Binetti called each team over to her. A single question consumed our thoughts: who won day one? Coach Binetti stuck a piece of paper on the wall behind her and stepped aside revealing the official results.

The score was 100-25, in favor of the Black Team. The Red Team had arrived at the football stadium in 30 fewer seconds than the Black Team, earning them 25 points, but the Black Team dominated the stadium run. Their ingenious strategy to begin at a steady pace, sprint during each descent, and accelerate for the final stretch of the stadium, rendered them victorious by nearly a minute.

After day one, the Black Team had achieved a much-deserved lead, but it's early in the OKC Challenge, and it's still anyone's game.

Next, Coach Binetti called the team captains outside to explain the forthcoming challenge. Coach Binetti had devised a series of four competitions; the first of which was a mile run. Each team ran outside to the track and lined up on opposite ends of it. At the cue of a whistle, we took off.

To attack this challenge, each member of the Red Team ran at their fastest maintainable pace, leaving the team staggered throughout the inside lane. Rankings, associated with point values, were assigned to each individual based on their time. The points each team member earned would contribute to their team total. In addition, the team with the fastest average time would earn 50 extra points, and the fastest person overall would earn 25 extra points for their team.

One by one, members of the Red Team began to cross the finish line, putting themselves in the top eight rankings. Meanwhile, the entire Black Team chose to run together in a cluster and still had half of a lap to go. Without a doubt, the Red Team won task number one.

The second event was a classic: move the mountain. The teams would compete in a relay race that consisted of climbing over a box, sprinting to a med ball and completing ten med ball slams. Then they would sprint to another med ball and carry it under a large hurdle, over a line of shorter hurdles, under another large hurdle and to a set of dumbbells. After completing a farmer's walk with the dumbbells to a cone and sprinting to the end-line the teams repeated the course on the way back.

A constant exchange of the lead between the teams left them at a near tie as the last team members stepped up to the box. For the final leg of the relay, Jenna Jordan from the Black Team went head-to-head with Ashley Nikolao (Nik) from the Red Team. Nik quickly gained a lead for the Red Team, but Jenna was right on her heels. Nik managed to dash over the box only seconds before her. However, due to the Red Team's several penalties for knocking over hurdles, it is likely that the black team won task two of the day.

The third task was twofold. Each team had five stationary bikes set at gear 20 and one sled with 125 kilos. The first team to complete two miles on all of their bikes and 12 total sled pushes would win. This race was neck and neck, but after a sprint to finish on the last two bikes, the Red Team won task three.

For the final challenge of the day, there were no fun and games. It was war… tug of war to be exact. Through their execution of a coordinated pull on the count of three, the Black Team overpowered the Red Team in two consecutive tugs of war and won the fourth task.

The weekend's arrival marks halftime for the OKC Challenge. Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, tomorrow the UofL softball team will honor this American tradition with an early Thanksgiving feast. If the pilgrims and Native Americans could eat together, so can the Red and Black teams.

Coach Binetti will reveal the updated standings for the OKC Challenge on Monday, when the third quarter awaits.

University of Louisville Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Jenna Jordan

Ashley Nikolao

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