Sports
Shorts
Athlete Of the Week
Laura
Feeney, a junior from Stattsburg, N.Y., continued her dominance
both outdoors and in, winning the 3000m run at last Fridays
Case Western Reserve University Invitational, in the process setting
an Oberlin indoor record. Feeneys 10:42.12 time powered the
womens team to a second-place finish out of six teams at the
Invitational.
Feeney,
who also earned first-team All-NCAC honors for her fall cross-country
efforts, is looking to continue both her and the teams success
at the Oberlin Invitational this evening at the John Heisman Field
House at 6 p.m.
Last
years indoor track team finished third in the NCAC and featured
three All-NCAC runners, and Feeney is hoping to help lead the team
to even greater heights as the indoor season draws to a close.
Marquee
Event
Oberlin Invitational
Indoor Track & Field
Today, 6 p.m.
John Heisman Field House
Some
people spent their Winter Terms sprinting, vomiting, icing and passing
out from exhaustion and that was all before 10 a.m. All while
you read War and Peace sitting on the beach on Grand
Turk Island, never getting up before three in the afternoon. So
the least you can do is to come out and watch your fellow dedicated
Obies defend their home track against foreign incursions. Happy
Hour at the Feve is so last semester come see some hot track
action instead.
In
the Locker Room with. . .
First-year
track runner Teresa Collins proves herself to be as strong and unperturbed
in a crowded Dascomb dining booth as she is on the sports field,
even while our in the locker room interview transforms
into a fascinating dialogue on gender identity politics.
You
seem to be quite the athlete. Being that youre a first-year,
was this a surprise to your coach and teammates?
TC:
Recently, I was talking to some friends about legs and body build
and someone said to me, Teresa, you have huge legs!
Since then Ive told my teammates Im not doing leg workouts
anymore. My huge legs are the key to my success.
Do
you find college competition easier or harder than you expected?
TC:
Right now, its easier. Like, Im in Division III right
now, which is basically the equivalent of what my high school was,
where the emphasis is put on brains over muscle. I have friends
in Division I schools who tell me how everyone runs so fast they
can barely keep up.
Youre
from Georgia, right? Has Ohio weather been a challenge for you?
TC:
Yes, but it doesnt affect me athletically.
Okay,
this is a question I get a lot because Im from New Orleans.
What makes a person from the South choose to come to Oberlin?
Before
she can answer this question, fourth-year John Zajac, one of the
many people sitting in our crowded booth, begins to bring attention
to a book of photographs of female-to-male transsexuals.
He
points to one of the photographs and says
JZ:
Doesnt he look really good?
Teresa
seems interested.
TC:
Wait, so thats a woman?
JZ:
He was born a female but had sex reassignment surgery. Doesnt
he look great?
TC:
Yeah, he does.
I force
the conversation back to the interview and ask Teresa the question
again, perhaps more pointedly.
Why
come to Oberlin?
TC:
The fact that I know Ill be able to study. In Atlanta, I know
where all the clubs are. So there would be the temptation to party.
Studying here is easier than it would be there.
Was
the Oberlin student body what you anticipated? Have you liked most
of the people youve met?
TC:
Yes. Everyone but some of the voice majors. Certain people will
act like youre not there, and Ill be thinking, Im
a black person, and this hallway were walking down has white
walls. You have to see me.
Who
is your greatest inspiration?
TC:
My Auntie Marion. Shes just a strong-willed woman who sets
goals and achieves them. Nothing holds her back. She can do anything.
Just
as I thought I had safely killed all the fun, sophomore Bacilio
Mendez and senior Claire Miller interrupt us again with a sudden
proclamation that most gay men have long dreamed of being black
women. There are three gay men at the table, two of them people
of color, and all three agree this is true. After some time on this
topic, I try and maneuver back to the interview.
Of
Michael Jackson and George W. Bush, which would you rather be stranded
with on a deserted island?
TC:
Michael Jackson, because at least hes entertaining. He could
sing to me, but I wouldnt want to look at him.
He
does look a bit like a dead alien now, doesnt he?
TC:
Yeah.
Zajac
still has his photo-book on transsexuals, and now he starts to show
and explain the mechanics of surgically reassigned genitalia.
Teresa looks a bit put off, but takes it in stride.
TC:
That doesnt look right.
Everyone
else at the table looks at her, wondering if her comments will turn
to the offensive or politically incorrect. But she continues with
TC:
Not that theres anything wrong with it. It just doesnt
look right.
Trying
to finish up my interrogation, I throw in a final irrelevant question
If
God exists and you had one question to ask your creator, what would
it be?
TC:
Do I make you laugh?
An
interesting point to end on, Teresa, though ultimately I cant
tell whether our Dascomb lunch has merely been something to laugh
about or something downright risqué.
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