“After two school records were broken in the first meet, I think I can safely say this is going to be a successful season,” opined women’s indoor track captain senior Alex Petek after the meet at Kent State on Saturday, Dec. 8.

Petek is not the only one on the team with a positive vibe after the meet Saturday. Total team scores were not tallied, but the focus was on the strong team spirit that the roughly 80-member squad displayed at Kent State.

According to Head Coach Ray Appenheimer: “It’s difficult to bring 80 people together and have them feel like one team, but I am already seeing a tremendous amount of support across event areas. In just a couple of weeks this team has already gelled.”

Another one of the captains, senior Kate Cook, was equally pleased with the team’s performance.

“[W]e had some outstanding performances for the first meet of the season,” said Cook.

First-year Josh Gallagher kicked off his Oberlin indoor track career in an impressive style, capturing the record in the men’s weight throw with a toss of 38’4”. Senior Deysi Villarreal began her season in a similarly successful fashion, clearing a height of 9’ 5.75” in the women’s pole vault to take over the record for Oberlin in that event.

Sophomore Seth Wimberly announced his presence with authority in the men’s 400- and 200-meter events, running 52.05 and 23.20 respectively.

Senior Anna Chernin contributed another strong performance to the Yeowomen, running a time of 61.61 in the open 400-meter event and, according to Coach Appenheimer, serving as an excellent anchor leg for the women’s 4x400 meter relay.

Junior Nicky Ouellett also ran well, finishing third in the mile event for the women with a time of 5:13.06, and sophomore Clara Shaw ran a personal best time of 2:21.32 in the women’s 800-meter race.

Asked about his outlook on the season, Appenheimer expressed great excitement: “There is so much energy, optimism and enthusiasm around the team this year. We are blessed with great leadership from our captains, seniors Kate Cook, Andrea Canini, Alexandra Petek and Cody Hartley, and juniors Ryan King and Kyle Taljan.  These six people have really set the tone for what is going to be a banner year for us.”