Conference!

Our women's team finished second at the conference meet and our men's team finished 4th to punctuate -arguably- the best seasons in the history of Oberlin College Track & Field.

It was a complete team effort - with athletes scoring in almost every event in which they competed.

Several years ago, we only had a handful of All-Conference Athletes.  Now there is a long list of them.  Additionally, Madeline Schultz was named the Conference Sprinter/Hurdler of the year.  She won the Heptathlon, the 400 hurdles, ran  legs on the winning 4x400, and 2nd-place 4x100, finished third in the 100m hurdles, and was fourth in the high jump.  

Our other conference champs included  Nicky Ouellet, who won both the 1500m and the 800m, our women's 4x400m team of Amanda Miller, Laura Vernon, Clara Shaw and Madeline Schultz, and Seth Wimberly - who won the 400m dash.  Seth, Maddy and Nicky have been fantastic examples to their teammates all year.  They've taken it upon themselves to become good athletes, and have pushed their teammates to do the same.  

By no means  were they the only athletes with impressive performances.  Ryan King finished second in the men's 1500m, breaking our (very old) school record in the process.  Over the past four years, Ryan has worked himself into one of the best milers in our conference.  He has also done a fantastic job of setting the tone for our men's distance runners.  Clara Shaw also finished second in the women's 1500m - marking an incredible season for her, as well.  Clara is a phenomenal runner, and it has been a joy to watch her put it all together this year.  

Solomon Turner and Ryan Magiera also stepped up big for us at conference.  With a second-place run in the 400, to go along with his successful indoor campaign, Solomon's sophomore season is an extremely successful one.  He hasn't even scratched the surface yet.  In only his second season of track, Ryan finished third in the high jump, improving by leaps and bounds (pun intended) on his finish at last year's conference meet.  

Lastly, we can't mention our Conference Meet without mentioning Everett Schlawin's 10k/5k double.  A day after finishing a very impressive 2nd in the 10k (31.53.67 - a new school record!), Everett came back to finish 5th in the 5k in 15:21.97.  Both races demonstrated the commitment to improve and competitive drive that Everett has had since he's been here.  We're couldn't be happier that his senior season ended so well, but we're going to miss him a lot next year.  

For most of our team, the season is over.  We'll take several people to compete in some post-season meets, with a nod towards trying to qualify for nationals.  With two more weeks until "The Big Show", a lot can  happen.  Check back later to find out what.                     

What a Weekend!

With three meets on the calendar, the Oberlin College Track Team was busy this weekend.  

The weekend started on Friday night with the Bob Kahn Invitational at Oberlin.  In addition to the meet, we held a ceremony for Bob Kahn, who donated the money to build our new track.  It was great to meet him.  

The meet itself was a great tuneup for the conference championships in a week.  We had exceptionally strong performances from Christine Moore in the steeplechase (11:40.02) Clara Shaw in the 1500 (4:50.09), Amanda Miller, Seth Wimberly and Reshard El-Shair in the 400m (1:00.4, 48.82 and 49.03 respectively), Ryan King in the 800 (1:55.98) and Conor Doss, Everett Schlawin and Ben Schild in the 3k (8:46.25, 8:49.04 and 8:49.48).  

At our other home meet, we hosted the NCAC Multi-Events Championships on Saturday and Sunday.  Two Oberlin athletes competed.  Madeline Schultz won the heptathlon with a score of 4,386 points.  That also provisionally qualifies her for nationals.  What's more that's the second "event" she has qualified in.  Maddy is also on the 400 hurdles list with a time of 1:03.88.  

Kyle Taljan competed in the decathlon, finishing in second with a score of 6,043 points.  In doing so, he broke his own school record, and just missed the provisional qualifying mark for nationals (6,050).    

Also, Nicky Ouellet competed in the 1500 at Hillsdale College's Gina Relays.  She ran 4:37.13, which is a new school record - and also a provisional qualifier for the national meet.

It was a fantastic weekend for our program.  Everybody's hard work is paying off in strong finishes and great times ... exactly like it should.  We've been able to build on each week quite well, and we're all looking forward to a fantastic conference meet.  

Sparky Adams!

Oberlin College Competed in the Sparky Adams Invitational at Baldwin-Wallace College.  You can see results at 

www.goyeo.com

Runners of the Week!

For their performances at the Marv Frye Invitational, Nicky Ouellet, Seth Wimberly and Madeline Schultz were all named Conference athletes of the week.  

Nicky won the 1500 in 4:42.75 and finished second in the 800 in 2:18.82

Seth was 4th in the 100 in 11.16, 6th in the 400 hurdles in 57.01 and anchored our third place 4x4 (3:21.09

Madeline won the 400m hurdles in 1:05.27 and the high jump (5-1.25).  She also finished sixth in the 100m hurdles (16.30).  

Outdoor is here ... finally!

Only a week late!  After thunderstorms cancelled our meet at Emory, our entire team finally got to make their outdoor debut at the Marv Frye invitational.  With the first outdoor meet of the year being so far away from our last indoor meet, we were a little concerned about the long layoff, and whether or not we'd be able to build on a very successful indoor season.  Our concerns were completely unwarranted, as the women's team finished a very impressive third place, with 93 points.  Our men's team also finished third with 74 points.  We competed well across the board, so it's tough to highlight just several performances.  Instead, I'll recommend checking out our full team results at www.goyeo.com

    

Spring Break Wrapup

So much for that.  Due to thunderstorms, our spring break meet was cancelled shortly after it started.  The few people who did get to compete fared quite well, though.  Joanna Johnson won the 10k in 35:55.40  It's an extremely strong provisional qualifying mark for Nationals.  

Madeleine Schultz was second in the 400 hurdles in 1:05.0 - also a huge P.R. for her.  

Josh Gallagher and A.J. Greene placed in the Hammer with throws of 38.77 meters and 37.64 meters respectively.  

Freshmen Christine Moore, Santino Merino and Stephen Williams all competed in their first ever steeplechase.  It's exciting to have several freshmen who want to be good at the steeple.  All of them have come so far since we first started hurdling back in February.    

Fran Holoman jumped 1.40 meters and Tyler Lewis jumped 1.81 meters in the High Jump.

For the people who got to compete, the results were very promising.  Everybody else won't have to wait long for their outdoor debut.  Our next meet is this weekend at the Marv Fry Invitational.  Despite the untimely end to our meet, Spring Break was a solid trip.  It offered us a chance to get in lots of good training, and also allowed our athletes a chance to decompress after mid-terms.  In addition to lots of practice, we were able to make trips to the Aquarium, and the World of Coke, as well as spend a day in Centennial Park.     

Spring Break Blogging with Nina Cole

We're in Atlanta, or "Hotlanta" as we have oh-so cleverly been referring to it, and a bunch of us just got back from the Farmer's Market at Emory.  We are now sitting outside of our hotel in the SUN.  Despite the fact that the only bags we have at our hotel for ice are dog poop bags (which work quite well, I might add) spring break is amaaaaaazing.  Nicky and Cordelia are sitting next to me discussing the sweet apparel we get for winning the Indoor Conference meet this year (wooo!) and I have a tan (which I am overly excited about).  We did a really good workout yesterday and we have our first outdoor race this weekend.  I guess I should be more informative, like say things about how the bus ride (12 hours) did not feel as long as it sounds, and that it doesn't suck not to be home for spring break, because this is way more relaxing than having a week to try and see all your high school friends at once.  Oh, and we had Ethiopian food for dinner last night.  I also learned that the track team should give up their pro wiffle ball dreams.  Not because pro wiffle ball teams don't exist (they don't) but because when we played in the park a few days ago, peopled stopped to laugh at us.