Abilene Christian runner Levi Chambers rediscovers stride through pandemic
ABILENE, Texas (BVM) — A lot of NCAA athletes across the country were not able to do this year what they have trained the better part of their short lives to do: compete at the collegiate level. This started in the spring as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc in cities, college campuses and small towns. The NCAA men’s basketball tournament was canceled and then the rest of the spring sports followed quickly after the tournament cancelation.
The greater part of NCAA athletes and coaches thought that things would be better by fall. That although traveling and competing will look different, many believed that fall sports would take place. However, by September it started to become apparent based on COVID-19 situation that fall sports looked implausible. The NCAA forged ahead and canceled all NCAA sponsored championships and decided to move the fall sports championships to the spring if possible at that time.
This sent a shockwave through the NCAA community and fans of college sports. Soon talks of impromptu, unorganized seasons started to arise from major conferences like the Big 12, Pac 12, Big 10 and SEC. It wasn’t long before these talks became legitimate and seasons were set to begin. As seasons started to begin, it was clear that although these athletes were given the opportunity to compete, this season looked drastically different from the ones they were used to.
One athlete that was able to compete this fall was Levi Chambers of Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. Chambers, a junior on the cross country and track team at Abilene is originally from Greeley, Colo. where he attended Frontier Academy. Chambers had a lot of trials and success at Frontier Academy before for his graduation in 2018, but nothing could have prepared him for what was to come this past year.
The majority of the NCAA long-distance runners had their last competition at the beginning of March and didn’t have another one for months later, and some still haven’t to this day. Lucky for Chambers, his hiatus from competing only lasted six months, but six months is a long time for a long-distance runner at the NCAA level who competes year-round with often only a few weeks off and summer off from competing.
“It was surreal at first,” Chambers said.
But it ultimately allowed him to reconnect with the sport he loves.
“I took a long time to reconstruct my ‘why’ for running,” Chambers said. “‘Did I run only for competition?’ I ended up just going for runs for the fun of it and not with any type of pressure behind it”.
Chambers’ restructuring of priorities toward his sport ultimately allowed him to train hard and get into a fitness level he has never achieved before. Soon his summer break was over and the fall semester was about to begin, but any form of a real season was starting to dwindle by this point. Chambers felt as if all his hard work in the summer was for naught. He was in the best shape of his life, but for what purpose? However, it wasn’t long before those in the athletic department and on the sports teams at Abilene Christain started talking about holding a makeshift season.
“The formulation of a season happened much more inorganically and to my knowledge was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision,” Chambers said. “When we first finalized a meet with another team (Baylor), the team was ecstatic.”
Chambers said his teammates were “chomping at the bit” to show off the fitness they had worked arduously to gain in the six-month stint without a meet.
In terms of the meets Abilene and other teams were able to run this fall, Chambers provided some insight.
“The meets were weird,” he said. “We tried so hard to make them feel like they used to, but always they came up short. Specifically, the meets were very low-pressure environments.”
Chambers went on to explain that these low-pressure meets were a two-sided sword in a way as it allowed some athletes to perform beyond their means due to the low pressure while others underperformed because they perform better when the pressure is elevated.
In regards to the safety of the meets, Chambers said, “There was always some level of concern, but for the most part we felt safe.” The Abilene cross country and track team was tested two times a week and three times on race weeks. This, coupled with only allowing three teams allowed at the meet, spacing at the starting line, and masked spectators, created a safe atmosphere for the Wildcats and other teams to compete.
Even though the 2020 fall cross country season might have looked different for the Abilene Christian cross country teams, the season was able to feed the runners’ hunger to race at least a little.
“I do not want to ever take our season for granted because most schools never got to see any fruit from their training and we did,” Chambers said. “I will forever be grateful that we had the opportunity to race.”
The future of Abilene and the rest of the NCAA still remains in limbo. As fall terms come to a close and many students across the country aren’t returning after Thanksgiving break, many wonder if an indoor or outdoor track season is in the cards. Until then, athletes in every NCAA sport will keep training and will show up when any chance arises.
