Oberlin’s track and field teams ended their seasons strong at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships last weekend, as the women’s team capped a successful year with a third-place finish and the men’s team received several outstanding individual performances en route to a seventh-place result.

As per usual, junior Laura Feeney was the star of the event, breaking an Oberlin record, gaining provisional NCAA qualification and winning Most Valuable Middle/Distance Runner for her second-place time of 37:31.72 in the 10,000 meters — and she also won the 5000m, with an 18:10.93, 34 seconds faster than the closest competitor. Not content to let Feeney take all the glory, senior April Wynn also received provisional NCAA qualification for her winning triple jump of 36’10 3/4”, and the 4x100m team of Wynn, junior Courtney Stackhouse, sophomore Amber Coleman and first-year Teresa Collins likewise received provisional NCAA qualification for their winning time of 48.58.
For Coleman, this season has been a bit of a roller-coaster. She said, “I was not here mentally this season and kind of down on myself the whole season because I was improving but not at the rate I wanted to. I dropped the baton at the Baldwin Wallace meet (the meet previous to conferences) and that’s when I really got down on myself. But at conferences I just ran and forgot about everything else and, well, we almost set an NCAC record in the 4x100m, and we dropped nine seconds off our 4x400m. So I was pleased.”

For the men, senior Andre Street continued an impressive final campaign with a win in the 800m. Street also contributed to another win as part of the 4x400m relay team’s 3:22.61 effort, which also included sophomore Jeremy Lane and first-years Dewayne Evans and Bret Petersen. Petersen further took the win in the 400m with a 49.12, and took all-conference honors for his second-place time of 22.79 in the 200m.

According to Evans, the meet was a pleasant surprise. He said, “We did a lot better than a lot of people anticipated. Our 4x400m relay ran great and Bret [Petersen] and Andre [Street] were exceptional. I was a little disappointed with my performance since I missed making the finals in the 800m by two-tenths of a second and I felt that I had a chance to finish somewhere in the top three.”

Petersen was upbeat on the results from this year, and was looking forward to next year already. “This is the first season in four years I have not had a season-ending injury. Despite having about one dozen guys on the team, we did exceptionally well at the conference meet....Next year, I hope to compete at the NCAA Division III nationals in the 400.”
Earning all-conference honors for the women were Wynn (for her second-place finish in the long jump), Feeney (for the 5000m win), Collins (for her second-place finish in the 400m), Stackhouse (for finishing second in the 100m and third in the 200m), sophomore Shannon Houlihan (for her second-place in the triple jump) and senior Anna Ruth, for the previous weekend’s third-place finish in the heptathlon. Ruth also finished third in the high jump, where sophomore Sarah Bennett finished seventh.
Ruth was positive on her experiences on the weekend and her Oberlin career, saying, “I am really happy to round out the season and my career the way that I did. Taking third in the heptathlon and third in the high jump in conferences and getting career personal records this year in the javelin and high hurdles were great accomplishments for me. This is my 12th year of track (minus last spring away) and it was a good experience to the end largely thanks to the wonderful people on the team and the coaches.”
For the men, first-year Ryan McGinnis finished sixth in the 1500m and first-year Ben Stanley finished 11th in the 5000m. The 4x100m team of first-year Travis Oman, senior Fred Jackson, Evans and Street finished eighth. Jackson also finished fourth in the 200m, where junior Brian Senne finished 21st, and fifth in the 100m, where Senne finished 18th. Lane also put up a fourth-place finish in the 400m hurdles an 11th-place standing in the triple jump.
In other good results for the women, Wynn placed fourth in the 100m hurdles, with Houlihan seventh and Ruth eighth. First-year Shannon Morris finished ninth in the 800m and Houlihan finished seventh in the long jump. In the 1500m, junior Amanda Wardlaw finished eighth, with Morris 12th and senior Jennifer Noel in 15th. In the 5000m, sophomore Julia Goeke finished ninth, while senior Karen Grushka finished 21st.
Senior Greg Wells finished sixth in the high jump and eighth in the javelin, 13th in the long jump and 18th in the discus, where sophomore Kiel Rohrbacher finished 20th. Rohrbacher also finished 18th in the shot put and first-year Dan O’Brien finished 19th in the 3000m steeplechase.
Evans was very upbeat on the year as a whole, saying, “The year was great with Bret breaking the school record in the 400m and Fred [Jackson] coming out and doing what he did, especially since it was his first collegiate experience. Next year I hope we can build on some of the successes we had this year. For myself I hope I can train all year for the 800m and hopefully break the school record, which is like 1:54 or something. Hopefully we can repeat our performance in the 4x400m.”

Coleman was likewise optimistic on next year’s prospects, saying, “Ideally, we want to represent in the conference even more. We placed third and we are hoping for a first and qualifying for NCAA again for the 4x100m. Maybe having our coach get NCAC coach of the year because he deserves it.
“It showed that Oberlin has heart even though we are not as deep as Allegheny or Denison, whose women’s team is as big as our whole team. I am proud of being a Yeochick on the track team and I commend Coach for doing spectacular things with the amount of talented people he has,” Coleman said.