WOMEN'S TRACK LONG DISTANCE SUCCESS For most people, 6. 2 mi les is a d istance much longer than they would care to run. Even to those who might not find the di sranee very daunting, (he idea of running all of it around a 400-merer track is roo repetitive and tedious ro even consider. But in co llegiate u ack and field, competitors complete the 10,000 meter run in exactly that way - 25 laps around the track. Last spring. members of the women's track (e3m rook on the challenge and managed to excel. At the conference meet. Elizabeth Lucas. "I RAN IN THE 10,000 AND PLACED FIFTH. My DAD WAS THERE TO SEE IT, SO THAT MADE ME REALLY HAPPY." -KELLY LAUTERBACH, JUNIOR shorter races . freshman , took third place in the 10,000. Kelly Lau te rbach , junior, was fifth and Brimey Copeland, freshman, was sixth. Their success in the longer race came as a surpri se ro the women, since their daily practices had been geared primaril y t oward the "We didn ' t really prepare for the 10,000," Lucas said. "Our track workouts were really focused mo re on the 1,500 and 3,000. " As a resule, the runners depended on strategy rather than sheer physical preparation to get them through the long race. "In the 10,000, we stan ed out at a fairly slow pace," Copeland said. "Our teammates s[Ood on the sidelines and called our our splic t imes after each lap. That really helped keep us on a steady pace." The women opted nO[ co go out fast with the rest of the pack. but (Q run at their own pace and move up as the race continued. "Brimey and I paced ourselves slowly," Lucas said. "W e we re last at the second mile, and then we juSt starred raking people one by one as they dropped off. " The 10,000 wasn ' t the only conference race at which the distance runners excelled. In the 1, 500 meter race, Diane Grubbs, junior, finished fourth. In the 3,000 meters, Tia T arole, sophomore, placed fi fth and Cheri Scharff, junior, placed sixth. Tarole and Scharff were also third and fifth , respectively, in the 5,000 meter run. Tarole was particularly pleased with her per180 Arhlerics fo rmance in the 5,000 since she had spent much of the spring coming back from a winter bom with mononucleosis. "Conference was my best race of the season ," Taro le said. "I ran a personal best of 18 :32. I was proud of my time because I had JUSt come back from having mono . "1 had to start the season off with walking a lap, then jogging a lap and gradual ly building up to practicing with the rest of the team. " It just goes to show that it is possible to comt; back from just about anything." ' T arole was one of several team members struggling to overcome physical limitations. Lamerbach injured her hip during the season and often had to run despite the pain. "She was really strong," Scharff said of her teammate. "Coach gave her the option of not running, but she decided to tough it Out and run anyway." In the end, Lauterbach was rewarded for her perseverance. "The season ended on a positive note for me," she said. "1 ran in the 10,000 and placed fifth. My dad was there to see it, so tha t made me really happy." Hip injuries plagued non-distance runners as well. Erin Elliott, junio r, overcame her hip problems to place fourth in the 400 meter hurdles at conference. "Erin had a really good performance at confe rence," Coach Bryan Phillips said. "She had been at HUF [Harding Universiry in Florence] during fa ll so she wasn ' t able to train , and when she came back and started training again, she developed a hip injury that lasted most of the season. H owever. she came back and ended up running reaHy well at conference. " The team suffered in the sprint events due to the injury of Calister Uba, junior. H er absence from competition was one of Phillips' few regrets about the season. "I would have liked to not have our sprinter hurt," Phillips said. "Calister had scored the majority ofour points over the last two years and without her we d idn' t score anything in the sprints at alL" However, H arding women were able to make a stronger showing in the field events. Meredith Garner, fres hman , made the finals in the long and triple jumps and Keri Fager, freshman , made the finals in the javelin, although neither scored points in the finals. - Sara Hatdesry
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