On Thursday, May 3, the Oberlin track and field teams traveled to Delaware, Ohio to compete in the North Coast Athletic Conference championships at Ohio Wesleyan University. The Oberlin athletes had an early retreat from the school week as they attended the two-day championship that extended through Friday.

With strong performances throughout the indoor and outdoor season, the track teams hoped to continue the trend and put up a good fight at Ohio Wesleyan. Both the men’s and women’s teams were keen to improve upon their performances at the 2005/2006 championship, where the men finished in seventh place and the women in eighth.

On the women’s side, notable performances were in the pole vault as well as in the 1500-meter. In the pole vault, sophomore Kirsten Hansen-Day rose above all others to finish in first position. Junior teammate Deysi Villarreal finished close behind in second. Both vaulters separated themselves from the crowd as they jumped an impressive 2.99 meters, 0.1 meters higher than the nearest opponent. In the 1500-meter, sophomore Maddy Davis-Hayes and senior teammate Barrie Newberger finished in first and second place respectively. Davis-Hayes completed the event in 4:37.37 and Newberger followed closely with a time of 4:37.39. Both of them had good enough times to put them in the NCAA Provisional Qualifying pool. Davis-Hayes also finished strong in the women’s 5000m as she claimed the second place spot with a time of 18:17.64.

Among the other successful Yeowomen runners was sophomore Nicky Ouellet. Ouellet, who made her 3000-meter steeplechase debut at the NCAC championships, finished the event in 11:40.04, a performance that was good for third place. The newcomer finished just ahead of senior teammate Ariane Burwell, who completed the race in 11:59.00 to claim fourth place.

Also, junior sprinter Anna Chernin finished the 400-meter in 1:01.24 to claim a fourth place finish while first-year Amelia Fortunato finished the 100-meter in 13.32, also good for fourth place.

For the Yeomen, sophomore A.J. Greene replaced another Oberlin school record as he threw an impressive 123’6” in the hammer throw event. Greene’s throw put him in sixth place at the championships.

Sophomore Kyle Taljan had his act together once again as he threw for a distance of 160’7” in the javelin to finish in third place. In the 10,000-meter, senior John Shaw improved upon his sixth place finish as he completed the run in 32:21.25, beating his 2006 time by about 36 seconds to claim third position. In the 5000-meter, Shaw equaled his 2006 performance, finishing in sixth place with a time of 15:38.61.

Overall, the Yeowomen made a leap from their 2006 finish as they scored 101 points and ended the tournament in third place behind winners Ohio Wesleyan University and second place Allegheny College.

Newberger, who saw the Yeowomen claim their best finish since she came to Oberlin, commented, “I feel really good about the team’s performance. We haven’t finished this high in the team scoring since I’ve been here. The improvement has been amazing and I feel great about my individual progress. This was my first year being all-conference, and I’ve run my lifetime best times. I also have provisionally qualified for nationals, which I never thought I’d be able to do before. As for next year, I’m graduating! But I think the team will do nothing but get much better.”

The men’s team equaled their finish of the last campaign, scoring 44 points to finish in seventh place ahead of Earlham, Kenyon and Hiram Colleges.

With the NCAC Championships, the conference season comes to a close. However, some athletes still keep their fingers crossed in hoping to get one of the Provisional spots for the NCAA meet. Although the conference season is over, one more meet remains in Chicago, Illinois on May 13, at the Dan Keeler Invitational.