Track And Field Prepare For Second Half Of The Season – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/1/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
Feb. 1, 2000
COLUMBUS,Ohio
%^$Buckeyes Focus on Fine-Tuning
%^$Ohio State men’s 4×400-meter relay team has been invited to the Millrose Invitational on Friday, Feb. 4 for another chance to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships.%^$Ohio State’s field event athletes and distance runners are traveling to Bloomington, Ind. for the Indiana Invitational on Feb. 4-5, to measure their strengths and see what needs fine-tuning before the Big Ten Championships.%^$The rest of the team will remain here in Columbus and train.%^$
%^$Recap of the National Invitational
%^$The Buckeyes traveled to State College, Pa. this past Saturday for the National Invitational. Qualifying for the NCAA Championships was the goal for both teams. Ohio State’s athletes finished short of automatic qualifying times, but did have the speed to capture the provisional qualifying times.%^$Donica Merriman captured first in the 60-meter low hurdles and finished with a provisional qualifying time of 8.29. She also placed third in the 60-meter dash (7.56). Katy Craig reached her season best with a throw of 55’11-1/4? earning her a second place finish in the weight throw.%^$The men’s distance (9:44.82) and 4×400-meter relay (3:09.88) teams finished first and both earned provisional qualifying times. Andrew Pierce finished first in the 400 (46.69) and captured a provisional qualifying time for the third consecutive week. He just missed the 46.32 automatic qualifying time. Other first-place finishers were Ryan Grear in the 60-meter high hurdles (8.06) and Courtney Cornwall in the 500 (1:03.05).%^$
%^$Relay Team has the Speed
%^$The provisional qualifying 4×400-meter relay team is traveling to the elite Millrose Games in New York. This is an invitation-only meet, and the men are looking to make their presence known by improving their time to a 3:06.88 or better to automatically qualify them for the NCAA Championships. The relay team is composed of Cornwall, Joel Brown, Edison Francis and anchor, Pierce. If everyone remains healthy, this will be the squad running at Saturday’s games. At the National Invitational, Pierce ran a 44.8 split, and the team finished in 3:09.88.%^$
%^$Measuring Up in Indiana
%^$The Indiana Invitational will give the Buckeyes many levels of competition, as over 40 schools and numerous individuals are expected to compete. The competition begins Friday, and those who survive the elimination will compete on Saturday. The track team’s throwers, jumpers and distance runners will be representing the Buckeyes.%^$”Our goal is to improve our marks, and measure where we stand in comparison to the rest of the Big Ten,” John Smith, assistant coach, said. “The Big Ten Championships are at the end of February and it is time for us to begin fine tuning our techniques so we reach our peak for the meet.”%^$
%^$Throwers’ Strength Showing
%^$This year’s shot put and weight throwers are seeing the effects of hard work and a new coach’s techniques with the tremendous gains they have made so far this season. Craig has improved her mark for the weight throw by 15' from last year and is now only two feet away from reaching a provisional qualifying mark. Erin Carter is consistently improving as she placed fourth (44’00-3/4?) in the shot put at the National Invitational.%^$Andrew Saurer, John Norman and John Lageman placed sixth (54’01-3/4?), seventh (51’03-1/2?) and tenth (49’02-1/4?) in the weight throw at the National Invitational. Norman has improved his throws by 14 feet from last year.%^$”I believe Saurer will be a top contender at the Big Ten Championships, and our other throwers will be close behind him,” Smith said.%^$
%^$Meet the Coach
%^$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.%^$
%^$Next Week’s Action
%^$Next week the Buckeyes travel to Indianapolis for the Butler Invitational on Feb. 11-12.
