Against their stiffest competition yet this season, the Oberlin track and field teams put up a number of standout performances at last weekend’s Division III All-Ohio Track and Field Championships in Delaware, Ohio. The women’s team mustered a seventh-place finish in a field of 17, while the men notched a 13th place result.
The star of the meet was without a doubt junior Laura Feeney, who in winning the 5000m blew her opponents out of the water — the next closest finisher was 13 seconds behind — and established a track record for the Ohio Wesleyan venue. Sophomore Julia Goeke also put up an impressive 11th place finish in the 5000m.
Senior Andre Street provided the men’s best performance with a third-place showing in the 800m, while first-year Bret Petersen continued an impressive debut campaign, finishing fourth in the 400m hurdles, where sophomore Jeremy Lane finished 11th. The multi-talented Lane also brought in a 16th place finish in the triple jump.
On the women’s side, the women’s 4x100m relay team fought through a tough field for an impressive fourth place finish. The usually dominant 4x400m team was not at the top of their game, but still managed a seventh-place finish. The men’s 4x100m relay team did not fare as well as the women, lodging a 12th place finish, but the 4x400m team provided a strong fifth-place showing.
Senior April Wynn came within .17 seconds of qualifying for the finals in the 100m hurdles, finishing in 10th position in the prelims. But Wynn had her revenge in the long jump, where she made the finals and notched a fourth-place finish for the Yeowomen.
For the men, first-year Dewayne Evans finished less than .4 seconds out of the points in the 400m, good enough for 12th place. Senior Frederick Jackson made the cut in the 100m preliminaries and brought home an eighth-place mark there, and also notched a seventh-place standing in the 200m. Jackson said that he was “very pleased with my performance at the All-Ohio meet. I ran [personal records] in the trials of the 100 and 200, and qualified for the finals in both events. There were some really fast runners out there, but I think we were able to hold our own.”
Junior Courtney Stackhouse continued her impressive sprinting season, posting a third-place finish in the 100m, and finishing just .11 seconds out of the finals in the 200m, posting a ninth place finish there. Sophomore Sarah Bennett brought home a seventh-place finish in the high jump, and junior Emily Enderle showed that the previous week’s heptathlon experience was a boon, bringing in a fourth-place finish in the javelin.
The men showed some solid results in the long-distance runs, with first-year Ben Stanley ninth in the 5000m and first-year Ryan McGinnis 10th in the 1500m. According to McGinnis, “All-Ohio was a great meet. A lot of our guys are putting up fast times. The season is coming to a close, but first we have to tear shit up at conference.” In the women’s 1500m, sophomore Shannon Morris placed 11th and first-year Amanda Wardlaw 19th.
Rounding out the women’s results, Wynn, sophomore Shannon Houlihan and first-year Teresa Collins provided a sweep of consecutive places in the triple jump, finishing fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, with Leslie Bosworth seventh, Teresa Collins 10th and Vicki Alla 20th in the 400m hurdles.
Sophomore Kiel Rohrbacher was the lone men’s competitor from Oberlin in the shot put, javelin and discus, finishing 31st, 24th and 30th, respectively. Rohrbacher said that although he didn’t perform as well as he had hoped, the team was looking good going into the stretch. “I believe that as a team we are looking very good in the conference and will surprise a few people next weekend at [the NCAC championships at] OWU,” he said. “I think this really showed last weekend at the All-Ohio meet.”