Track teams third, fourth

Players set new personal records and qualify for championships

Two track meets ago, junior Trista Thornberry broke the school record in the 1000 meter, a race she had never run before and her first indoor race in two years. Last Friday at Baldwin-Wallace Thornberry broke the school record in the 1500 meter, with a time of 5.01. Today Thornberry runs the 800 meter. "She hasn't run that before," sophomore track team member Amie Ely said, speculating that maybe Thornberry would break the record in the 800 meter as well.

"Well, it's possible," Thornberry said. "I've run faster than [the current school record] before. I've run the 800 before, but not indoors."

Thornberry has run track off and on since her first year, but due to injuries hasn't usually competed for an entire season. She said that right now she's relatively healthy after coming off a relaxed Winter Term. Of her record setting run in the 1500, Thornberry said, "I haven't run that fast since my junior year of high school."

Other members of the track team posted personal records (p.r.' s) and qualified for the conference meet - often in events they'd never competed in before.

"We had a really, really good meet overall. We ran really strong and had a lot of p.r.'s," Ely said. Ely herself set a couple prs, and finished third in the 55 meter with a time of 8:00 and fourth in the 300 meter.

Junior Steve Jackson said the same about the men's performance. "It was a real good meet," Jackson said. "It might have been Oberlin's best meet this year." The women finished third out of five, and the men finished fourth out of five.

Junior Amy Kremen and senior Melissa Barnard both qualified for the conference meet in the 55 meter hurdles. Until a couple weeks ago, Kremen had never run hurdles before. Barnard had - but not since her junior year of high school.

"It's really cool," Kremen said. "I'd never run [hurdles] until two weeks before."

First-year Rebecca Grossman finished second in the 800 meter with a time of 2:28.54.

Senior Steve Kim set new prs in the long and triple jump. Kim and Jackson made the conference finals for the 55 meter, with times of 6:88 and 6:87, respectively.

Sophomore Dan Feldman finished third in the 300 meter with a time of 53:45, also a pr.

Returning runners - especially in the distant events - helped provide the Yeotrackers with more depth. Senior Shannon Fox won the 5,000 meters. Junior Manda Gillespsie and junior Maggie Russell-Ciardi both qualified for the conference meet. Junior Harsha Thirumurthy finished first in the 5,000. Senior Ben Garthwait and junior James Richter finished strong in the 800 meter, ranking third and six, respectively. Garthwait had not run track in two years.

The men scored in every event they competed in.

Today is the last home indoor track meet. The North Coast Athletic Conference championships are next Friday at Denison.