Track and Field Prepares for Top Competition in New York – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/12/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
Jan. 12, 2000
On the Road
%^$The Ohio State men’s and women’s track and field teams take on Columbia, Duke, Fordham, Iona, NYIT, Manhattan, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Tulane and Yale at the New York Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 15 at 6:30 p.m. St. John’s is hosting the invitational, which is being held at the Armory in New York. %^$
%^$OSU Invitational Recap
%^$The Ohio State men’s and women’s track and field teams impressively started their indoor seasons at the Ohio State Invitational on Saturday. The women accumulated 19 first-place finishes and the men seized both first and second place in three events along with other Top 3 finishes. Head Coach Russ Rogers said he was impressed with his teams’ performances. %^$
%^$”I think we performed very well, especially since everyone was just coming off of the three-week winter break,” Rogers said. %^$
%^$Team Looks Forward to NY
%^$The Buckeyes will be facing some of the top teams in the nation at the New York Invitational.%^$
%^$The team will be running hard this week in preparation for the tougher competition. %^$
%^$Rogers believes this meet will provide an excellent opportunity for Ohio State’s top runners to qualify for the NCAA Championships. %^$
%^$”The Armory has a fast track and we’ll be facing fast competition,” Rogers said. “The combination of those two factors and our runners capabilities should allow them the times needed to qualify for the NCAA Championships.”%^$
%^$Rogers is looking for Dominque Calloway in the 60-meter low hurdles and the 200, Donica Merriman in the 60-meter low hurdles, 200 and 60, Andrew Pierce in the 400 and 200, David Gonzalez in the mile, Ian Connor in the 3,000, and the 4×400 relay team composed of Pierce, Courtney Cornwall, Joel Brown and Thomas Dickson to be contenders in qualifying for the NCAA Championships.%^$
%^$Top Performers of the Week
%^$With only one meet under their belts, several Buckeyes have already posted great wins. All-American candidate Dominque Calloway notched two first-place finishes in the Ohio State Invitational. She notched a time of 24.42 in the 200-meter dash and 8.35 in the 60 hurdles.%^$
%^$Cathy Carlin also recorded big wins for the Buckeyes. She posted wins in the high jump (5’5-3/4”) and triple jump (34’4-3/4”).%^$
%^$For the men, Andrew Pierce was the Buckeyes only double winner, capturing first-place finishes in the 200 and 400.%^$
%^$Captain Corey Johnson captured first in the pole vault (14’11”) beating his previous career-high of 14’7-1/4?. With his efforts on the track team and in the classroom, he was named WOSU Scholar-Athlete of the Week.%^$
%^$Top Newcomers
%^$Not only did the veteran members do well, but also several of the Buckeyes freshmen class. In her first collegiate meet, Erin Carter (Fr., Logan Ohio) captured first place honors in the shot put (44’9-1/2”) and Jeff Cerveny (Fr., Wadsworth, Ohio) posted a first-place finish in the high jump with a mark of 6’8”. Freshmen, Jamanica Wright (Darby, Pa.) and Molly Logan (Dayton, Ohio) were members of the first-place 4×400 relay team (4:09.73).%^$
%^$Meet the Coach
%^$In his 12 years at Ohio State, Russ Rogers has produced 100 Big Ten indoor and outdoor track and field champions, ten NCAA indoor and outdoor champions and 65 All-Americans. His 1993 teams alone produced 16 All-Americans and 12 Big Ten champions in both indoor and outdoor events.%^$
%^$Rogers was recently chosen as the head coach of the national team that participated in the 1999 World Indoor Championships in Macbashi, Japan. %^$
%^$Rogers has more than 30 years of head coaching experience in national and international track and field. %^$
%^$His most recent experience was with the U.S. team at the 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was also the 1988 sprint coach for the U.S. Olympic Team which competed in Seoul, Korea, the 1987 coach of the World University Games team, the 1985-86 head coach of the U.S. track team and has numerous other coaching credentials.%^$
%^$Rogers came to Ohio State from Fairleigh Dickinson University, located in Teaneck, N.J., where he was the head coach for both the men’s and women’s track and field and cross country teams for 10 years.%^$
%^$Next Week’s Action
%^$The Buckeyes will be back home Jan. 22 to compete against Western Carolina and Big Ten foe Indiana. Last year, Western Carolinas captured the Southern Conference Championships. The Indiana Hoosiers men’s team recorded a fourth-place showing at the 1999 Big Ten Championships, while the women’s team notched a third-place showing at the tournament. Field events will begin at 9 a.m. and running events begin at noon.
