Since 2006, the Bobcats have traveled north to Michigan to compete in the two-day Hillsdale College “Gina” Relays. Today, they’ll travel up to the Wolverine State again with the breaking of a 24-year old record on their minds.
Two weeks away from the Mid-American Conference Championship, the team’s goal is to continue to get better marks every weekend — this weekend is no different than the last, however, the team has one particular goal in mind.
All events take place Friday and Saturday, with a final 4x800-meter relay. Last year, Ohio won the event with Hope McCarty, Brittany Tyree, Courtney Weiss and Juli Accurso. They crossed the finish line in nine minutes and 11.52 seconds.
Ohio is striving to break not only last year’s time, but also the school record of nine minutes and 8.4 seconds in 1984. The relay quartet, hoping to challenge last year’s time, is composed of veterans McCarty, Brittany Tyree, along with Danielle Winningham and Erin Gale.
In this year’s 4x800 event, the Bobcats will be running against six other teams, including St. Norbert, Trinity Christian, Siena Heights, Cornerstone and two from Hillsdale. Ohio is also competing in 10 running events and seven field events.
“For our level of competition at this meet it’s good for all events but it’s traditionally been a very storied distance meet and they have a lot of rich history with that,” coach Clay Calkins said. “Hopefully that holds true this weekend. We are going to try to get some good marks especially in the distance events and then other events as well.”
At last year’s Gina Relays, the Bobcats also took home first place in the 3,000-meter and 10,000-meter runs. Last weekend, the team placed sixth among 14 teams, but did not take home any first-place finishes at the All-Ohio Championships in Oxford.
“This time of year, we are tapering down,” Calkins said. “Hopefully all the marks are improving — that’s our goal.”
UP NEXT:
Hillsdale College “Gina” Relays
All Day, Friday and Saturday
Ken Herrick Track
Hillsdale, Mich.
nb155607@ohio.edu
