Trinity’s track and field team performed well at the Texas Tech Masked Rider Open indoor meet in Lubbock, Texas, last weekend. The indoor track is a 233-meter circle, compared to the normal 400-meter oval-shaped outdoor track. Trinity competed against many scholarship schools, and it was one of only three Division III schools at the meet. Many Tigers recorded personal bests in various events.
“We had a really good meet,” said head coach Marcus Whitehead. “It was our first meet; a lot of teams have already competed multiple times this season, so it was a good meet for us. We don’t put a huge emphasis on indoor, but we went out and competed, and we ran well.”
Senior Maddie Murphy, who is now currently ranked 10th in the country in the 3,000-meter event, ran a personal-best 10:08.78 and was runner-up to an NCAA Division I competitor. Senior Vanessa Moreno placed sixth with a personal-best time of 10:28.91, and junior Michelle Oberndorf finished eighth with a personal best at 10:39.12.
“The Tech meet provided a great opportunity to see where individual and team fitness levels are at and a chance to get some first-race kinks out of the way,” Murphy said. “I think we will only continue to get stronger and faster as the season goes, but this was the right kick-start we needed.”
Many Trinity men also recorded personal-best times in the 3,000-meter event. Senior Mark Greene finished 10th at 9:04.18, sophomore Tristan Ashton finished 11th at 9:06.60 and sophomore Christian Soto finished 15th at 9:15.14.
Junior Sarah Pickett tied for fifth place in the women’s high jump with a personal-best 1.58 meters. Sophomore Mariana Sigala placed 11th out of 30 runners in the 800-meter event at 2:26.82.
Sophomore Bailey Drury placed 29th out of 52 in the 400-meter event (1:00.38) and senior Will Paulus placed 31st out of 61 in the men’s event (51.23).
“The meet was very beneficial, but didn’t go without throwing us a few curve balls. We also had a few of our athletes running foreign races, but many of our other athletes fared very well in their races against very talented fields,” Paulus said. “Overall, the first meet was a welcomed shock to our bodies, which haven’t raced in eight months, that provided us with a unique experience to run indoor against fast competition.”
The Tiger men’s 4×400-meter relay team of Paulus, junior Michael McIntosh, senior George Warren and sophomore Kirk Gulliver clocked in at 3:31.18. The women’s 4×400-meter relay team of Drury, Sigala, first year Abigail Sheppard and senior Jessie Dean recorded a time of 4:10.55.
“We’re just now getting into the meat and potatoes of our training regiment,” Paulus said. “There are many improvements that we will make over the next month or so. The first few weeks back from Christmas break are usually used to get us back into sprinting shape, not necessarily for preparing us to run our respective races- the same goes for the distance crew, as they have been logging a lot of miles.”
The men and women will compete tomorrow in an Alumni Meet at 9:00 a.m. at Trinity.
