Throughout the spring semester we are celebrating our senior student-athletes with a Senior Salute series. Today's featured senior is cross country and track and field's Joe Ahmann. Ahmann is a neuroscience major.
Q: Why did you choose to attend The College of Wooster?
A: I wanted a college with small class sizes where I could have a personal relationship with my professors. Also, my sister is an alumna and I knew she had a good time here.
Q: What does being a Fighting Scot student-athlete mean to you?
A: I love being a Fighting Scot student-athlete. Almost all of my friends are people I have met running cross country and track, so its means a lot to be a runner here.
Q: What are some of your favorite memories as a student at The College of Wooster?
A: My favorite memories include any base runs or long runs with Will Callender and Eric Johnson, any base runs with Zane DeMercurio and Basil Keck, and any race from junior and senior year with Zane.
Q: What is the best part about being a student-athlete at The College of Wooster?
A: The best part is the teammates I have come to love and Coach Dennis Rice guiding me through all the ups and downs that come with being a runner.
Q: What else were you involved with on campus besides your sport?
A: I am a teaching assistant for Dr. Amy Jo Stavnezer's neuroscience of wellness class and played two seasons of intramural softball.
Q: Which College of Wooster faculty or staff member has made the greatest impact on you and why?
A: Dr. Stavnezer has had the greatest impact on me. As my favorite professor and my advisor, she has been invaluable to my development as a student and a person. Her class, neuroscience of wellness, exposed me to the type of research I am planning to pursue in the future. She has been a great support in everything I am doing.
Q: What other people or resources impacted your Wooster experience in a positive way and how did these people and resources set you up to be successful at Wooster?
A: Coach Rice has had an amazing impact on my Wooster experience. I did not even know running in college was a possibility, but he let me on the team and enabled me to develop into someone my high school self would not even recognize. Even when I was continually injured, Coach Rice gave me the confidence to keep going and now it is finally all paying off.
Q: Tell us a bit about your Independent Study project?
A: My I.S. involves using behavioral testing to examine the strength of the hippocampus and amygdala in middle aged rats. I had 20 rats. Half of them were given running wheels for 12 weeks and the other half had a normal cage environment. The idea of the study is to see whether there are differences in hippocampus and amygdala strength due to running in order to see if running is neuroprotective against Alzheimer's Disease in middle aged rat models.
Q: Tell us a bit about something cool you did as a student at The College of Wooster?
A: The Great Lakes Regional was held in Louisville, Kentucky this year and the whole trip was amazing. We had Olive Garden the day before the meet, then we were surprised with mini-Louisville Slugger bats, which was incredibly cool. The team played baseball with the bats in the hallways of our hotel and then we went to sleep. On meet day, we got up, went to the course, warmed up, and started the race. The race was a ton of fun and a great way to end my cross country career. After the race we got Raising Cane's on the way back to Wooster, and that was delicious.
Q: Reflecting back on your time at Wooster, what advice would you give your first-year self?
A: I would tell myself to relax a little bit. I have always been worried about the future and did not spend enough time living in the moment my first three years. I feel like relaxing a bit actually helped both my academics and athletics because it made my everyday tasks feel less like a burden.
Interested in becoming a Fighting Scot?
High school prospective student-athletes can click here to learn about our recruiting process, click here to view the virtual campus tour, and click here to learn more about admissions events, tours, and visit programs.
Transfer prospective student-athletes can click here to learn about our transfer recruiting process and use the links above for the virtual tour and admissions visit programs.
