The absence of competition creates mediocrity.

But why diminish your soul being run-of-the-mill at something? Mediocrity: now there is ugliness for you. Mediocrity's a hairball coughed up on the Persian carpet of Creation.

People don't want to think. And the deeper they get into trouble, the less they want to think. But by some sort of instinct, they feel that they ought to and it makes them feel guilty. So they'll bless and follow anyone who gives them a justification for not thinking. Anyone who makes a virtue - a highly intellectual virtue - out of what they know to be their sin, their weakness and their guilt... They envy achievement, and their dream of greatness is a world where all men have become their acknowledged inferiors. They don't know that that dream is the infallible proof of mediocrity, because that sort of world is what the man of achievement would not be able to bear

Mediocrity in politics is not to be despised. Greatness is not needed.

When we set such low standards for ourselves mediocrity seems like an acheivement. But what will we truly learn from that?

We need to continue to refine our ability to compete. The more we immerse ourselves in the competition, the better prepared we'll be. We're not chasing marks as much as we are trying to win events. If we can do that we'll not only be better prepared for the Big Ten Championships, but the regional times will follow.