The Observer, February 10, 2006
Volume XXXVIII, Issue 16
Men's team shines at Case Invitational despite missing runners
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Even without some of its runners, the men's indoor track team managed to take second in the Case Invitational last week. The women were missing a number of their point scorers and finished sixth.
For the women the distance medley relay, comprised of four different distances, took home both first and second place. Case's B team was only 26 seconds behind a very strong A team. The closest non-Case competition to the dominant A team was nearly 50 seconds back.
Esther Erb was on the DMR team, but did not run in the individual distance events. Instead she ran at the Akron Open at Akron University on Saturday. There she was able to run against stiff competition, which helped her drop her provisional qualification time to 17:34. She is looking to drop her time even more throughout the season.
"I'm pretty confident that I can run sub 17:20 hopefully before the end of the indoor season, but if not, then certainly by the end of outdoor," Erb said.
While she is excited about the 5000-meter, the DMR also has her energized.
"It would be so much fun to bring some of my teammates with me, if I do get to go on my own," Erb said. "However, since the relay is scheduled right after the 5000 at nationals, I'd have to decide between the DMR and the 5000. I've told the other girls on the relay that if they qualify and prove to be a team which could go All-American, then I will choose to run the DMR instead of the 5000."
Some of the Case women at the Case Invitational had good individual meets there as well. Emily Bruckner came in third in the 200 and so did Harmonie Foster in the 300.
The second place for the men was a pleasant surprise without some of their runners.
"Honestly, I didn't even realize that we had finished 2nd place as a team," Adam Goodrich said. "It is extremely exciting that we could finish so strongly without a number of our point scorers. Once again, our runners took off more time and our throwers added more distance."
But he did make sure to point out the importance of the conference tournament.
"Winning these early season meets doesn't matter," Goodrich said. "All we need to do is take off time and get ready for conference meet."
Paul Hannen added to that assessment.
"It doesn't matter what you do all year as long as you perform at conference," Hannen said, though the early meets are how the runners gauge their readiness and improvement.
For the men, Desmond Ellis had a solid meet. He finished third in the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.69, close to a school record. He also came in fifth in the 200. The 3000 saw two Case runners finish consecutively, with Ryan Gjoraas and Mike Petro taking home second and third. In the 4x400 relay, the men took home first. Alex Drollinger finished third in both the shot put and weight throw with Brand and Jeffries following him up with a fourth in the weight throw.
With all the success the teams are having, the athletes are getting excited about the rest of the season. Rebecca Moore is looking forward to how far some of the athletes can go with confidence.
"I'd like to peak in a few weeks, for conference and Nationals," Moore said.
