Scot Men Fourth; Women Seventh at NCAC Indoor Track & Field Championships

Nii Djan Tackie

The College of Wooster's indoor track and field teams performed about as expected at this weekend's (March 7-8) North Coast Athletic Conference Championships, held at Denison University.

Wooster's men's squad finished fourth out of 10 teams - a three-spot improvement over last year's uncharacteristic seventh-place showing - with 70 points, while its women's counterparts, beset with a couple of key injuries in 2003, came in seventh out of nine with 34 points.

Winning the men's team competition was Allegheny College, which collected 144 points - 11 more than runner-up Wittenberg University (133). Denison University finished in third-place (76), just six points in front of the Scots, while no other squad in the field tallied 60 points.

Leading the way for Wooster, as usual at the NCAC indoor meet, was the distance medley relay team. Chris Taft, Konah Duche, Colin Turner, and Evan McDaniel recorded the Scots' eight consecutive victory in the event with a time of 10:37.43, which was just three seconds better than the second-place team. Taft added a school-record setting performance in the 800 meters, running a 1:56 in the preliminaries, but slipped to eighth-place in the finals with a time of 2:04.32.

Narrowly missing out on individual titles in the field for Wooster were Keith Vance, who placed second in the shot put (48 feet, 10 inches), James Williams, who took runner-up in the long jump for the third season in a row (21 feet, 7.75 inches), and Nii Djan Tackie, who was an inch short of a championship while finishing second in the triple jump (44 feet, 4.75 inches).

Also earning all-conference honors by finishing among the top-three in his event was Matt Knepp, who crossed third in the 55-meter dash (6.70).

The Scots' other individual scorers were Nathan Collins, who posted a fourth-place effort in the pole vault (12 feet, four inches) and seventh in the triple jump (41 feet, six inches); Corey Humphrey, who came in fifth in both the long jump (20 feet, 8.75 inches and triple jump (42 feet, eight inches); Will Driscoll, who added a sixth-place in the high jump (6 feet); and Taylor Delhagen, who took eighth in the 3000 meters (9:03.55).

In the women's competition, which host Denison won with 143 points, Wooster was led by Jill Berner, who was the runner-up in the pole vault competition with a school-record 10 feet, two inch height. Fellow Scots garnering All-NCAC recognition were Jennifer Stockdale, who was third in the 5000 meters (18:26.08), and the distance medley relay team of Kathy McCreary, Nicole DeSantis, Karina Colbenson, and Barbara Patrick, which also finished in third (13:04.33).

Nicki Artes just missed out on all-conference honors, finishing fourth in the shot put (37 feet, 10 inches), while Wooster's other scorers included Stockdale coming in seventh in the 3000 meters (10:49.56), Leigh Hutchison's eighth-place run in the 55-meter hurdles (9.41), and Kate Legg's eighth-place showing in the pole vault (8'06.00").

The Scots kickoff their outdoor season this week with a trip to Florida, which includes a competition (the Florida State Invitational) on March 14-15.