Berner Soars to New Heights at Case Invite

Jill Berner

Senior Jill Berner rose to the occasion literally on Friday evening (Feb. 3), leading The College of Wooster track and field teams at the Case Western Reserve Invitational with a record-breaking leap of 11 feet, 3.5 inches in the pole vault as part of an impressive first-place showing. Berner accounted for nearly half of the Scot women’s team score of 24.66, which put them eighth in the 10-team field, while the Wooster men finished in the same spot with 23.5 points.

Baldwin-Wallace College beat out Allegheny College 141-90 to win the women’s portion of the event, but the Gator men took home the men’s title with 135.5 points to get past host Case (78).

Berner had won the pole vault at the Scots’ first two meets this year, clearing heights of 10 feet and 10 feet, 6 inches at the Oberlin Lid-lifter and the NCAC Relays, respectively, but she more than bettered those marks on Friday. She became the first Wooster woman to clear 11 feet in the history of indoor track and bested her previous record of 10 feet, 11.5 inches set at last year’s All-Ohio Championships. Berner’s vault also provisionally qualified her for the NCAA Div. III Championships on March 10-11 and was the 10th-highest mark in the nation this season.

Also getting into the scoring column in the pole vault was freshman Ali Drushal, who cleared a height of exactly nine feet for fifth-place.

Wooster’s most successful event outside the pole vault was the 3,000-meter run, where juniors Emily Rackley and Ashley Zervos finished 3-4 with times of 11:21.34 and 11:25.37, respectively. Senior Hannah Bierlein was the Scots’ remaining scorer with a sixth-place showing in the 400-meter dash (1:06.24).

On the men’s side, sophomore Tristan Jordan picked up a pair of third-place finishes in the long jump and the triple jump, finishing only behind Sean Laird and Joe McMahon of Allegheny in both events. He cleared 20 feet, 8.5 inches in the long jump, while in the triple jump he went for 41 feet, 0.5 inches.

Freshman Averell Gatton finished just behind Jordan in the triple jump with a mark of 40 feet, 3.25 inches and also picked up points in the high jump by clearing 5 feet, 8 inches for fifth-place overall. Sophomore Matt Jensen also produced a top-five showing in the 55-meter hurdles, crossing the line fourth in 8.53.

Other notable top-10 finishes on the men’s side included junior Rick Drushal and sophomore Steve Zumbrun going 7-8 in the shot put with tosses of 43 feet, 2.25 inches and 43 feet, 0.5 inches, respectively, and senior Colin Turner’s eighth-place showing in the 800-meter run (2:03.13).

Wooster will continue its indoor season with back-to-back meets this weekend. First the Scots will take part in the Kenyon Invitational on Friday, Feb. 10, with events scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. The following day, Saturday, Feb. 11, Wooster will send a group of competitors to the All-Ohio Championships hosted by Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio.