Track team does well even with missing runners

The men and women's outdoor track and field team competed in a cold and windy unscored meet at Mt. Union College last Friday in their second meet of the year and, as usual, had many strong individual performances. Other teams competing included Case Western Reserve University, Muskingum College, Walsh College, Westminster University, and the College of Wooster.

Junior Trista Thornberry said, "As a team we did fairly well, a couple of our strong sprinters weren't there, but it was a good start. We definitely improved since our first meet." The team was missing a small bunch of people, including sophomore Dave Ellis to a stress fracture, as well as a few others to academic commitments and class conflicts.

Sophomore Sean Wesolowski said, "A lot of people stepped up."

One high point for the men's team was junior Harsha Thirumurthy's tie with Mt. Union's Doug Brown for first in the 5000-meter with a time of 15:27.5. Coach Tom Mulligan said, "He had a really good race. It's pretty incredible to have that kind of result in the 5000."

"He had a tremendous race and ran close to his personal record," first-year Mark Sasaki said.

The meet was Sasaki's debut as a pole-vaulter for the outdoor season. He didn't place, but felt confident about his ability and future competition. "I haven't practice pole-vaulting that much but I'm looking forward to it," Sasaki said.

Another strong performance was exhibited by sophomore Steve Jackson in his blast through the 200-meter race to take first with a 22.7. He was followed quickly by junior Stephen Kim and Wesolowski who tied for fifth with a 23.2. "I did o.k.," Wesolowski said. "Steve Jackson had a good meet and so did Stephen Kim."

The same deadly sprinting trio took the third through fifth place positions in the 100-meter with Jackson running an 11.4, Kim an 11.5 and Wesolowski an 11.7. They also ran with sophomore Gil Saenz in the 4 by 100-meter relay to take fourth with a 44.4. "They continue to get better, they just need to work on their exchanges," Mulligan said. "Each one has made nice progress from indoor to outdoor."

Kim ran these events in spite of an injury that prevented him from competing in the triple jump, his usual strong event.

Saenz was another strong finisher, placing second in the 400-meter hurdles with a 56.3. "He's looking really good in the hurdles," Mulligan said. "He was fourth in the conference last year."

Other places were occupied by the 4 by 400-meter relay team at sixth with a time if 3:37.2, by first-year Chris Mytch at seventh with a 53.9 in the 400-meter, and by sophomore Jason Cunningham who took seventh in the discus with a 110-6. The four by four team consisted of Mytch, Saenz, first-year James Priest, and junior Pete Washington.

Washington set a personal record in the 1500. "We had a bunch of people run their best times, some in their career," Mulligan said. "It's early in the season and we didn't have perfect weather."

The women also produced some very strong results. At junior Trista Thornberry's first outdoor meet ever, she managed to grab first in the 1500-meter with a 5:02.1, a whole 6.5 seconds faster than the second placed runner. "It wasn't a very good time for me, but given the windy conditions, I was pleased with the effort," Thornberry said.

Senior Shannon Fox took fourth in the 5000-meter, running a 19:29.8. The 4 by 100-meter relay team took fourth with a 55.9, while the 4 by 400-meter relay team also took fourth with a 4:35.4.

Sophomore Amie Ely placed sixth in the 100-meter, clocking in at 13.9. "She's running very, very well," Mulligan said. "She is strong in a variety of ways."

Sophomore Sarah Allen ran a 1:06.4 in the 400-meter run to grab eighth.

The team competes at home today, the only time this year, and is looking forward to it. Sasaki said, "It's our only home meet so many are running extra races and doing extra events. Also, since it's a home game, it should give us more incentive.

"I think we'll do fairly well," Thornberry said. "It's more fun and informal. There will be a co-ed relay at the end where we just grab people and run. I think it will definitely be fun."

Wesolowski said, "Anyone can run it, sometimes we pull people out of the stands, guys from other teams will run it, coaches sometimes run, baseball players might show up and run, basically it's a big free-for-all."

Next week the team travels to Ohio Wesleyan University for the All-Ohio meet. "That should really give us an idea of where we are," Mulligan said.

Overall the coach is pleased with where the team is at this point in the season. "People are progressing really nicely, we've got some people who are pretty banged up that we need to get healthy, but overall we have a really good attitude at practice and people are working hard."