Saturday, February 28, 2009

Dinner with a track star

Luke Rygh, 21, a public policy major who lives on the Lincoln Park campus, is a member of DePaul's track team. Currently, Rygh is unable to practice with the team because he got a stress fracture on his right foot while running the track at the Ray Meyer on February 17.


Although he is unable to practice with his teammates, Rygh still joins them in the student center for dinner. Here, Rygh reads the front page of the DePaulia and then discusses the mercury incident with his friends.


The track team practices daily for about four hours, then they meet in the main cafeteria of the student center to eat and talk--a tradition that is known to last two hours in itself! The lengthy discussions linger long after Rygh and his friends finish their food.


Rygh and his teammates talk about everything from athletics, to academics, to team gossip. Because Rygh and his teammates practice together every day, they have grown to know each other extremely well. Their conversations are full of jokes and laughter, the signatures of sincere friendship.


Though the track team is currently in between indoor and outdoor seasons, the outdoor season officially begins during spring break. The team will fly to Texas for their first meet, but Rygh will not be able to join them because of his injury. For now, he must concentrate on his ice treatments and appointments with the "stim machine", which sends an electric pulse through Rygh's foot to contract the muscles and bind together the damaged tissue.

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