BEREA — Two team records fell and a third was tied as the Wilmington College women finished sixth at the Ohio Athletic Conference Relays, hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College Saturday.
The Quakers finished with 70.5 points. Ohio Northern won the 10-team event with 101.
“I think this meet just shows how much our team has improved,” Wilmington head coach Ron Combs said. “We were ninth last year. We are just a world ahead of where we were a year ago.”
Wilmington’s distance runners had a solid day. The distance medley relay team of Kelsey Stief (Upper Sandusky), Colleen Foote (Pleasant Plain/Goshen), Anna Foote (Pleasant Plain/Goshen) and Annie Cekada (Mineral Point, Pa./Central Cambria) finished fourth in 13:09.61, breaking the 2000 team record by more than 4 seconds.
“We knew this team could break the school record, but we didn’t think it would be this weekend. We thought it would happen at the OAC Championship. They really ran well,” Combs said.
For the second time this season, Cekada set a new 3,000-meter school record. The freshman ran 10:50.75 to finish second overall. Stief was third in 10:57.98 to help Wilmington win the relay event.
“That is exciting,” Combs said. “This is the first long-distance relay — men or women — that we have won at the OAC Relays. Before this season, we had never had a woman run a sub-11-minute 3,000 meters. Now we have two. That’s pretty impressive.”
While the distance runners were busy smashing records, Callen Martin (Cincinnati/Finneytown) continued to dominate the sprints. The senior All-American remained undefeated at 55 meters with a win over defending national champion Judy Bataille of Heidelberg. Martin’s 7.05 tied her 2007 WC record and is the top 55-meter time this season among NCAA Division III runners. Martin and Brenda Jones (Yellow Springs) finished second in the 55-combined relay. Jones ran a 7.89.
“Callen is focused and working hard. It shows when she competes,” Combs said. “Today was a good win for her.”
The high jump relay team of Brittney Fey (Pleasant Plain/Blanchester) and Lauren Fondriest (Dover/Tuscarawas Central Catholic) tied for second.
