Track Hosts First Home Meet
by Jacob Kramer-Duffield

Oberlin’s women’s track team continued their solid early-season form against the College of Wooster last Friday, and the men’s team again saw several good individual performances in the meet. Additionally, last Friday and Saturday senior Anna Ruth and junior Emily Enderle journeyed to Defiance College to compete in the Yellow Jacket Classic Heptathlon, where they finished second and third, respectively.

In the Wooster meet, Oberlin’s sprinters and relay teams continued their dominance. Both the men’s and women’s teams won the 4x400m relay, with the women’s team also capturing the 4x100m relay. Oberlin sprinters walked away with both men’s and women’s 200m victories, with senior Frederick Jackson and junior Courtney Stackhouse, respectively, winning the races. There was a similar Oberlin sweep of the 400m hurdles, where first-year Bret Petersen took it for the men and first-year Teresa Collins winning it for the women, and of the 400m dash, where senior Andre Street won the men’s race and sophomore Amber Coleman winning the women’s.
The women took home victories in every track event, and two of the six field events. Stackhouse tabbed another win in the 100m, and senior April Wynn won the 100m hurdles. In the longer runs, first-year Shannon Morris notched a win in the 800m and first-year Amanda Wardlaw in the 1500m. “Last Friday I felt great, so I just went with that feeling and ran a good race. I’m hoping to do the same thing this coming Saturday,” Wardlaw said.
The women’s wins in the field came from sophomore Sarah Bennett in the high jump and sophomore Shannon Houlihan edging out teammates Wynn and Collins in the triple jump.
The men’s team notched another victory in the meet with first-year Ben Stanley taking an impressive 11-second win in the steeplechase. Additionally, a major improvement on the men’s side from the previous week came from sophomore Kiel Rohrbacher, whose fifth-place finishes in the javelin and discus were both personal records. Rohrbacher, who also garnered a fourth-place finish in the shotput, said, “I think the team performed extremely well. We had some good times, heights, and distances last week and we hope to see them carry over to the all-Ohio meet this weekend. The rest of the season, though extremely short, is looking very good for us.”
The heptathlon in which Ruth and Enderle competed last weekend was the first for either since the spring of 2000, and Enderle was happy with the results. “I am pleased with my performance because it signified a return to the level where I feel comfortable, prepared, and focused enough to be competitive,” Enderle said. “Most of all I’m just really happy to be competing again and am excited about the upcoming meets.”
Enderle also said that she felt a particular bond with heptathlon cohort Ruth, since, “Anna and I spend most of our practice time together in a somewhat isolated way; every day we’re doing something different with a different group of tracksters. Because of this we have developed our own team dynamic, creating a very comfortable team away from team experience whenever we’re separated from the entire team. Having Anna, a very supportive teammate and great athlete, to compete beside in practice and at multi-event meets is an advantage, her presence enriches the experience.”
Nevertheless, Enderle said that, “I definitely did miss the support and entertainment the entire team atmosphere provides and am looking forward to rejoining the group in future meets.”
Today and tomorrow the men’s and women’s teams jump back into action in the Division III All-Ohio meet, hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University, in Delaware, Ohio.

April 19
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