Oberlin hosted the annual Oberlin Indoor Invitational last Friday in the Heisman Field house, pitting both the men’s and women’s squads against five other teams from the greater Cleveland area in a non-scoring meet.
Top finishers for the men included senior Andre Street, taking first in the 400m dash, with first-year Bret Petersen finishing third. First-year Ryan McGinnis narrowly missed first place by one-tenth of a second in the1500m. Street is already expected by many to challenge for the 800m title at outdoor championships this spring.
The Oberlin women made a strong showing across the board. Fresh off her College record-breaking performance in the 3000m last week, junior Laura Feeney again left the field behind her finishing 15 seconds ahead of her closest competitor. First year Theresa Collins won the triple jump, while junior Vicky Alla and first year Magdalen Dale placed second and third, respectively, in the 400m.
Junior Courtney Stackhouse continued her dominance in short sprints, taking second in both the 55 and 200m dash and missing first by one tenth and six tenths of a second, respectively. Senior Anna Ruth was third in the high jump.
The women’s 4x200m relay finished nearly four seconds ahead of the second place squad while the men’s relay placed third in their race.
Just where this year’s Yeorunners will wind up come championships is anyone’s guess. The men’s team — long a victim of too much heart with too few bodies to go along — now finds themselves growing, but unbalanced. The bulk of the squad is underclassmen and the team finds itself with only two distance runners — a major change from past years where the men had more trouble fielding a 4x200 relay then finding people to run the 3000m. And the slow swell in numbers, while encouraging, doesn’t look to be great enough to put the team on strong footing this year or next.
The women continue to add depth in key areas such as jumps, where Collins adds another strong competitor to senior April Wynn and sophomore Shannon Houlihan, both champions at outdoor championships in past years. The team is still thin in throws and hasn’t added many people to compliment Feeney over the years. With a few weeks to go in the season plenty could still change for the Yeowomen and other teams in the conference. But it is doubtful that the women can compete in the final standings with fully loaded large teams like Allegheny and Denison. Moreover, inexperience in events like the 4x200 relay — where Oberlin once dominated — will test the team further come championships.

The team travels to Baldwin Wallace today for the greater Cleveland Colleges Meet, then returns home Friday, Feb. 22 for their final regular meet of the season.