Tag: Jessica Looney ’20
Battle of the Clubs
by The Cowl Editor on April 26, 2018
Friar Sports
BOP Takes This Year’s Annual Softball Game Against Friars Club
By Jessica Looney ’20
Sports Staff
On Sunday, April 22, the Providence College Board of Programmers (BOP) went head to head with our favorite tour guides, also known as Friars Club, in the most obvious way to show who’s best: a game of softball. BOP ultimately pulled out the win, with a final score of 17 to 15.
The MVP of the game was BOP’s Kenji Fujita ’18, who took softball to a whole new level, dominating the field and at bat. With BOP’s Sean Sweeney ’18 pitching for his team, home runs were inevitable. A few anonymous Friars Club members were slightly skeptical of BOP’s batting tactics, but that is to be debated elsewhere. Chris Froio ’19 also contributed a great homerun for BOP.
BOP recently accepted several new members to their squad, Sydney MacKillop ’20 being one of them. MacKillop says the game “was a great experience as a new member,” and really got everyone together as a club.
Another one of BOP’s newest members, Corrie Traverse ’20, also killed the game, pulling her high school softball skills out of nowhere. Traverse said, “We worked super hard the week before so it payed off and Kenji really stepped up as a coach.” Olisa “Simba” Obioha ’20, said it was “a hard fought game, and Friars Club showed lots of effort, but BOP came out on top.” He boldly added, “the trophy’s back where it belongs.”
Despite the loss, Friars Club had a lot to say. The game was close, and there were some really great plays throughout the whole game. With a phenomenal pitcher, John Birle ’19, and a great catcher in Maggie Zied ’19, Ryan “Fridge” O’Malley ’19, Andrew Widmer ’18, Jake Bamford ’20, Yucca Reinecke ’18 and Geoff Hite II ’18 all pulled out home runs, sending the softballs over the fence. It was absolutely an “all around great game,” says Hite.
A Friars Club win looked promising for most of the game, until BOP pulled ahead in the top of the sixth inning. Friars Club member Jamie Rush ’20 walked away from the game admitting that the loss was not too upsetting. Rather, the softball game “was just an awesome way to get two groups on campus together.” Jack de Poortere ‘20, another Friars Club member, stated, “Regardless of the loss, our sideline definitely had more fun” and advised BOP to “make sure they clean the trophy before the give it back to us next year.”
“The Friars vs. BOP game has become a tradition” says Christian Maloney ’20. “I’m already counting down the days until the next one… 363 days to go,” he added eagerly. Stay tuned for next year, to see who will come out on top.
PC’s Jessica Looney’20 Looks to Compete in the Boston Marathon
by The Cowl Editor on April 12, 2018
Friar Sports
By Meaghan Cahill ’20
Sports Co-Editor
After a mere 26.2 miles, Jessica Looney ’20 will become the youngest member of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team to complete the world famous Boston Marathon.
Running for both of her grandfathers, who each passed away from cancer, Looney decided to apply for the Dana-Farber team because it was “a good charity to give back to.” The team consists of a little over 500 people, and this year 50-75 new applicants were accepted.
The application process was very extensive, and once she made the team, Looney was faced with the challenge of having to raise the required amount of money to be on the team.
“There is the expectation to raise $10,000,” Looney said, which is double the required amount of raised donations. With that $10,000 price in mind, Looney decided to set the goal of reaching the minimum $5,000 before Christmas.
“Anything after that is a bonus,” she said. Her goal was met and to date, Looney has raised well over $8,000.
“I am so happy to be raising…much more [than the required $5,000].” Looney relentlessly pursued fundraising opportunities, choosing to send fliers to neighbors, family friends, etc. However, the main source of her fundraising came from the blog that she decided to create to put her marathon experience into words.
The blog, entitled “Why I Run,” is a way for Looney to publicly reach out to as many people as she can to receive donations, but also to memorialize her “milestone moments” in word form and track her progress and training experience, which officially began Jan. 1 of this year.
When asked why she decided to start training for the Boston Marathon, Looney admitted that it was “always something I wanted to do and the [Providence] half marathon really pushed me to want to go to that next step.” Looney then continued to say, “It had been on my mind since I got to college.”
Come the start of the new year, Looney wasted no time getting into her training, setting apart long distance days and short distance days. Her runs range from 10 to 18 miles.
Her longest run to date was when she completed the first 22 miles of the Boston Marathon, stopping just after grinding up Heartbreak Hill, which Looney boldly claims is “not as hard as everyone makes it out to be.”
“Your body is moving and you aren’t even thinking about it after a while,” Looney commented on the long distance of the course and the amount of time it takes to finish it. “Plus, after a while everything just goes numb,” she jokingly added.
With no prior running training, Looney turned to Andrew “Drew” Harrod ’19 for tips and assistance in how to prepare.
“He’s really helped a lot,” Looney said of her running companion, who is not running the Boston Marathon, but is planning on competing in the Providence Marathon.
Being a “student in training,” Looney does admit to missing out on a lot of things such as “going out on the weekends with my friends,” but she does not regret her choice to run the marathon.
“I’m probably gonna cry when I finish,” she admitted.
Turning more towards the actual race, Looney claims she is “feeling pretty confident” and that she has “no need to prepare any more [then she already has].”
“It’s been in my mind for six months and I can’t believe that it’s finally here,” she stated. And if there is one thing that she definitely wants to highlight about the past six months, and the biggest race of her life, it’s that to Looney, “It is all about the experience, the experience is the most important part,” and that she will “be happy to finish no matter what [time she gets].”
In terms of her final time, Looney admitted, “I’d be excited to break four hours.”
Having run every day since sophomore year of high school, Looney believes she is “not going to know what to do with herself” once she finishes the Boston Marathon.
“I am going abroad next spring and I would like to run some half marathons in different countries,” she admitted. Due to her being away next time the Boston Marathon comes around, Looney will be unable to run it, but she is determined she will “definitely run it again,” in the future.
Donations are still being accepted for the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge Team. Those who wish to donate can go to Looney’s personal blog why-irun.com to make a donation.