Anna Hartig
Staff Writer
The College of Wooster track and field program hosted the Fighting Scots Invitational for its second home meet of the season. The six-team event was another notable meet as the men’s team finished in second place and the women’s team placed third with strong performances from both the field and distance events.
Last year’s 5k champion for the Fighting Scots, Jackson Feinknopf ’19, said, “This meet is early in the season but it has set the tone for what we want to accomplish this season and shows us as a team where we need to make adjustments moving forward.”
While just starting off the season, the team found success in a variety of events. On the women’s side, Wooster’s 4×200 meter relay finished with a time of 1:51.06 to win second place. The group consisted of Erika Womack ’19, Julia Higgins ’19, Korri Palmer ’20 and Regan Szalay ’20. “We were really pleased by our 4×2 performance because it is only the second meet of the season and we already broke our PR from last year,” Szalay said. “Hopefully our time will give us a chance to run at All-Ohio in a couple weeks.”
Elizabeth Obi ’18 won the triple jump in which she surpassed her opponent by five inches with a winning jump of 34 feet and 6.25 inches. Georgia Hopps-Weber ’21 nearly earned first in the pole vault with a height of 10 feet, six inches.
“It was exciting to participate in my first jump-off. These only happen when there is a tie that cannot be broken by the usual standards and therefore it does not happen very often. Although I wish I could have taken first, it was a fun new experience,” Hopps-Weber said.
On the men’s side, Jack Petrecca ’19 won his second high jump event of the season with a leap of 6 feet, 2.25 inches. Petrecca’s performance was a big highlight of the weekend as he only needed to jump one time to win the entire event. David Westcott ’19 earned first place in the 5,000-meter race with a time of 16:07.95. His teammate, Feinknopf, came in second place just behind Westcott with a time of 16:09.61. Brian Lief ’19 finished second in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:03.62 and Matt Klonowski ’21 finished close behind with a time of 2:06.95.
“This team is trying to win meets, break school records and compete to our best abilities once it comes time for the conference championships,” said Feinkopf. The team is starting to look forward as conference is their ultimate goal. “In the end, both teams hope to place well at conference. We have some tough competition like Oberlin and Ohio Wesleyan, but if we all work toward our individual goals, our team will improve as a whole,” said Szalay.
Make sure to wish the Fighting Scots good luck as they take on their next opponents at the Bob Shannon Invitational in Granville, Ohio. The competition will take place this Saturday, Feb. 3.