Hood to Coast 2015: Youthful Wisdom

This summer in the final days of August, a group of groggy-yet-excited 18-20 year olds piled into a van even before the sun had risen, all of them shivering from the excitement and the cold.

Hood to Coast is a 198 mile relay race starting from Mt. Hood at nearly 6,000 feet where it drops the runners into Portland. Straying from the highway it leads through the forests around Mist and ends in Seaside, Oregon. This was my 5th year running the relay (4 years in high school for Portland to Coast) but it was my first year running the full Hood to Coast (HTC). This year, Dick's Sporting Goods was looking to film a story about a team to put on their blog, and the Ridlings were selected to be filmed.

The links to the two videos can be found right below!

Video 1: http://blog.dickssportinggoods.com/2015/11/hood-to-coast-how-this-relay-brought-one-family-together-to-run-for-a-cause/
Video 2: http://blog.dickssportinggoods.com/2015/11/hood-to-coast-see-if-team-youthful-wisdom-can-finish-strong/


6:00 pm the Night Before
We had an early start time for HTC this year (10:15AM) and being far away we had to leave at 7:00 AM to beat the traffic. So to do so the team spent the night at Ally's house. The filming crew from New York arrived early to film some interviews and watch as we decorated the van. Slowly all the runners from the Youth van showed up, and we ate some good spaghetti and passed out in the living room with sleeping bags littering the floor.

The Morning of
The following morning we all woke up early, some waking up easier than others (looking at you Irvin). We ate a quick and light breakfast before throwing all the bags into the van. Sharon, a family friend of Ally's, was our driver and with a mug of coffee in hand we took off to Mt. Hood. Our van had six runners (in running order) Spencer, Austin, Grant, Irvin,  Jonathan, Ally; our driver and co-pilot Sharon and Savannah, and then the cameraman Johnny. On the way down to Mt. Hood, it was quiet. The excitement had died down as sleep began to take over, and the minutes to the long drive seemed to tick away oh so slowly.

Legs 1-6
When we got to Mt. Hood, we took some time to take pictures and look at the booths of free stuff since we got their early. We hadn't entirely anticipated how cold the elevation and the early morning would be, so we were surprised when we had to bundle up. To beat the traffic, we left Spencer on the top of the hill and he took off precisely at 10:15AM and made his way down the huge hill. At the bottom, we waited for Spencer to hand-off to Austin. Spencer ran faster than we had anticipated which put us ahead of time. Following Spencer's lead, Austin, Grant and Irvin also ran faster than we had predicted, and we could see that we were going to hit Portland earlier than we expected. Once Ally and I had also finished our first legs, we met up with Van 2 to make the official exchange. Ally made the exchange with Karla with a huge hug, and Van 2 was off on their run to Portland.

Legs 7-12
While Van 2 was running, we drove into Portland and parked near the Hawthrone Bridge to await the exchange. Since we had some time before our next leg, we all went to Subway to get some food. I was feeling extremely dehydrated since the weather was so nice in the 80's and 90's. After getting something for our stomachs, we all slept on the grass and waited until we anticipated Phil coming in for leg 12. After a solid hour of relaxing in the grass, we packed up the van and moved it closer to the major exchange. We had Spencer get ready, and we prepared for Phil to come in. It was getting later in the evening, and you could tell the sun was beginning to set. The air was becoming the nice cool night air, but Portland was still as active as ever.  The hum of the generators at the major exchange greeted Phil when he handed off to Spencer, and we scrambled back to our van for our second run.

Legs 13-18
Spencer ran through Portland, running along the Waterfront and meeting us far out by a train yard where Austin ran over a small bridge and began the long highway miles. Spencer seemed to be dealing with blisters and sore feet, so we had him rest in the back of the van since we had several hours before his next run. Grant received the exchange from Austin who was definitely feeling his last run, and took off on a long highway night run. By Grants leg the sun had set and runners could be spotted along the highway with flashlights in hand and blinkers on the back of their reflective vest. Both Grant and Irvin ran extremely fast for their legs, and I was having trouble staying in control of my stomach. Food was hard to eat and Gatorade sounded gross. Backing off on the beginning of my leg, I took the second leg at a much more considerate pace. Our van was having a competition to see who could get the most roadkills (1 roadkill = 1 person passed) and I was trailing after my first leg wasn't a bountiful harvest. Grant was leading the van with roadkills, so with that in mind during my long leg, I picked off other runners as I clipped away six minute miles. In previous years, I ran this leg and finished much faster than I anticipated leaving my next runner unprepared for my arrival. This year was a little different since I was handing off to Ally who knew that I would run faster than I predicted. I handed off to Ally and felt wonderful after my run. Finding Ally's exchange zone was difficult, but we were able to make our way there and made it in time to see her hand off again to Karla.

Legs 19-24
While Van 2 ran their second leg, the Youth van drove ahead pushing through the dark until we hit Mist. Here, we camped outside the van, bundling up in sleeping bags and ignoring the pitter patter of the rain on our face as we struggled to recuperate. In Mist, we had no cellular connection to the other team, so based off of estimates that we made on the speed of the other van, we had to wake up earlier and be ready at the exchange. As the time drew closer, Spencer and Ally braved the cold and the rain to meet Phil out at the exchange when he came in. Once Spencer took off, it was time for our final legs.

Legs 25-30 
Spencer and Austin both pushed through their legs and managed to hold their pace, which was impressive due to the speed of their previous runs. Irvin and Grant both coasted through their legs with ease, Irvin even giving off some extra effort in the home stretch. My leg was a major hill that required me to focus entirely on reaching the summit. I was feeling nauseous before the run, but once I had the baton I was able to ignore any nausea I had. Reaching the summit was one of the most exhilarating things I've experienced; runners had toilet paper acting like a finish line for reaching the top. I decided to surge and utilize the downhill which lead to me catching many other runners. Exhaustion made the flats and even the small uphills a challenge, but I just ticked off the minutes and focused on finishing. I handed off to Ally who had to battle huge gusts of wind on her leg. As soon as I stopped, the nausea took over again, but I forced water and chocolate milk down and it was the most delicious bottle of Muscle Milk I'd ever consumed.

Legs 31-36 + Afterparty
Once we snagged Ally from the finish of her leg, we sped towards Seaside all hyped for the After Party. However, when we reached the finish, the entire finishing zone had been blown down by the strong gusts of wind. The Finish line had been altered to finish on a street rather than the beach. This was a little disappointing for us returners, but we decided to make the most of it anyways. While we waited for the Wisdom van, we sent them pictures of a hotel hot-tub we relaxed in, pictures of us freshly showered in comfy clothes, and the amount of food from the all-you-can-eat morning breakfast we went to. When Wisdom finally arrived, we met up with them and ran with Phil as he finished, and crossed as a team.

"I just did something absolutely insane, but I did it. I conquered it" 

Hood to Coast 2016, we're coming for you! 

State Recap

Two weeks ago, hundreds of high school students all over the state of Oregon travelled to Lane Community College to run their hearts out in pursuit of the state title. Back-to-back for two years, Silverton high school (my hometown high school) was able to qualify and make the exciting trip down. Traveling down was one girl (individual qualifier) and the boys varsity team (2nd at districts).

Oregon decided to give no mercy to the state runners and didn't provide them with the unusual sunny weather that had been seen through the fall season, but instead gave them the famous Oregon rain. The course is generally accepted as a slow course; the start is the length of a football field, and quickly funnels into a hill, which crests over "the bowl" and leads to the back forest which marks mile one. The runners are then guided alongside the highway along a trail where they pass by the start and loop around "the marsh", exiting at the same point of the entrance to complete mile two. The second mile is met by the same hill from the start, and then a drop into the bowl instead of running along the crest. Then climbing out of the bowl, the runners cut the course short (instead of going back to the forest) and make their way to the marsh where they run towards the track and sprint the final 300 meter on the blue Lane community college track.

The Girls 5A race was quite fast with the leader putting on a sizable lead and finishing in 17:46 (37 seconds ahead of 2nd), with the Silverton runner earning her berth to BorderClash in 5th place.

Boys team With an 8th place finish!

Beautiful running weather 

The Boys team had no individual runner place 30, with the first Silvertonian crossing in 39th place at 17:12. However, the boys were able to secure 8th place in state, giving good hope for returning next year.

Also at the State race was Ella Donaghu of Grant high school who broke a 22-year old State course record in 17:26. Just last year, the boys state record (previously held by Olympic Silver Medalist Galan Rupp) was broken uncontested by Matthew Maton in a blistering 14:45.

Maddie in the far orange on the podium!

As aforementioned, BorderClash is an elite race that takes the top 12 runners from 5A (top 40 from Oregon) and pits them against the top 40 runners from Washington. They compete as a state team in hopes of seeing which team is better. It turns out that Washington having the larger pool of people to select from usually handily crushes Oregon on the team score.

Photos courtesy of Amber Stutzman and Silverton CrossCountry

Congratulations everyone! Now on to track! 

Districts, and on to State!

Silverton cross country showed up to the District meet on Wednesday ready to roll.

Girl's Varsity Race
Maddie Fuhrman from Silverton ran a dominant race, extending her lead from the first mile and just adding to the gap with ever mile that ticked by. Maddie ended up running an 18:38 (compared to her 18:05 PR at Sandelie) and was able to secure the new school record from Morgan Anderson that was clocked at 18:54 on the State course back in 2011. Corvallis was able to win overall for Girl's and was followed up by Lebanon and Crescent Valley (56, 66, and 67 respectively). Central high school missed the berth to state by a mere four points.

Boy's Varsity Race
On the Boy's side, the race was very fast paced. The first mile was clocked around a controlled 5:00 for the leaders and was led by Marcus Corbett and Gustavo Lopez. Trailing behind were Sam Roth and Gavin Bomber, two who would eventually end up battling in the last 400 where Gavin would secure the district title. Corvallis managed to secure another district title, with Silverton and Crescent Valley taking second and third respectively.

Since William (my Sophomore brother) was running in the Varsity race, it was exciting to see how it played out. Unfortunately, Silverton was ranked 1st but wasn't able to compete with Corvallis in scoring as low as they did. However, the Mid-Willamette Conference (being one of the bigger conferences) allows the top 7 individuals to qualify for State and the next three teams. This allowed the boys team to qualify for State two years in a row, a feat that hasn't been matched for over two decades.

This Saturday at Lane Community College, Silverton will try to push out Corvallis on the State course. Sure, Silverton has a very consistent team, but Districts showed us that Silverton doesn't have the experience it needs to compete at a larger level. State will be interesting to see; Corvallis has been here pretty much every year for as long as I can remember. Silverton can make the podium if they run smart and pick people off, and it's up to these boys to decide their fate.

Boys posing in front of the Foxes Flag.

Back?

So I'm back at OSU (yay) and totally just tonight remembered that there was something called "Minute Rice Runs at OSU" that I was writing about. I guess my Engineering curriculum last year really had my hands-tied for free time like this.

So to the few (loyal) people who read this, thanks for reading! I'll try to be more consistent and maybe more running-oriented.

With the mushy part out of the way, I want to share the following picture with you:
This is my studly brother running a 5K (at the Sandelie Golf Course I believe) out in the Portland Area.

Back to learning how to tie shoes

Somehow he managed to lose his shoe in the course of the race yet picked it up and continued on to get a PR. Now I'm super proud of this kid because he's moving on to Varsity Districts this week and there will be some photos up because it's going to be close by in Corvallis (I'll probably end up running there).

After districts, if his team places top 3, they move onto State, and the odds seem to be in  their favor because they are currently ranked 1st in the district according to Athletic.net.

So yeah! Super cool, super exciting, and a big congratulations to see his hard work pay off. 

In other news, I dragged my wonderful girlfriend Allyson into volunteering at the Portland Marathon Expo a couple weeks back, and it looks like we are invited back to volunteer for TrackTownUSA at the Portland Indoor World Championships! So in March, keep an eye out for some amazing photos, autographs (maaaaaybe) and other cool running related things. For now, peace out Oregon. It's time for me to go review some anatomy vocabulary. Like bones. And cool stuff like MITOSIS and CELLS. YEAH. 

(Disclaimer: I know this post isn't my usual 'quality' but it's going to help me get back into the groove. So stay tuned).

How you feel when you miss an assignment

Everyone knows that feeling. The gut-wrenching, heart-jerking, stomach-dropping feeling of a missed assignment. The moment prior to realization, when you are blissfully unaware of the emotional havoc you will wreck on yourself; it's nothing short of a naive bliss. And then you open your planner, you look down at the one un-checked box and you realize that nothing will save you from the missed chemistry lab report. There is no God who can extend a hand to fudge the time stamp when you submit it late to the devil known as Blackboard, or it's counterpart Canvas. The following seconds are filled with frantic thoughts on how to save your ass from the 0/10 that will wreak havoc on your grade. The following minutes will have created several lies that you will tell to your lab TA or group members to persuade them that indeed, Blackboard was down and you were hospitalized that evening. The following hours may or may not result in a time of solace, where you come to accept the grade you will receive, and decide against immoral methods. The key phrase here would be "may or may not". No matter, it will be the first thing on your list when you rush out of class. No matter how sunny, the weather will be gloomy. No matter how cheerful your friends are, they are filthy plebes. No matter the greetings, the texts, the e-mails you receive during the rush back to your computer, there is only one thing on your mind: "God damn it, I done fucked up".
Throwing your backpack aside, you'll clear a spot where your computer will hit the desk. You'll frantically type your credentials to log-in, just to find that the wireless internet isn't connecting to your computer. After a few minutes of obscenities and desperate reconnection attempts, you'll finally log-in to Canvas to submit the late assignment. And as you log-in, and attempt to upload the assignment, of course the upload icon would be gone. Why wouldn't it? Canvas is practically the new-age spawn of Satan right? 

And that's when you'll notice. Your lab group did it for you. They fucking did it. 

Tears of joy and cuss-words will slur together, but nonetheless, chemistry lab has been defeated once again.

Sorry for the profanity. But it only better explains how emotionally distressed I was. 

Also, I did not proof-read. I never proof-read. You should know that.

Dead Week, RA position, and North Dakota

Wow, this term has kept me on my toes. It's interesting how classes aren't how they seem at the beginning. I went back and looked at my "Beginning of Term" entry, and how engineering was "awesome". Well, not so much awesomeness now but that's a totally different story.

Dead Week
Wow where do I begin? It's been a lot of Chemistry studying. My math grade is holding up, and I just need to get a passing grade on my final which has me extremely happy. Engineering allows notes so that hasn't been difficult to study for. Just taking in all our homework and assignments categorized to destroy that final.
Yesterday studying consumed most of my day which resulted in my first nap here at college where I passed out in the study room for a good 30 minutes. I had to go to an NRHH meeting which was in downtown Corvallis at a really cool Gelato shop. They all bought us half a pint of Gelato, but the servings were so generous it was probably closer to a whole pint. I got cookies and cream and then cookie dough since they allowed su to get two flavors. Highly recommend. 10/10 service and quality of gelato
(For those of you who don't know what Gelato is, it's like Italian ice cream but without so much fat and stuff so it's very smooth and very good)
Afterwards, Lauren and a new NRHH friend Jasmine and I went to the concert to support Lauren's roommate Kati as she sang. It was really cool to be there because the Acapella group started off and sang "Your Man" by Josh Turner and that was absolutely amazing. They also sang "Sweater Weather" which was really cool how they were all in sync. But then the final group sang a song called "Northern Lights" and it was the most amazing experience ever. I'm not good with music, and I bet I'm pretty tone deaf, but I know when I hear something amazing. Overall, I was glad that I went because dang, OSU has some people who can really sing.

RA Position
This was super nerve wracking leading up to the big reveal. They told us that March 6th at  5p.m. they would email us. Those who didn't get the job wouldn't receive an immediate email. So I was sitting there trying to study Chemistry and not freak out around 8 p.m. but I couldn't help but think the worst. Then I got the email notifying me that I will be the RA next year for the ILLC and I couldn't have been happier. The ILLC is the "international dorm"
So me being me, I researched what it was like at the ILLC, and I've paid a visit. Here are some pictures from a couple years ago that offer good insight into my room.

This is what my study area will look like 

Entrance. You can see the bathroom door is open 

Yes, I have two beds and two desks.

RA's have double the space and furniture. At first I thought this was because they worked hard and deserve the commodities as such, but then when I was signing my life away to UHDS signing my job acceptance, I was reading through the responsibilities and cam across one that was interesting. If a student is between places (so they want to move out of their dorm, or they are having roommate issues) an RA is expected to house them for a period of time, which makes sense why there is double of everything.
Now, not all RA's have a personal shower and toilet. Actually, come to think of it, I think ILLC is the only place that there is such a commodity. But each dorm has it's perks. Some are better than others. Taking my current dorm Sackett for example, they have walk-in-closets (two of them) that nobody else has. So that's really cool. But I think I'll take my own shower and toilet over more closet space that I wouldn't use.

Tl;dr: I got the job and I'm stationed at the ILLC and here are some pretty pictures.

I know I know, personal shower and toilet is me being spoiled

North Dakota
Man, whenever I mention this the first thing anyone says is "Why in the world would you want to go to North Dakota?" Well first off, I like traveling, and any excuse to go out and see the world is a good excuse. This is probably thanks to my parents spoiling me with trips to Japan or Thailand in my earlier years. Secondly, I'm attending a National conference for National Association for Colleges and Universities Residence Halls. Or something along those lines. Anyways, it's going to be an experience. I don't entirely know what to expect. I have some feeling that it'll be a lot like FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) back in high school, where we went to Leadership workshops and made connections. Something I've heard of though, is that we bring OSU gear to the event and trade with other students from other schools. Now if you know anything about me, I absolutely love gear from other colleges/schools. Don't know why, I just have. I like to collect things. That's just who I am.

Okay, well I guess I should study Chemistry. Honestly, Spring Break couldn't come any sooner. It'll be good to be at home with my family and eat real food!

Beginning of Winter Term

Hey y'all! It's been a while again, but I found some time to update my blog from last time.

So things that are going on right now!

Engineering 
Awesome. Just pure awesome. My teacher is very strict and keeps us busy for every minute of class. But it's really fun! Week one and we are learning how to use Matlab for coding purposes. Our first lab session was self-teaching Matlab, and since I took C# back in high school, it makes Matlab seem like a review session. During our second lab session, we used an NXT LEGO robot (which we built) and synced it with Matlab to write code and tell it what to do.
Here's a picture of the robot followed by an example code I wrote:

Lego NEXT Robot with Voice Command Module

%This program searches for right triangles for

%which all three sides are integers 

%Initialize the counter m

clear all; clc; close all;

m=0;

%Loop to check all combinations of x and y up 

%to limits

fid=fopen('output.txt','wt');

fprintf(fid,' x y h\n');

fprintf(fid,' === === ===\n');

for x=1:25

    for y=x:25

        %Calculate the hypotenuse h

        

        h=sqrt(x^2+y^2);

        

        %Check to see if h is an integer

        %If it is, write x, y, and h to the 

        %screen

        %and advance the value of the counter

        

        if h == floor(h)

            m = m + 1;

            fprintf(fid,'%5i%5i%5i\n',x,y,h);

        end

    end

end

fprintf('\nThe number of triangles found = %i\n',m)

Math
My teacher's sarcasm is hilarious and it makes it really enjoyable. He's super fast paced and it's sometimes difficult to keep up but he's very approachable and makes a world of difference between him and my last teacher. Definitely planning on leaving a good review!

Health
Yes. I have to take health. So far it seems like we will be focusing on nutrition this term. I'm not having too much fun, but it's supposed to get more fun approaching week five so let's see how it goes.

Physical Activity Class (10K Trail Running)
I chose this class because it's being taught by Tyler, the coach for Crescent Valley high school, and I definitely wanted to see what it would be like working with him. So far it's been a lot of fun, although I was only able to make one class (As some of you may already know, I injured my MCL (Medial Collateral Ligament) when on a run, and ended up going to Health Services to get it checked out and it's a sprain. Should be back in the game next month or so but we will see.

Chemistry
I kept the same chemistry teacher from last term, and I have to say I'm enjoying it. He's definitely the funniest teacher I've had in all of my college classes. One of the funniest things he's done so far was that he showed us what happens when you set fire to liquid Oxygen. It really makes the flame grow fast, and even though he had a "blast-shield" set-up, it burned over the shield and landed on a conveniently placed roll of cotton. The entire roll of cotton caught fire and he used a meter stick to push it to the ground. The plus outcome was that the cotton was able to be stamped out. The delta outcome (we aren't allowed to say negative in Hall Council) was that the meter stick caught fire too.

Hall Council
Man the opportunities! Joining Hall Council (HC) was by far the most important and door-opening thing that I've decided to do.

• NRHH (National Residence Hall Honorary): Basically a group of students who live in resident halls. This is a prestigious group that is limited to a total of 1% of all students in residence halls across the nation. I'm planning on applying for the position because it has a small time commitment and resembles National Honor Society back in high school. 
• RHA (Residence Hall Association): This is like the mother of all the hall councils here at Oregon State University. I'm planning on applying for the Treasurer position (surprise surprise). 
• RA (Residence Assistants): These are the guys and gals that monitor the halls to make sure you know where everything is and aren't doing anything illegal. If I get my RHA position, I would wait to RA until next year. 
• NACURH (National Association of Colleges and Universities Residence Halls): This is a huge conference in North Dakota and I'm really trying to get in. Everything would be paid 

Clearing up what it means to be a fan

Okay, so 2015 is already seeming to bring some tensions between teams. 42-20 the Ohio State Buckeyes just won the National Championship against the Oregon Ducks. However, this seemed to rustle some feathers on the University of Oregon side and cause an attack on anyone associated with Oregon State University. So here's some clarifications so we can all enjoy the National Championship next year no matter who goes:

1. The Concept of Being a Fan
There are many levels of being a fan. Some of us associate ourselves with one school (ex. Oregon) whereas some of us like myself have more than one favorite (Washington State, Oregon State, and Ohio State). There are also different intensities with which you can be a fan. Some just watch the game online. Some pay for season tickets. Others decorate the fire hydrant outside of their house to the colors of green and yellow. It all differs. No matter the intensity you wish to enjoy your game, you should never drag another person to your level. Don't tell others to "mellow down" or "you're not a good enough fan" unless the actions they are taking are directly hurting or insulting another. Easy enough since we're all adults.

2. Bandwagoning Fallacies
Hah, what a wonderful concept. In some instances, this seems to be a problem with people misdefining what it means to be a bandwagon fan.

A bandwagon-er is not someone who roots for a team AT THE TIME OF THE GAME. This is because of a novel concept that if you are watching a game, you will eventually choose a side. I know that no matter the sport or event that I watch, if it's a competition I will always end up choosing a side to support. This is not bandwagoning.

Also, don't call someone a bandwagon because that lowers the amount of people who watch the support. Basically you are trying to destroy the community. You need to respect how other people choose to support their team. Whether it's for one game or one year.

3. Support your state fallacy
Incredible. Our Duck brothers and sisters called on the Beavers to root for them and cheer them on when they made it to the National Championship. See something wrong with this? The famous quote "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" could not be more applicable here. This is because of something that has been long established as a tradition: RIVALRY. If you for one second believe that the FANS of U of O have built a supportive community that doesn't tear down the Beavers no matter the chance they get, then you are obviously blind and mistaken. A good example of this would be the Twitter account @AutzenStudents. They are the representative student body of the University of Oregon on Twitter and provide the prime examples of taunting and hatred towards Oregon State which keeps the rivalry alive. Because of this tradition, there is no way that there can be support from OSU to U of O.
To apply this to other sports, let's take a look at the Beavers two-time National Championship in baseball. Was there any support from the Ducks? Probably not. Will there be any support from the Ducks for our nationally ranked Women's Basketball Team? We can assume not.

4. Ducks will bring football fame to Oregon State as well as money
No. Just no. The state in general will not receive fame for football. Think about it: you're making one school look good if they win (U of O). Oregon State will actually see an increasing amount of difficulty recruiting because we have to play against U of O and compete against them for recruiting purposes. Also, the NCAA doesn't award any more money to the winning school. Schools that play in bowl games, and schools that advance to the top 4 receive money for their region. Hence, the PAC 12 received lots of money, and wouldn't have seen a shift had the Ducks won or lost. For these reasons, don't tell me to root for another school. Educate yourself on the laws first.

5. Ad hominems on ad hominems on ad hominems. 
Just stop these already. You look foolish and mark yourself as a complete idiot (haha get the irony in this?). Basically this: DON'T TEAR DOWN OREGON STATE BECAUSE YOU JUST LOST TO OHIO STATE. This is what I hate most. The Beavers who root for the Buckeyes are being tormented by Ducks who continue to argue that "Beavers football sucks" and "You guys haven't beat us since 2007". First off, schools is much more than football. So lets make an academic listing shall we?
A. Oregon State triumphs over U of O in research funding by 50+ million dollars a year
B. 78.9% graduation rate versus 67.4% and OSU triumphs again
C: 48,000 and 42,000 are the average salaries for graduates with Oregon State on top yet again
D: Linus Pauling, Cecil Andrus, and F. Wayne Valley are the first three "notable alumni" from Oregon State University. Their professions as a scientist, governor/politician, and businessman identify OSU as what it is. The Ducks starting three are Phil Knight, Bill Bowerman, and Mickey Loomis. They are in order, the founder of Nike, track coach, and NFL coach. If you have half a brain, you can see a trend. "What does this even mean?" you ask, and I reply as follows: Each school has its qualities. Obviously. Both possess different levels of different qualities.

Conclusion TL;DR
Don't embarrass yourself, read up, study up, and be smart when you enjoy a football game. Comment on something I missed, something you want to see me elaborate on, and I will be more than happy to add an *EDIT* section for anybody who reads this!