JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - Ashford University freshman track and field freshman Christian "Ed" Awah of Willow Springs, Ill., has graciously volunteered a little bit of his insight during his first trip to the NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championships.

Enjoy the daily installments of Awah's daily blog to chronicle the Saints' journey in the Volunteer State.

An exhausted Awah provided this excerpt after the Saints' seven national qualifiers and coaches arrived in Johnson City, Tenn., last night. Heptathlete Aaron Yerk was the only one in competition yesterday, and the rest of his teammates will begin participating in their events today.

Wednesday, March 3

We arrived in Tennessee to snow after a cramped 13-hour van ride. We stopped at Subway and a nice Southern barbecue restaurant called "Sonny's."

We then arrived at the Super 8 Motel at 10:30 p.m. andI found out that I was rooming with (high jumper) A.J. Smith and (shot putter) Spencer Touchie in a room with only two beds. So now we have to play rock, paper, scissors. Now we all have an easy day tomorrow watching Aaron Yerk in the Heptathlon.

Thanks for checking in with my blog and supporting Ashford. Go Saints!

-Ed Awah

Thursday, March 4

Today was a very relaxed day. We woke up and had the so-called continental breakfast consisting of cereal. We made it to the stadium at 1 p.m. after lunch at Quiznos. We watch Aaron Yerk compete in the 60m dash, long jump, shot put, and high jump and was in sitting in 12th place after the first day. Tomorrow, Aaron, A.J. (Smith), Franklin (Barnes), Kemi (Okwumabua), and I are competing and just like my mentor James Lee told me, '"You have no control over what the other guy does. You only have control over what you do."

- Checking out for now...Ed

Friday, March 5

Today we started the day early as we made it to the stadium at 10 just in time to see Aaron Yerk compete in the 60m hurdles, pole vault, and 1000m run and finished in 10th to finish his day.  Franklin and I ran the 60m hurdles and Franklin got 30th place and i got 15th place missing the semi-final race by .02 seconds. AJ Smith cleared 6 feet 6 inches and got 14th place, and Kemi ran the 600m and got 16th place.  We all did better than we were seeded so we finished the indoor season on a positive. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to seeing Spencer competing in Shot put and Heather competing in high jump.