ELON, N.C. – New race? No problem. That was the mindset junior
Jette Beermann had Friday morning entering her first-ever appearance in the 10,000-meter run during the
CAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship.
"I've done a couple 5Ks before, a lot of aerobic work as well," Beermann said. "I knew I was fit, I was like, 'There's not that much that can go wrong.'"
Despite never competing in the 10,000 before this weekend, Beermann still managed to take home her first-ever outdoor individual CAA championship. She finished with an impressive time of 35:53.59, beating out Stony Brook's Fiona McLouglin. Her time ranks eighth all-time in program history.
Even after taking home a championship, Beermann did not want any of the spotlight. Instead, she credited her four fellow teammates who placed in the event, racking up early points for the Phoenix.
"That was our goal: to get as many points as possible," Beermann said.
Fellow Phoenix Katie Blount, Maggie Springer, Madison Synowiec and Hannah Weber all scored in the 10,000. Between them and Beermann, Elon accumulated 23 points in the event.
"I'm super proud of the other girls," Beermann said. "Hopefully, we can continue the trend throughout this championship and pick up the points where we can."
Beermann explained that even though there is a CAA title on the line for the Phoenix, the team's steadfast mindset remains intact going forward.
"It's not a normal competition, it's a championship," Beermann said. "The goal is always to get as many points as we can."
With the Phoenix playing host to the championship at the Robertson Track and Field Complex, Beermann said she felt like she had a slight edge, even during an early morning race.
"Even at the end [of the race], if it did get a little hard, I felt a home advantage," Beermann said. "That whole crowd was behind me."
"Especially at home, that definitely lifted the whole race," Beermann continued. "There was such a great crowd, even at 8 a.m."
With Friday morning being Beermann's first time running the event, she joked that she made an effort not to fixate about the actual distance of the race.
"I was just trying to stay in the race and not think too much about how much I'm actually running," Beermann said.
When discussing whether she would run the 10,000 again, Beermann cracked a smile.
"I have to discuss this with my coach," Beermann laughed.
'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.
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