Taylor Streaks to New Hurdle Record at Greater Cleveland Championships

Jill Berner

Freshman Dierre Taylor highlighted The College of Wooster track and field team’s night at the Greater Cleveland Championship meet hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College on Friday (Feb. 17), with a school-record breaking performance in the 55-meter hurdles en route to first-place honors overall. Behind Taylor’s run, the Fighting Scot men finished with 35 points for eighth-place out of nine teams, while the Wooster women placed seventh out of eight teams with 27.5 points.

After posting the top time in the preliminary round (8.06), Taylor became the first Scot in school history to dip below the eight-second barrier, finishing the final heat with a time of 7.85, more than half a second (.32) ahead of his nearest competitor. His mark shattered the old Wooster record of 8.01 set by Eric Rogers at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships in 1992, and was just .10 behind the provisional qualifying time needed for the NCAA Div. III Championships.

Not far behind Taylor in the hurdles was sophomore Matt Jensen, who picked up fourth-place honors after posting a time of 8.24 in the finals. Junior Rick Drushal also finished top-five with a heave of 45 feet, 1.75 inches in the shot put for third-place, as did sophomore Tristan Jordan, who managed a fifth-place leap of 20 feet, 3.0 inches in the long jump.

Rounding out the Scots’ top efforts was senior Jonathan Prince with a sixth-place finish in the 500 meters (1:11.10) and junior Tim Presto, who came in ninth overall in the 1000 meters (2:44.58).

The Wooster women’s best showing came in the pole vault as senior Jill Berner and freshman Ali Drushal finished 3-4. Berner cleared 10 feet, 6.75 inches, while Drushal was right behind at an even 10 feet.

Senior Hannah Bierlein and sophomore Nicole Calderone each posted top-10 efforts in their events, as they each finished in eighth-place in the 800 meters (2:32.07) and 1000 meters (3:18.53), respectively. Freshman Kayla Miller continued her strong season in the high jump by clearing a height of 4 feet, 10.25 inches, good enough for sixth overall, while classmate Victoria Peterman placed 11th overall in the shot put with a toss of 31 feet, 9.25 inches.

The Wooster thinclads next compete at the Oberlin Invitational on Friday, Feb. 24, beginning at 6 p.m.