Womens
Track First at Case
by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
In
an encouraging start to the outdoor track and field season, Oberlins
womens team won the Case Western Reserve University Invite,
and the mens team placed fifth out of eight teams, only one
point out of fourth place.
According
to senior Anna Ruth, the victory was an unexpected but welcome surprise:
We usually use most of our meets up to the conference meet
just for individual training some people dont compete,
most people dont do exactly what theyre going to do
at the conference meet so we usually dont think much
about our team standings until the conference meet. Thats
why it was a nice little surprise to see us take the Case meet.
The womens team placed in 12 events overall, with first-year
Shannon Morris winning the 1500m, and both the 4x100m and 4x400m
teams also taking away victories. Despite their short numbers and
lower placing, the mens team also walked away with two victories
senior Andre Street in the 800m and first-year Bret Petersen
in the 400m intermediate hurdles and two solid second-place
finishes, with sophomore Jeremy Lane placing after Petersen in the
400m intermediate hurdles and the 4x400m relay team taking second
in a very tough relay field.
We
have been working hard and the pay off will soon be here,
first-year Ryan McGinnis said. All-Ohio and the conference
meet will both be good meets to put up some [personal records].
We should turn some heads in the near future.
The womens team was nothing short of dominant in their victory,
beating out second-place Cuyahoga Community College by 23 points,
120 to 97. According to junior Emily Enderle, By winning,
we reinforced to ourselves and others that we are very competitive.
The
Yeowomen finished strongly in a variety of events, from the field
sports to distance running to the springs. In the field, Enderle
placed third and Ruth fifth in the javelin; in the high jump, sophomore
Sarah Bennett finished in a three-way tie for second; sophomore
Shannon Houlihan placed third and senior April Wynn fourth in the
long jump; and Houlihan, first-year Teresa Collins and sophomore
Faye Doherty swept the two through four places in the triple jump.
For sophomore Meagan Dunphy-Daly, the meet was an eye-opener: I
was very impressed at how good the Oberlin womens team is,
she said. This was my first track meet, and they are amazingly
fast.
Indeed, the Yeowomen were even more dominant in the sprints, where
in addition to the relay victories, Ruth taking fourth in the 100m
high hurdles, with Collins and first-year Leslie Bosworth took second
and third in the 400m intermediate hurdles. Senior Nzinga Broussard
placed third in the 200m and 100m, with junior Courtney Stackhouse
taking second in the 100m.
On
the mens side, senior Frederick Jackson put in solid performances
in finishing fourth in the 200m and third in the 100m sprints. According
to Jackson, there is still much room for improvement: Right
now my times are respectable. However, I wont be pleased until
I am running a lot faster. I know that the speed is there, its
just a matter of being patient and letting it come out.
Lane, in addition to placing second in the 400m intermediate hurdles,
took home a respectable third-place showing in the triple jump.
Other good performances from the Yeomen included McGinnis
fifth-place finish in the 5000m and junior Greg Wells fifth-place
finish in the 110m high hurdles. Wells also took home ninth place
in the javelin, where sophomore Kiel Rohrbacher finished 18th.
According to Rohrbacher, For me, the Case Invite was the first
time that I was able to throw the javelin and I did fairly well
considering this. I think that the indoor season was a little disappointing
to all of us who competed. We all hoped to do a little better than
we did as a team, but that is in the past. We are looking forward
to the outdoor season and hope to keep performing to the best of
our abilities.
The
teams next competition is a home meet today at 4:30 p.m. at
Dill Field against the College of Wooster.
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