Sports

Track teams continue to impress in spring

In print | April 10, 2008

Three women compete at Princeton

BY JAYMES FAIRFAX-COLUMBO

This past weekend, the Garnet outdoor track and field women rewrote the history books. The Garnet women split their squad, running at the Princeton University Sam Howell Invitational last Friday, and at the Richard Stockton Osprey Open the following day.

The Garnet contingent at Princeton consisted of a small group of three runners — Nyika Corbett ’10, Bess Ritter ’09 and Cait Mullarkey ’09. According to head coach Pete Carroll, the purpose of the Princeton meet was “to give some of our really fit, upper level athletes championship caliber preview.” The Garnet trio certainly got that, as they competed against both national caliber Division III competition and Division I competition.

Mullarkey competed in the 1500 meters, scorching the track in 4:44.84, good for third place on the Swarthmore all-time list. After so much success, how does Mullarkey stay motivated to continue dominating her competition? Melina Healey ‘08 and Corbett shed some light on the situation. According to Healey, "Cait has an inborn intensity. She’s a competitor."

Corbett went a bit farther, joking, “Why does she race? Cause she’s so damn good at it. It’s hard to stop doing something you’re good at.”

Corbett and Ritter also put up strong performances, competing in the 5000 meters and running 18:20.42 and 19:11.90, respectively. Corbett’s performance landed her at fourth place all time. In describing Corbett’s race, Mullarkey said, “Nyika’s race was beautiful to watch because she’s such a smart runner. She was patient and ran within herself and just started to drop people.”

Corbett was also pleased with her race, stating, “I think I hit my splits pretty well. I was off a bit at the beginning but I got into my rhythm and I had a lot left at the end so I plan on lowering that time.”

Saturday was also a good day for the Garnet. Most of the ladies ran multiple events, which according to Carroll was a strategy “designed as extra work to prepare for the championship part of the season.” The event of choice on the day was the 1500 meters. Healey led the charge for the Garnet, posting a PR of 5:10.04. She was followed in by Cait Russell ’11 (5:13.44), Ritter (5:18.45) and Rebecca Woo ’11 (5:21.06).

When asked about the race conditions that led to her PR, Healey proclaimed, “It was a very violent race with too many people in the pack and I got pushed a lot. There was a lot of physicality involved. I got to the race 20 minutes before I ran so I was stressed out but it’s probably better because I warmed up closer to the race.”

A number of Garnet women also competed in the 800 meters. Lauren Deluca ’10 posted a time of 2:33.46, followed in by Russell and Woo. Deluca, Russell, Healey and Ritter also got some speed work in, as Deluca competed in the open 400 and the four combined to run the 4 by 400 meter relay.

Heather Hightower ’09 was the lone Garnet field representative, but she certainly made her performances count, setting an incredible three PRs at Stockton. Hightower rocketed the shot 9.10 meters, flung the discus 20.45 meters and hurled the javelin 16.11 meters.

“I ate my Wheaties that morning,” Hightower said. “Coach is really focusing on my movement ability and flexibility. We’re doing drills to work on my foot movement and leg strength. It was also just getting used to the new events. The shot’s still my favorite though.”

The Garnet will next be in action on Saturday, when action starts live from the College of New Jersey at 10:00 a.m.

Disclosure note: Nyika Corbett is a contributor to The Phoenix but had no role in the production of this article.

Men head down home stretch

BY NYIKA CORBETT

“The season’s flying by. Wow!” Dan Kurz ‘11 said, upon realizing that there are three more track meets for the Swarthmore men’s track before they are due to compete at the Centennial Conference Championships. The outdoor track season always seems to go by in a blur, but this past weekend the men’s track team was working hard to make their mark.

The good times got kicked off on Friday night when Ross Weller ‘08 competed in the steeplechase at the Distance Night of Princeton University’s Sam Howell Invitational.

Running in the midst of Division I competition, Weller ran an impressive PR of 9:27.88. This time earned him a tenth place finish in the race as well as a fourth place slot on Swat’s top ten all-time records in the steeplechase, pretty good for his first race of the season. Asked if he was happy with the race, Weller said, “I was surprised to run a PR so early in the season. Hopefully it’ll be a good enough time to let me run in the Penn Relays.”

Saturday’s meet, the Osprey Open hosted by Richard Stockton, also offered a splendid showing in the steeplechase.

Jonathan Shoop ’08 won the race handily in a time of 10:08. His domination was so impressive that teammate Alex Breslow ’11 overheard a spectator exclaiming, “Look at that guy move!”

Shoop, not one to let compliments get to his head said, “I was really nervous going into the race because I haven’t been practicing for the steeple at all, but after the first lap I got my head into it.”

In the sprints, Kurz posted solid times in both the 200m and 400m dashes. He was joined in the 400 by teammate Seth Green ’10 who was using the 400 to get in some speed work in order to improve upon his 800 time.

Mickey Katz ‘08 and Breslow both ran a demanding 800, 1500 double. With regards to his performance this past weekend as well as to track in general, Breslow had only positive remarks, saying, "I’m just glad to be out here." Chris Mayer-Bacon ’11 rounded out the track performances with a sound race in the 400m hurdles.

Nick Willet-Jeffries ’10 represented the throwing squad in the discus. He was joined by teammate Tommy Huang ’10 for the shot put and javelin.

All in all, Willet-Jeffries said that the throws were run in a rather frustrating manner at the Stockton meet. “There was a cutoff in all four of the throwing events, so we all got one throw that they measured, and if you didn’t make the cutoff, they didn’t measure the rest of your throws. So it kind of sucked.” Still, the men did what they could and gave a good, hard effort.

The Swarthmore men’s track team will next be in action this coming Saturday at The College of New Jersey.