Kristy Parker
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Wittenberg men's and women's track and field teams are primed and ready for the biggest weekend of the 2006 indoor season after taking partial squads to last weekend's Fred Wilt Memorial Invitational at Anderson University.
In their final tune-up for the North Coast Athletic Conference championship meet March 3-4 at Denison, the Tiger men placed seventh and the Tiger women took ninth at Anderson. There were several outstanding individual finishes to highlight the weekend.
For the men, the 4 x 200-meter relay foursome of senior Gregg Carter (Wellsville, Ohio/Wellsville), freshman Manoach Lamarre (Miami, Fla./Bellen Jesuit), senior David Bazzel (Tipp City, Ohio/Tippecanoe) and sophomore Derrick Braziel (Brook Park, Ohio/West Springfield (Va.)) finished first in a school-record time of 1:31.51. Carter then added a school record in the 55 meters as he crossed the finish line in 6.57 in the preliminaries, the best time in the NCAC this year. He finished second in the finals with a time of 6.60.
Carter is set up for a huge conference championship meet. In addition to his top seeding in the 55 meters, Carter has the best time in the NCAC in the 200 meters and the top mark in the long jump. In addition, Carter is part of that 4 x 200-meter relay team, which has the fastest time in the NCAC.
Among several other personal and season-best times at Anderson, freshman Erik Larkin (Cincinnati, Ohio/Country Day) stood out with a third-place mark of 43-5 in the triple jump, and senior Thomas Dillingham (Cincinnati, Ohio/Princeton) placed fourth in the weight throw with a mark of 47-5. That is just short of his NCAC-best mark of 48-4.5.
On the women's side, there were also some encouraging developments, starting with sophomore Nicole Bailey (Cincinnati, Ohio/Summit Country Day), who placed first in the triple jump with a mark of 35-2, third in the 55 meters with a season-best time of 7.42 and third in the long jump with a mark of 16-7.75. Bailey, who holds the Anderson Fieldhouse record in the 55 meters after blistering the track in a Wittenberg school record time of 7.31 a year ago, will be favored to defend her NCAC title in the event, since she has the fastest time in the conference this year.
Freshman Kristy Parker (Hamilton, Ohio/Ross) made a statement with a time of 27.39 in the 200 meters. The personal-best time was good for fifth place in the meet at Anderson, but it was the best time in the NCAC.
In addition, the 4 x 200-meter relay quartet of freshman Tara Osborne (Oxford, Ohio/Talawanda), Parker, freshman Katie Shoemaker (Arcanum, Ohio/Franklin-Monroe) and senior Anna Finkelstein (Whitehall, Mich./Reeths-Puffer) placed third in a time of 1:49.11, which was almost two seconds better than their best time this season. It was also the top time in the NCAC heading into this weekend's meet.
Parker was named NCAC Sprints/Hurdles Athlete of the Week for her performance at Anderson.
Dillingham was named NCAC Field Events Athlete of the Week and Carter earned NCAC Sprints/Hurdles Athlete of the Week for the second time this season.