 Welcome back to Colorado Christian University and this month's edition of the RMAC Showcase. Kind of the first time I really, like, thought of death. I don't think anyone would disagree with the fact that the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference is the best track and field conference in the country. And the athletes who participate in this conference are only made stronger because of that competition. But none are as strong as Anders Hansen, whose opponent is bigger than anything the conference ever could have thrown his way. Right off the gun, he just wanted to compete and he viewed himself as a contender and someone that could perform at a very high level. And at that time, we really needed that in our guys program. And he was just in prime shape, the best shape we've ever seen out of a freshman in our program. Tuesday night, and I walked out of my bathroom and my roommate was also my teammate. And I remember walking out of the bathroom and I was like, I'm sure that's like breaking out in this rash. It's kind of weird. I met up with my brother and his wife at the airport in California and we took an Uber to the hotel. And in the Uber, I was googling symptoms of a heart attack. There was just so much pressure on my heart. Didn't really know what was going on with that. Other than that, again, the rash is just still spreading. And so again, they sent me home. And so we were staying at my aunt and uncle's house in California. And I remember just waking up and just feeling so miserable. And so we went back to the hotel and my mom was like, Adam, you've got to keep my kid here. He's not right. And that's when I just started to get a ton of different doctors on my case. Again, a lot of different symptoms started to flare up now. I was borderline septic, going into the hospital too. But every day in the hospital, I just started to get worse and worse. It was really hard. And I actually found out he was sick from my dad just texting me, like, hey, Andrews is in the hospital. It sounds pretty serious. My eyes, I was basically a blind kid around the hospital. All the lights were off just covering my eyes. Didn't use my phone, no TV and stuff. So I just kept my eyes shut. They were just bloodshot red. My hearing started to go really bad in my ears from the mucosa. My hands and feet started peeling. My body just peeled like a snake. I actually didn't get to talk to him at all when he was in the hospital. I think he might have sent me one text or maybe, but mostly it was just like through his parents. We're on day eight and a rheumatologist comes into the room and she looks at me for a couple of minutes. She goes into the room more than five minutes, asks me two or three questions, leaves the room and comes back in a few minutes later and says, you have Kawasaki disease. It was really hard. But I think ultimately I'm just really thankful that he was in California with his family. It was really difficult but I knew he was in like the best hands possible and had great doctors out there and just being with his whole family was really good. His eyes were kind of foggy and he couldn't hear that well. So it was kind of scary to see him like that and just not really be able to recognize him. When he was sick it was just hard to not be able to like support him and like be there in person. But yeah, I think it's made our relationship just a lot stronger knowing that like no matter what happens like sickness or health like we're going to be there and take care of each other with whatever comes up in life. Glad to see Anders is doing well and wish both him and his wife the best in the future. Well, I mentioned the stiff competition around the conference. If you can be towards the top of the RMAC you can seriously take pride in that. Carly Schwartzkoff joins us for the first time as she sits down with one of the Cougar's top distance athletes. Mandy Middleton has no problem handling adversity from joining a program with no track to becoming CCU's top distance runner. A small school with room to grow was a perfect combination for Mandy Middleton as she was looking for colleges to attend. I loved the team. I loved CCU like as a small school one of the things that I knew that I didn't want to do was go like to a really large D1 and either get lost in the mix of athletes or it was really important to me that for my major I'm a biochem major. It was really important to me that I didn't have to go sit through a class of like 600 people for intro to chem. Another aspect she liked was the opportunity to be a building block for a new program as the Cougars had just announced a brand new track and field team. I think that that's something that I definitely would have still chosen either way. I would have much rather been part of a program that has a lot of room to go, grow than just a program that has a very high level of like awards and ceremonies. And she has helped grow the program. Something head-tracking cross-country coach John Pogue knows would have been much more difficult without the addition of Middleton. She's just an important personality for our program because she's so competitive. So when I came into the program there were some good runners around but very few had the competitive edge and instinct that Mandy's brought to our team. That drive helped Middleton stand out as she earned the right to represent CCU at last year's national cross-country meet. The first Cougar to make Nationals since 2013. I think with all athletes trying to perform at a high level you have to have a built-in sense of confidence and certainly as coaches we're trying to help kids ascend to that confidence during their time here but Mandy showed up with it. You know there is a belief in her and a backbone to her that is really, it would be hard to coach. She just showed up with it. That confidence allows her to talk openly about the fact that she's easily picked out of a crowd for another reason, alopecia. An autoimmune disease that causes all of someone's hair to fall out. It's really easy to pick me out of a crowd which is awesome, especially on a national level field like cross-country. It's very easy to stand up at the top and be like, ah, there's my daughter, there's my running, which is fun. But I think just representing CCU and what CCU stands for and the sportsmanship that we strive for and trying to love other people well even when we're competing against them I think, for me, that's something I'm much more proud of to be able to compete at a national level and be able to compete with CCU on my jersey then be up there as the only bold runner in the field. I've very frequently had a lot of people think I've had cancer or dying which is always hilarious when I'm on that race and like going to chemo and I'm like, no, no, no. I'm okay. She's more than okay as Middleton's name can be seen all over CCU's record books in both cross-country and track and field. With the RMAC Showcase, I'm Carly Schwartzkopf. Thank you Carly. The NCAA Outdoor National Championships take place May 23rd through the 25th. Well, that brings us to half-time on this edition of the RMAC Showcase when we come back, a volleyball star who is also mighty with a pen. Thank you.