Track team readies for championship

Records continued to shatter at last Friday's track meet against non-conference competitors such as Mt. Union and Bethany Wheeling Jesuit.

Junior Harsha Thirumurthy was named NCAC athlete of the week. He broke the school record in the 1500 meter.

The meet was nonscoring, though individuals were notfied of their times. Sophomore Amie Ely said the meet was against competitive people and gave the team a good opportunity to keep sharp for the conference meet today and Saturday.

For the third consecutive week in a row junior Trista Thornberry broke a school record, this time in the 800 meter. The 4 x 4 team also broke the school record, and team members hope to break it again at the conference meet.

"We all just ran our fastest," said first-year Emily Lane. "We just thought we'd get [the record] this weekend. We'll get it again this weekend."

Lane said there's a good chance the 4 x 4 team can shave more time off at the conference because "we get to wear spikes, we've got the whole adrenalin rush thing going, we're feeling good."

The 4 x 4 ran a time of 4:24; the previous record was 4:38. "It's an amazing improvement," said Thornberry, who also ran the 4 x4.

The 4 x 4 was one of the meet's final events, and Lane, Thornberry, sophomore Amie Ely and first-year Rebecca Grossman had all competed in several races already. "We kind of surprised ourselves," Lane said. "We were feeling tired."

The 4 x 4 team is now ranked fourth in the conference, but is not far behind the third ranked team, a position Thornberry said gives Oberlin incentive to work harder.

Overall, times continued to drop, as they have throughout the season. Senior Melissa Barnard set a personal best in the 55 meter hurdles, an event she qualified for the conference meet in on Feb. 14. Senior Steve Kim set personal records in and won the long and triple jump.

Senior Steve Jackson said he was pleased with the meet, and has high expectations for the conference meet. "I think the team's going to do well," Jackson said. "I think we're going to score in every event we compete in. I think we're not just going to score, we're going to do well."

Ely agreed. "I think we're really going to surprise a lot of people," she said. She said that because times have continued to drop throughout the season, the team has the potential for continued improvement at the conference meet.

"People are consecutively pring (setting personal records) instead of plateauing," Barnard said.

Thornberry said that the team has been tapering all week and should be ready for the conference meet. "The team should be fairly competitive," Thornberry said.