Whitney Goller
GRANVILLE, Ohio — The Wittenberg Tiger men's and women's track and field teams put together strong Day 2 performances, highlighted by a trio of first-place finishes by freshmen, to move into the middle of the pack at the 2010 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Indoor Championships.
The men, on the strength of individual titles by freshman high jumper Aaron Hartzell (Springfield, Ohio/Northeastern) and freshman long jumper Josh Colbert (Urbana, Ohio/Urbana), finished fifth in the nine-team field. The women took fourth of eight teams in the competition, highlighted by a first place finish turned in by freshman Whitney Goller (Findlay, Ohio/Liberty Benton) in the 55-meter hurdles.
Colbert's finish was unquestionably the surprise of the meet for either Tiger team. Trailing Emmanuel Aouad of Wabash going into his final attempt, Colbert uncorked a personal-best jump of 23-00.75 to win the event by more than eight inches. In the process, Colbert became the first Tiger male track and field student-athlete to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Division III championships since Skip Ivery and Tim Gaal earned All-America honors in 2003 and 2004.
That was one of two All-NCAC finishes for Colbert, the other coming in the 55-meter dash. Colbert took second place in a time of 6.60, just .03 off the winning pace.
Two other freshmen enjoyed All-NCAC performances for the Tiger men, starting with Hartzell's victory in the high jump. He topped the bar set at 6-04.25 to outdistance Wes Chamblee of Wabash by one inch. Also of note was a second-place finish recorded by freshman David Kolakowski (Rocky River, Ohio/Rocky River), who reached 13-11.75 in the pole vault, a full six inches better than the Wabash vaulter in third place but just under six inches behind the winning mark.
Rounding things out, senior Tim Uher (Granville, Ohio/Pickerington North)finished second in the pentathlon at Oberlin a week earlier. Uher went on to score points for the team in two other individual events.
Goller was sensational for the thin Tiger women's squad, starting with her winning time of 8.73 in the 55-meter hurdles. She also earned All-NCAC honors with a second-place finish in the long jump with a mark of 16-03.00 and a second-place finish in the 55-meter dash in a time of 7.65. In addition, Goller scored team points with a fifth-place finish in the triple jump with a mark of 32-01.00 and seventh in the pentathlon competed the previous week at Oberlin.
The other female student-athlete to score big team points for the Tigers was sophomore Kari Domiano (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome), who placed sixth in the 55-meter dash and fourth in the 200-meter dash, in addition to running the anchor leg of the second-place 4x200-meter relay team that finished with a time of 1:49.58. Domiano was joined by freshman Lea Morin (Lewiston, Maine/Lewiston), freshman Shawnquaya Johnson (Uhrichsville, Ohio/Claymont) and sophomoreJordan Stafford (Springfield, Ohio/Greenon).
Stafford also performed well as she ran a leg on the 4x400-meter relay that finished fourth, in addition to recording an eighth-place finish in the 200-meter dash and a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter dash.