Last season, both the men’s and women’s track teams finished fifth out of 10 teams at the NCAC Championships. Members of both teams were outspoken about their desire to break from the middle of the pack in the conference and challenge for the conference championship in early May. With a pair of third-place finishes at Marietta College’s annual Don Frail Invitational, the team is getting there, but it has plenty of work to do before the conference championships.
Seven schools were represented at Marietta this past weekend. Overall, Marietta came away with the top honors in the women’s categories, while Notre Dame College (Ohio) came away with first-place on the men’s side.
The Notre Dame women came in second, while the Marietta men took second as well. The Scots finished third on both sides.
The women’s field was rounded out by Bethany College (W.V.) in fourth place, Charleston College (W.V.), Frostburg State (Md.) and West Virginia Wesleyan University in seventh.
For the men’s event, Frostburg State finished behind Wooster, with Bethany and West Virginia Wesleyan finishing in fifth and sixth places, respectively.
The most significant performance of the day for the Scots came from Terry Workman ’10, who finished in first place in the 5,000 meters with a time of 15:52.99.
This time was so far ahead of the rest of the field that Workman could have stopped for a drink in the middle of the race ó Workman’s time was almost a full minute and half faster than the second-place finisher.
Aside from Workman’s impressive performance, four other members of the men’s team finished first in their events. Julian Mangano ’10 crossed the finish line first in the 100 meters (50.01), while Bryan Albani ’10 came away with a win in the 55-meter hurdles (15.65).
Josh Kime ’11 also won an event in† shot put, with a distance throw of 45 feet, 5.25 inches.
The women’s team received a big lift with a first and second-place finish from Kelsie Herring ’12 and Erin Plews-Ogan ’13 in the 1,500 meter event.† Herring and Plews-Ogan finished neck and neck, with Herring coming out ahead by a hair with a time of 5:02.64 and Plews-Ogan with a time of 5:02.66.
Sarah Appleton ’12 also captured an individual win in the steeplechase with a time of 12:08.55.
This weekend, the Scots face two big challenges, with two weeks before the all-important NCAC Championships in Delaware, Ohio April 30-May 1.
Today, the Scots head to Oberlin College for the Oberlin Invitational. Tomorrow, the teams head back to Delaware, Ohio for the All-Ohio Championships.
The Scots set lofty goals for themselves at the beginning of this season. This weekend will be a good indicator of whether the team can measure up to its high early-season expectations.