Trackwomen take lengthy forward strides at Saturday's Patriot Games

It may not have been at the top of the best seller list, but the Penn State women's indoor track team's performance Saturday at the Patriot Games was good enough to make the top 10.

The meet held in Fairfax, Va., was a productive one for the Lady Lions.

"I am happy with my time in the 800-meter, but it could have been better," Penn State senior Erica Bosler said.

Bosler finished second in the 800 with a time of 2 minutes, 14.09 seconds.

The sprinters struggled on Saturday. Sophomore Laila Brock's (56.73) third-place finish in the 400-meter and freshman Wendy Lautner's (1:18.57) fourth-place finish in the 500-meter were the best Penn State performances in any of the short distance races.

One of the major disappointments for the Penn State sprinters was the performance of freshman Olutoyin Augustus. After a fifth-place finish in the 55-meter hurdles at the Boston Terrier Classic last weekend, Augustus struggled at the Patriot Games, failing to place.

"The 60-meter hurdles was not a good meet for me at all," Augustus said.

In all of the other events, Penn State had at least one athlete place in the top 10. The Lions especially did well in the long distance races.

Senior Erin St. John turned in one of her best performances in the mile with a first-place finish. St. John's time of 4:59.99 was the eighth-best time of any Big Ten athlete this year. Junior Lou Hohnka took second in the 3000-meter run with a time of 10:08.28.

In the 1000-meter run, freshman Mary Beth Acker (2:58.24) and freshman Melinda Brown (2:59.73) finished third and fourth, respectively.

The jumpers also fared well on Saturday. Senior Carleen Martin jumped 1.68 meters to finish sixth in the high jump.

Augustus capped off the day with a seventh-place finish in the triple jump with a leap of 11.03. In the same event, senior Shakeema Walker turned in her season best.

Walker jumped 12.25 in the triple jump to finish fifth. The jump was the third-longest jump for any Big Ten athlete.

"I was very comfortable with the environment," Walker said. "It was probably the fact that I was only competing in the triple jump and that is all that I had my mind on.

"With more training I know that I can improve. I want to break Penn State's school record.

In the shot put, senior Kim Hicks continued her successful year as did junior Mary Jo Faust in the 20-pound throw. Hicks finished third with a throw of 13-66 and Faust also finished third with a throw of 15-82.

Basically, it was a good meet for the Lions.

"We really showed out," Augustus said. "But since it was not a scored event we do not know how well we really did."