Alexis Cash photo by Olivia Tennefoss
Alexis Cash, a senior at Bluffton University majoring in speech-language pathology and audiology and minoring in Bible and theology, continues to achieve excellence in cross country while pursuing personal goals that will stay with her after she graduates.
Cash has been a member of the cross country and track teams for four consecutive years. She said that while she has learned how important it is to stretch, eat right and get sleep, she has also prioritized setting goals for herself when she is running and working out.
“I’ll pick something to work on during the workout like whether I stay with somebody, or I hit a certain time or I just work on being positive so that way I can use that during the race,” she explained.
Cash has drawn a lot of parallels between running and life because of conversations with her coach, Logan Wells.
“He says that running is a metaphor for life because everything that you can do in running and apply for running, you can apply to life,” said Cash.
She admitted that on the day of the Ohio Wesleyan meet, she was not in a good place mentally. When she got to the start line after warming up, she knew she had to focus, put aside everything else and give the race her best.
“I find that when I’m struggling in life, I struggle with running,” said Cash. “You can be confident in running and believe in yourself and how strong you are. In real life, you have to be confident and know that you’re smart and that you’re good enough and that you can get through school.”
Cash runs for practice every day, does the workouts that are twice a week and the optional abs workout before their practices. She has won two titles for the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, and her goal is to win this year as a senior. She then hopes to qualify running in the nationals after being four spots away from qualifying last year.
She is still figuring out her plans for after graduation, but she is looking at different graduate schools to go into seminary. As far as running goes, Cash hopes to at least join a running club after she graduates. She also plans to run a half marathon and a full marathon at some point after graduating as well.
“I can’t imagine not being in a sport or on a team,” she said.
The cross country team’s next meet is the All-Ohio Championships Sept. 28 at Cedarville University.
