By Mark Bentz
In what can be best construed as a tune-up for the biggest indoor meet of the season, the Elizabethtown Blue Jays Track and Field team traveled to Haverford College for the second time in three weeks. Last time the Jays competed in the Haverford Invitational; this time they took part in the Keough Invitational. Score was not kept at the Keough, so preparation for the MAC championships was the order of the day for Etown.
Starting with the women’s team, sophomore star Carrie Kerna showed off her multi-faceted talent as a forecast for the championships. At Haverford she won the 55m dash in just 8.5 seconds. Kerna then continued by finishing second in the high jump, just ahead of freshman Katie Hershberger, who took third. Also in the jumping events, sophomore Casey Moser placed second in the triple jump, as she was able to leap over 33 feet.
Etown sprinters senior Annalisa Ellis and freshman Kristen Pettibon finished the 55m dash in hand times of 7.6 and 7.7 seconds, respectively. Pettibon came back in the 200m to finish second in her heat and took sixth overall out of 26 runners with a hand time of 27.7 seconds. Freshman Betsy Burroughs ran the 400m in 1:01.6, the fifth-fastest time in the event out of 14 competitors. In the 800m, Jill Brobst finished 10th out of 42 competitors in 2:28.2 and fellow freshman Melissa St. Clair finished eighth out of 33 in the 3000m in 10:58.8.
Switching over to the men’s side, the sprinters had a good day for the Blue Jays as sophomores Rob Hickox and Mike Galli each ran the 55m dash in just under seven seconds. Junior Aaron Lyle continued the torrid pace he has set all winter long by running the 200m in just under 24 seconds, which set a personal record for him.
The distance runners also achieved success at Haverford. Freshman Steve Sanko finished seventh out of 37 runners in the 800m with a time of 2:02.2, while classmate Nate Moore took 11th place out of 53 competitors in the 1500m. That rate continued in the 3000m as two cross-country veterans, junior Dustin Scott and sophomore Josh Lyman, finished eighth and 10th, respectively.
The field events provided Etown with even more reason to be optimistic about chances of medaling at the MACs. The Blue Jays’ trio of pole-vaulters posted strong performances.
Sophomore Joe Moses led the way for Etown by placing fourth overall with a height of 13' 0". Fellow sophmore Eric Bennett and freshman Andy Kuchera were deadlocked in fifth with leaps of 12' 6". Also, last week’s Etownian"Sports Salute" nominee, senior shot putter Mike Kistler, took a bronze due to throwing a distance of 44' 4-1/4".
The Jays have many athletes in the top portion of the seedings in the conference. That means that there is a good chance to see plenty of medals coming Etown’s way on Saturday.
"Anyone in the top 10 in the seedings has a very realistic shot of placing in the top six in their event," head coach Chris Straub said. " We’re hurting on the men’s side right now and had to scratch the Distance Medley Relay (first event) because Dustin Scott has been sick all week and Mike Zwatty has some Achilles tendonitis. It will give Aaron Lyle and Steve Sanko (as well as Scott and Zwatty) a chance to run their other events on fresh legs. It was hard to scratch from an event we’re ranked number one in, but we really had no choice as we have very limited depth with the men—and the women for that matter."
The meet will be held at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove. The Crusaders home track is the host for both the indoor and outdoor conference championships. According to Straub, it is one of the best around.
"Susquehanna’s facility is first-class for a non-banked 200 meter oval. They did it right by making it 'spikeable' (i.e., you can wear 1/8 inch spikes on it which allows for faster times/better performances). It’s one of the best indoor tracks in the state of Pa. other than Penn State’s, which is one of the best in the country," Straub said.
"The only way they could have made it any better was to put in a banked 200m track instead of a flat, 6-lane 200m track. I’m sure a lot of our athletes jaws’ will drop when we get there and see it complete for the first time."