Womens Soccer Team Competes in their Annual Ironwoman Competition
The Central Penn Women’s Soccer team conducted its annual Ironwoman competition on Tuesday, October 29th. The competition includes five fitness events and four technical activities in a Soccer Olympics format.
The fitness events include the Beep Test which is a standard shuttle run test that many soccer teams use to measure their athlete's aerobic capacity (VO2 max). We also used the Illinois Agility Test to test and time running agility using various turns and navigating a serpentine course consisting of four cones. The other fitness tests involved performing push-ups (upper body muscular endurance) and sit-ups (abdominal strength) in a minute. We also measured each participant’s explosive power by administering a vertical jump test.
The soccer skills activities included a dribbling activity (controlled dribbling and running with the ball) and passing through gates, both within specific time limits. There was also a station to test distance and accuracy by having to kick the ball the longest distance while keeping the ball within a within a ten-yard channel.
Another one of the events involved shooting and finishing on goal with power which was three players tied with each striking the ball for a shot that was clocked by a speed gun at 50mph.
In the overall competition, Madalyn Brymesser and ANia Lalic tied for first place while Mariah Bair finished second. The top three finishers received a long-sleeved t-shirt with our Knights logo and “Ironwoman” written on the sleeve.
Coach Grubesky commented, “This competition is a good teambuilding event as well as being fun for the players to compete in this Soccer Olympics-type of contest. Our coaching staff does a lot to prepare for this event and we appreciated the assistance of Athletics Coordinator Kenton Alston and Coach Dave Brixius, Founder of Explosive Sports Performance/strength and conditioning coach for the Messiah women’s soccer team, for their help in setting up and running several of the tests. It was nice to end the season with a win last Saturday and have fun at our last Fall practice today.”
Coach Grubesky added, “Our team also appreciates the support we receive from Athletic Director Kasey Hicks, who is an Ironwoman in her own right with all she does for student athletes and coaches.”