Smith leads WTrack in outdoor opener at Rhodes (Tenn.) Open

Mar. 22, 2008

By Gary Petit

MEMPHIS, TENN. — The Ohio Northern women’s track and field team opened the outdoor portion of it season Saturday at the Rhodes (Tenn.) Open Meet.

The meet, which featured teams from all three NCAA divisions, was a non-scoring invitational.

Sophomore Rachel Smith posted two top-ten finishes Saturday, placing sixth in the 800-meter run at 2:26.74 and ninth in the 1,500-meter run in a time of 5:05.05.

Junior Dani Noe had the highest finish for the Polar Bear women with a third place finish in the 400-meter dash at 1:05.07.

Fellow junior Regina Bresson had a solid performance in the 5,000-meter run, finishing fifth at 18:53.91.

The Polar Bears also turned in strong finishes in the field events.

Sophomore Courtney Zupancic finished fourth and senior Courtney Stephenson finished eighth in the hammer throw with tosses of 135-04 and 111-02, respectively. Zupancic also finished eighth in the shot put with a mark of 36-00.25.

Senior Amy Swigert jumped 16-04.50 in the long jump to finish fourth while freshman Aubrie Stechschulte finished eighth with a leap of 16-01.

Sophomore Karen Thatcher finished seventh in the triple jump with a mark of 35-01.25 and ninth in the long jump at 15-11.75.

In the javelin, sophomore Natasha Axton led three Polar Bears with top-ten finishes. Axton had a throw of 100-05 to finish sixth. Stephenson finished with at 87-06 and was followed by Zupancic in tenth at 76-03.

The Polar Bears will return to action next Saturday at the OAC Split Meet hosted by Wilmington.