BEREA, OHIO -- Bouyed by three first place finishes, an OAC-record and a national qualifying time, the Baldwin-Wallace College women's track team is in record-setting position after the first day of compeition at the 2003 Ohio Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships at The George Finnie Stadium in Berea.
After the first day, the Yellow Jacket women have 45 points and stand in third place, 16 points behind first place Otterbein College. With its distance firepower set for tomorrow, Head Coach Bill Taraschke and his women are poised to challenge for an OAC-record eighth straight outdoor crown. The B-W men currently have 32 points and are in third place with one individual champion.
The women's 4 x 800 meter relay team of senior Lynn Katanik (Parma Padua), junior Tara Perry (Brook Park/ Berea), junior Jen Southall (Willoughby South) and senior Tara Gruskiewicz (Williamsfield/ Pymatuning Valley) won the 4 x 800 meter relay with an OAC-record-setting time of 9:18.21. The mark broke the one set by the B-W 4 x 800 relay squad in 1999.
The other two individual winners for the Yellow Jackets were senior Nicole Drouhard (Canfield/ Austintown Fitch), who won the 10,000-meter run in 38:32.31, and senior Sarah Guba (Berea), who won the javelin with a throw of 120-feet and seven-inches. Also, junior Nikki Bell (McDonald) ran the best 400-meter dash of her career in the preliminaries and qualified for the NCAA Division III National Championship Meet with a time of 57.50 seconds.
Highlighting the men's competition today were senior Brad Geletka (Kirtland) and junior Alex Johnson (Olmsted Falls). Geletka won the 10,000-meter run in 33:04.84 and Johnson placed third in the discus with a throw of 151' 7.75" and fifth in the javelin with a toss of 170' 7".
To access all of the OAC Championships information, please click on the championship site on the Internet Web site at www.be.edu/athletics. Team scores and individual results will be posted by 8:30 p.m.
FOR MORE B-W SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327, by FAX at 440-826-2329 or via e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. To contact Head Coach Bill Taraschke, please call him at 440-826-3398, FAX him at 440-826-2192. To get all of the latest Yellow Jacket track information, please log onto our Web site at www.bw.edu/athletics and then go to the track pages.
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