Angad Singh
Sports Editor
The College of Wooster men’s and women’s track teams participated in the Fighting Scots Invitational on Jan. 25 at the Scot Center. The Scots put up a strong performance over the weekend with both teams coming in third at the meet.
The women put up an impressive performance, with Claudia Partridge ’22 clearing the high jump with a co-collegiate best of 5 feet, 3.75 inches, good to win the event. The sophomores brought home several of the events with Maya Vasta ’22 winning the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:03.53; she also set an impressive time of 27.80 seconds in the 200-meter dash which was good enough for her to come in second.
When asked about her performance over the weekend, Vasta said, “I thought I did well considering it’s still the beginning of the season, but I am looking forward to see how much progress I can make. Hopefully by conference I will have set a new personal record or broken another school record.”
Both Vasta and Partridge teamed up with Korri Palmer ’20 and Sierra Lapasky ’23 in the 4×200 meter relay, which they ran unopposed and still set their season-best time of 1:53.67. When asked about how she would rank their performance, Palmer stated, “The beginning of the season is such an odd time because you’re excited to compete after months of training, but then, sometimes you stumble.” She continued, “To my peers I am doing great, but to me I stumbled a little bit, which is good for the ego.”
The women also put up a strong performance in the long-distance events with Kayla Bertholf ’22 logging a time of 10:52.83 in the 3,000 meter run. When asked how she would rate her performance, Bertholf said “This race, for me, was a 16 second personal best and I was very pleasantly surprised to have achieved this performance this early in the season;” she said, “One of my major goals for the indoor season would be to qualify for All-Ohio in the 3K race. I also want to use the indoor season to grow as a runner and better prepare for outdoor races.” Other top finishes were from Jena Copley ’21 who came in fifth in the 60-meter hurdles, along with Palmer who came in fifth for the 60 meter-dash.
The men had their share of victories with William McMichael ’22, who contributed to a great deal of the wins for the Fighting Scots, as he logged a first-place time of 51.95 seconds in the 400 meter, along with being runner-up in the 200-meter dash at 23.54 seconds. McMichael, along with a team of Matt Olszewski ’21, Drake Pence ’21 and Joe Shilts ’23 came in third at 3:37.16 in the 4×400 meter relay.
On his performance, McMichael said, “It was nice to be able to have the meet at home. I think that our team has a lot of potential this season and we have a lot of new guys this year. At the tournament, I believe I did well and hope I can keep taking the steps needed in order for me to win conference again. I think I have some ambitious goals for myself like both the indoor and outdoor 400 meter school records, both of which my personal records are under a second away from.” He continued, “more importantly though, I’d like to lead my teammates in the pursuit of achieving our maximum potential. I think leading by example is an amazing tool and I hope that my teammates can foster a strong desire to win.” Luke Henke ’23, who finished first just ahead of his teammate Richie Pajak ’22, cleared 5 feet, 10.5.
The men were rounded out with an impressive performance from Miki Rae ’20, who came in third in 5000 meters with a time of 16:25.33. On his performance, Rae said, “Since we are just starting to get into some hard training, our bodies are pretty fatigued and we weren’t expecting too much out of ourselves. Nonetheless, I’m happy with how I ran aggressively and hung tough throughout the race. I’m confident that with a few more weeks of training during the indoor season, my teammates and I will be in a great position to contend for top spots in the conference across all events.”