Emma Kasza-James was an unexpected national champion back in February at the Collegiate Gravel Nationals.

But she’s not surprised by the excellence achieved at Midwestern State University, a place the Wisconsin native chose to pursue her degree and cycling. Not to mention, compete with a team that has won 53 national titles.

Kasza-James and her teammates are glad to be home this week for a South Central Collegiate Conference race in Wichita Falls, including Saturday’s criterium races at the MSU Texas campus. The race weekend begins with the time trial Saturday morning, and then the criterium races will begin around 4 p.m. Saturday in front of the Clark Student Center. The campus community and Wichita Falls cycling fans are encouraged to show up and support the cyclists at MSU Texas. The event concludes with a road race on Sunday morning.

MSU Cycling has focused on peaking at this time of year as the team gears up for the Collegiate Road Nationals in Madison, Wisc., which will be a homecoming for Kasza-James and Gabrielle Wrightsman.

Kasza-James also had a chance to travel to New York this spring for the Model United Nations event with the MSU Texas MUN team.

The opposite of New York might be Turkey, Texas (population 329). But Kasza-James will always remember Turkey, as she shared before campus and community supporters.

“This unassuming and quaint town is laughably symbolic. It highlighted how some of the most extraordinary moments can unfold in unexpected corners of the map, and how spectacular experiences don’t often boast grandeur,” Kasza-James said. “The extraordinary moments are what we make of them, and depend on how we change our perspective to match the landscape. To be completely honest, though, when we got to Gravel Nationals, I didn’t even think I would be on the podium.”

Kasza-James won by five minutes, even after losing her front wheel just past the halfway mark of the race.

“This team is amazing at adapting to the landscape, and we have gone from being unsure freshmen and sophomores, searching for our place, to poised and confident students and athletes. We compete not only against other collegiate teams, but also against professional teams in our races. We also have athletes that represent the university in domestic elite and international races, while balancing the load of university at the same time,” she said.

Kasza-James thanked the cycling community in Wichita Falls for “making us feel like family from day one.” Additionally, having a team to train with has meant a lot to Kasza-James.

“Having a team to ride with, feeling like I have constructive competition always pushing me to be better; this is what has pushed me to get to the level I am at now,” she said. “What keeps me going is this MSU cycling team!”

The 53 national titles have been delivered by 28 student-athletes in the history of this tradition-rich program. MSU Cycling is always on a quest to deliver the next one.

MSU Cycling will look to protect home turf and wrap up Collegiate Conference racing season with a victory, ending a four-weekend series where the riders have competed at different universities or colleges. The riders have earned points based on their finishing place, and these points have been tallied over the season to determine Omnium (overall) standings for each individual category offered and a team Omnium.

MSU Texas has a conference-high 7,429 points going into this race, compared to 5,517 points from second-place Texas A&M and 2,175 points for Texas State in third.

MSU Cycling director Mario Arroyave said spectators can expect to see “cyclists buzz around campus at more than 30 mph. They can expect an electric environment with music and an announcer in addition to watching the racers speed through campus.”

It’s a fan-friendly event, Arroyave said, and he wanted those with small children to know they are welcome to come by the start/finish area to meet the amazing student-athletes.

By Luke Clayton

This week let’s discuss a subject that directly affects all of us sooner or later- how to continue to enjoy our outdoor endeavors as we grow older. In my mid-seventies I feel qualified to share some experiences that might be beneficial to some of those who are a bit long in the tooth. If you are a whipper snapper in your prime, stick with me- the good Lord willing, you will someday be a ‘senior’ hunter, fisherman or outdoor enthusiasts and take my word for it, the years will fly by much faster than you think!

In my younger days, I had a great friend that was about 20 years my senior, Dubb Wallace. Dubb was in reasonably good shape and well into his seventies, he could continue to keep up with a bird dog on a qual hunt or paddle a Jon boat into a duck blind. He was still running heavy equipment into his mid-seventies. We hunted and fished together a great deal and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company.

I watched Dubb from year to year as he began to walk slower and avoid obstacles that never slowed him down before. The change was subtle but noticeable. I recall sometimes attempting to push him on at the speed he was accustomed to but Dubb’s body and mind dictated how fast he should walk or how much weight to carry in his hunting pack. He began looking for shallow water to wade across creeks rather than ‘hopping’ across as he did in his younger years.

I learned to slow down to match his abilities and remember him saying, “Watch me closely my friend because one day you too will have to slow down, there’s no way around it.” I’m now where he was back then and I have come to fully appreciate what he was telling me!

Of course, there are health factors that cause us to slow down more quickly, we each have our own timeline and need to be attuned to what our body tells us. I have enjoyed good health my entire life. I lived the outdoors lifestyle of a surveyor in my younger days and after retiring from surveying at age 51, remained active in the outdoors with my career as an outdoors writer, radio show host and later became involved in outdoor television.

At age sixty a buddy asked me to begin outfitting archery elk and bear hunts with him in the mountains of northern Colorado. I was a bit hesitant but after a bit of prompting, I was all in and guided hunts for the next eight years. Outfitting high country hunts is much more than guiding hunters. It requires a lot of work planning meals, packing and making sure all the

necessities are on hand at camp. I thoroughly enjoyed these few weeks each September in the mountains but after several years, my wife made the comment that I didn’t seem to be as enthusiastic about heading to Colorado as in the beginning. She was absolutely correct, but I was so engrossed in the mechanics of getting ready and all the other necessary duties I shared with my partner in the business, I had tunnel vision and was very task oriented.

The last year I guided I could tell my drive had diminished and I was having to push myself hard. Oh, I would have been fine to hunt on my own, but a guide has responsibilities to his client to give one hundred percent and the price I was having to pay to do so was getting greater each year. I hired a younger friend to take my place the last year I was involved and I became the pick up man. I drove the vehicle as near as possible to the guide/hunters after an animal was taken.

The reason I’m telling you this is that there are a lot of changes that take place from age sixty to one’s mid seventies and it’s up to each of us to listen to our bodies and adjust our activities accordingly. When I was sixty, I guided guys several years my junior that were amazed that I could still hunt in the high altitude.

I continue to hunt and fish a lot! It’s a lifestyle that I have enjoyed for many years but I’ve devised ways to enjoy each outing in a somewhat ‘easier’ fashion. Just a few years ago, I thought nothing of packing back into the woods to hunt hogs at night over a corn feeder that I also had to carry in on my back. I carried a home made drag and would drag the porkers several hundred yards back to a trail or road I could access with my truck.

These days, I seem to kill just as many hogs but now I hunt the edge of the woods, areas where I can use my truck as a stand to hunt from. I hang a feeder from a stout tree limb from a chain and back my truck under to fill it with corn. Most of my hog hunting is at night using my ATN thermal scope and I hunt from the bed of my truck, from a comfortable swivel office chain. I have a cold iced tea handy and if mosquitoes are bad, fire up the Thermocell. Parked downwind from where I expect the hogs to appear, they can’t smell me and of course they can’t detect the truck in the dark. When I shoot one, I simply drive close and with the aid of the truck’s headlights, remove the four quarters and backstraps. No more loading the entire hog into the truck. Rather than stay up half the night butchering the hog, I put the quarters directly on ice during warm weather (I carry a 120 quart cooler with ice in the bed of the truck).

I no longer stay out fishing during the heat of the day. I much prefer to begin fishing at the break of day and be off the water by mid-morning during the warm weather months.

So if you too have become a bit long in the tooth, have heart! You can still do much of the things you’ve always done, you just need to devise ways to do them a bit slower and safer.

One last tip! I now hunt from the new see through ground blinds rather than perch myself high up in a tree stand. I’ve enjoyed just as much success and don’t have to worry about a fall that could possibly end my hunting career!

Listen to Luke’s weekly radio show/podcast “Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends” just about everywhere podcasts are found.

Nocona ace RJ Walker and the Indians gave No.3-Muenster everything it wanted April 7 but the visiting Hornets broke things open in the final two innings to post a much closer than it looked 3-0 win at Bob Storey Field.

Walker had a tremendous start, striking out eight of the first nine batters he faced, including the side in both the first and third innings. The only non-strikeout was a popout to second.

Nocona had a chance to strike first in the first inning. Brody Langford drew a one-out walk, stole second and reached third on an errant throw to second. It wasn’t to be as a fly to left and popout to the catcher ended the rally.

Nocona had some defensive help in the fourth when center fielder Jhett Miller made a nifty diving grab to rob Muenster of its first base runner. The Indians threatened again in the bottom of the inning.

For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.