218 Inauguration weekend was filled to the brim with all sorts of different celebrations in honor of Mike Williams, the new president of Harding University. One event held was the Legacy Relay where students ran from Morrilton, Arkansas, where the first campus was, back to the current Harding campus in Searcy. Many students from the crosscountry team were involved in this torch run along with other Harding student volunteers. The students started in Morrilton, with the baton getting passed off one runner at a time and eventually the last runner, freshman Abby White, ran to the finish to hand off the lit torch to Williams. “I think it was really special just because of me being a freshman,” White said. “I’m new to Harding University, but it was really significant for my college career... as well as the presidency of Mike Williams, and so just being a part of something special like that and being chosen to be the person that handed off to him, it just was definitely a great feeling,.” While White was the last runner to finish off the relay, there were a multitude of other runners. One of them was freshman Caleb Hartzell who spoke about what his favorite part of the run was. “My favorite part was at the end of the run when everyone was cheering and I used the last of my energy to run as fast as I could to pass the baton over to the next runner,” Hartzell said. While this run was meant to be a historic moment in Harding’s history, it was also a way for students to be involved in the inauguration weekend festivities. Freshman Sophie Bain was another runner in the relay and talked about her thoughts on the torch run. “I didn’t know too much about Harding honestly before coming here,” Bain said. “I felt like it was just like a thing that brought awareness to inauguration weekend. There were so many little parts to play in inauguration weekend. I feel like that was something that started it off well.” The whole run was live streamed on Facebook for the community to watch the relay’s progress. Once White handed off the torch to Williams, an extra mile was held for anyone on campus to walk together as a finale to the run that involved the Harding community in this historic moment. Written by: Mattie Powers PASSING ON Students run from Morrilton to Searcy for the presidential inauguration. the legacy BRIGHT AND EARLY Senior Daniel Watrous runs in front of the caravan. The run started early on Sept. 15 and finished later that afternoon. Photo courtesy of: Madison Meyer
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