Strong individual efforts bely poor track meet score

Despite bad weather conditions, the men and women's outdoor track team had a solid start in their first outdoor meet of the season this past Saturday at the Wooster Invitational. Both teams competed well against the seven conference schools that were present. Earlham, the eighth conference school, was not at the meet, though there were ten teams overall. The men finished ninth with 36 points, and the women tenth with 11.

Coach Mulligan said, "First meets are always unsettling, however I thought this was the best opening outdoor meet I have seen in several years. It was very encouraging."

Even though several fall members of the men's track team went on to play other spring sports, the men's track team was very competitive. First-year Mark Sasaki said, "The team did very well, the best in a long while. Even though it was cold, we made really good efforts."

Sophomore Sean Wesolowski had an impressive personal best time of 22.5 seconds in the 200-meter dash, which put him in second place overall.

Wesolowski, along with junior Steven Jackson, first year Chris Nytch and sophomore Gil Saenz ran the 4x400-meter relay. They clocked in at third place overall, with a 3:34.8. Saenz also ran the 400-meter hurdles in 57.1 seconds, giving him third place.

Nytch placed in the top ten, running a strong 400-meter.

Senior Stephen Kim had an excellent triple jump, placing him fourth in a very competitive top five, with a distance of 40'06.5".

The men's long distance runners were not at last Saturday's meet as they ended up training at home. They will be joining the rest of the team this Saturday in Alliance, Ohio, for the Mount Union Invitational.

The women's team performed equally well. Junior Ellen Kazary and first year Cary Strumph both ran personal bests in the 400-meter dash.

Sophomore Amie Ely, first-year Emily Lane, and senior Melissa Barnard all participated in the 200- meter dash, and all three women ranked in the top ten.

Barnard also ran the 100-meter hurdles, and her time was good enough to make finals.

Ely placed third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 28.2 seconds.

First year Kate O'Brien was not happy with her performance in the long jump. She said "It was sketchy the way it was set up. My mark was off in the grass, and it was raining." O'Brien went on to say that, "There are a lot of different individuals with a lot of talent on the team, and everyone supports each other."

The coaches also received support from team members. "The coaching is great. Nally [the field events coach] is there every day at practice, and he knows a lot of stuff. Coach Mulligan works us really hard. It's great," O'Brien said.

The track season is very short. There are only four more meets until the championships. Coach Mulligan said that the team has to therefore "Take advantage of every opportunity we have. We have good people, and if they stay healthy, we will come along, and I think we will do very well in both conference meets."