While a large number of Oberlin students packed up and left campus for Winter Term, many athletes on the indoor track and field team decided to stay and brave the cold weather to train for the season.

Last Friday at Case Western Reserve University, Oberlin’s men’s and women’s indoor track and field squad competed in their final Winter Term meet before the onset of classes and the beginning of the spring semester.

The men’s team ended up placing seventh with a total of 26 points while the women’s team placed ninth with a total of 23 points.

“It went really well,” commented sophomore Alex Petek. “A lot of people came back for this meet. We were missing around 30 people, and we still did a great job.”

First-year Flannery Cerbin had an outstanding performance in the 800-meter while another first-year, Ryan King, ran a solid time in the mile. Both athletes placed second in their respective events.

Senior distance runner Dan Keeney is very excited about the first-year talent, saying, “I’m seeing the team fill out. Multiple people in every event. It’s very cool to see.”

“Our team is so much bigger this year. The middle distance women arereally deep. We’ve got a lot of girls and some really great freshmen,” added Petek.

Oberlin hosted their first home meet, the Oberlin Lid-Lifter, on Jan. 20. King and senior Carmen Welton both crossed the finish line first in the 1000-meter races.

The Yeomen and Yeowomen also traveled to Granville, Ohio to compete in the NCAC relays on Jan. 28. Because the team was missing so many athletes over Winter Term, the men placed ninth of 10 and the women placed fifth.

“We couldn’t enter ourselves into as many races, and people were not as ready to run because of the long break,” said Petek.

Emery Barter, an avid Oberlin track and field fan, is looking forward to the upcoming home meets. Barter is confident in his friends’ abilities and the team’s strength as a whole to be the top contenders in the conference this year. “I can tell from the energy that the track team exudes that success is in the air,” he said.

Now that the majority of students have returned to campus and the whole team is back together again to train, you can catch all the action that the indoor track team has to offer in their next meet this Friday, Jan. 10, in the Heisman Club Field House at 5:45 p.m.