Feb. 29, 2008

By Zach Stipe

ADA — Individual victories from four Polar Bears led the Ohio Northern women’s track and field team to its fourth victory of the season at Friday Night Series Meet No. 5 at the ONU Sports Center.

Northern finished with 199 points to distance itself from Ohio Athletic Conference rival Baldwin-Wallace, who finished second with 169 points. Following the Bears and Yellow Jackets were Tiffin (122), Wilmington (78), Defiance (77), Bluffton (31) and Cedarville (10).

Junior Joy Kessler and sophomore Rachel Smith each ran season-best en route to winning middle distance events.

Kessler edged sophomore teammate Brittany Farber to win the 500-meter dash in 1:21.07. Farber clocked a 1:21.21 for second.

Smith ran a time of 3:08.21 to take the 1,000-meter run.

Freshman Jessica Naderer and sophomore Karen Thatcher also used season-best performances to capture field event titles.

Naderer vaulted a 10-05.5 to win the pole vault, while Thatcher leapt a distance of 33-03 to win the triple jump.

In the long jump, senior Amy Swigert and sophomore Janelle Jansen finished 2-3 with leaps of 16-01.5 and 15-09, respectively.

Sophomore Courtney Zupancic added a second in the weight throw (48-00.5) to round out the top field event performances.

In the sprints, junior Dani Noe and Farber placed 2-3 in the 300-meter dash with times of 42.85 and 43.88, respectively.

Adding thirds in the sprints were junior Rachelle Pavelko in the 400-meter dash (1:05.03) and junior Abby Schulte in the 55-meter dash (7.61).

Junior Regina Bresson snagged third in the 1-mile run with a time of 5:45.48.

In the 800-meter run, freshman Amanda Binkey placed second in 2:30.90 with classmate Amy Davis right behind her in third place in 2:32.87.

Rounding out the distance events, sophomore Sharon Snyder and freshman Aimee Baehrens went 2-3 in the 5,000-meter run with times of 20:53.63 and 20:55.67, respectively.

Ohio Northern returns to action next Friday and Saturday at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships hosted by Otterbein in Westerville.