After more than two months of indoor competition, the Ohio men's and women's track and field teams began the outdoor schedule Saturday at the Navy Spring Quadrangular, finishing third of four teams and second of six, respectively.
Neither team fielded a full squad, as approximately 45 athletes traveled to Annapolis. The Navy Quad always has been somewhat of an optional meet, coach Clay Calkins said.
I like to leave it somewhat open
leave it to the discretion of the athlete if they want to participate in that first meet he said. It was actually pretty good participation for the Navy meet. That's more athletes than we've taken in the past couple of years.
Among those athletes who made the 26-hour round trip were thrower Eric Bildstein and decathlete Chad Lutz, who both scored in each of their three events, and hurdler Jericka Duncan, who won the 100- and 400-meter hurdles and ran legs in the 400 and 1600 relays.
Your first meet is always one of those meets where you want to do well enough that you know you've made an improvement Duncan said. Performance-wise
everyone is pretty much where they should be.
Also posting individual victories were distance runner Andrea Maas, jumper Monique Taylor and hurdler/jumper Foli James. Maas won the 5000 in 18:18 and Taylor triple jumped 11.94 meters, while James, Rebekah Diehl and Randi Carter finished 1-2-3 in the long jump, respectively.
Sprinter/jumpers Chip Cox and Scott Mayle and thrower Colt Thompson were among the athletes who did not compete.
Despite some good performances, the Navy Quad was almost more important in providing a transition from the indoor season, graduate assistant coach Justin Kempe said.
It's more of a 'thank God it's an outdoor meet' kind of thing
Kempe said.
Both the men's and women's teams return to action 9 a.m. Saturday when they play host to the McDonald's Invitational at the Goldsberry Track.
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Matt LaWell
