Senior Audreana Rangel has been competing in roller derby races for several years and recently joined the Carson City Rollers. Over the summer she had the opportunity to travel to Nebraska for the U.S. national tournament, where she faced off against teams from all over the country.

“Nationals was really surreal for me, it didn’t really hit me until after I came back,” Rangel said, “I was playing against an Olympic champion while I was there, I was playing against the best of the best. It was really just a great experience for me and a great opportunity to see the big shots compete.”

The tournament being nationally scaled meant a large number of teams and competitors. Teams from across the country came to race and show off their skills and teamwork. Rangel’s team was able to secure high placements, despite the large number of competitors.

“This year we had about twenty different teams for coed races and we had ten teams for women. We had a coed team with boys and girls and we had a women’s team. Our women’s team ranked fourth in the country and our coed ranked sixth in the country.”

In order to compete at this level, Rangel and her team practice multiple times a week for long periods of time. They skate together for hours on end to ensure they can stay at the level of their competitors. Rangel has an added commitment, due to her having to travel a far distance weekly to train with her team.

“I have practices three times a week and I have to travel two hours to go to the Nevada, Carson City practice,” Rangel said, “A lot of that usually includes lots of skating [and] going around in circles. The practices usually last for about four hours.”

Rangel realizes that not many people know about the sport of roller derby and she heavily encourages anyone interested to check it out for themselves.

“As far as I know I’m the only one who plays roller derby on campus,” Rangel said, “However, if anyone wants to play roller derby on campus, come to me because we need people.”