Trackwomen turn up gems at Father Diamond Memorial Meet

By MIKE MITSTIFER
Collegian Staff Writer

Across the country Saturday, the starting gun sounded on the women's indoor track season. At George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Penn State was quick off the blocks, recording 10 top-five finishes at the Father Diamond Memorial Meet.

Ten top-five finishers is especially encouraging for the Lady Lions, considering the meet invited current collegiate athletes as well as outside competitors who have already answered the call of big-time meets in their collegiate careers.

"Open competition is good because when you throw Olympic athletes into the mix, you really raise the level of competition," said Lion coach Teri Jordan.

With these outside competitors causing the meet to record only individual standings rather than those for teams, Jordan interpreted her team's performance as outstanding.

"We dominated the collegiate competition," said Jordan, beaming with the pride of a coach who saw her lineup peppered with lifetime best times and distances.

"I saw some people who were nervous out there, but based on their performance, it didn't look like they needed to be."

A pair of sophomores, Shakeema Walker and Olutoyin Augustus, led Penn State's charge. Both recorded top-five overall finishes in a pair of events.

Walker placed second in the long jump with a best of 5.9 meters, tops among collegiate athletes, and third in the triple jump with a distance of 12.11 meters.

Augustus took fourth in the 60-meter high hurdles, finishing in 8.64 seconds, to go along with her fifth-place distance of 11.84 meters in the triple jump.

Complementing Walker's second-place long jump finish was junior Kristin Zimmerman's fifth-place leap of 5.62 meters.

The Lady Lions' lone first-place overall finish came in the shot put from freshman Deshaya Williams. Her throw of 13.64 meters was more than a foot better than her closest competitor.

"This wasn't a good throw for me," said Williams,

"It's about a foot and a half less than what I normally throw, so there's definitely room for improvement."

Also placing in the event was another underclassman, freshman Robbin Shomper, whose throw of 13.17 meters was good enough for third place.

Junior Felicia Cooksey took second in the high jump with a height of 1.69 meters.

The Lions also received a strong showing from senior Mary Jo Faust as she took fourth in the 20-pound throw with a toss of 14.94 meters.

Representing the distance runners were freshman Stacie Bouchard along with distance captain Allison Carr.

Bouchard followed up her successful rookie campaign under Jordan in cross country with a strong fifth-place showing in the 3,000-meter event (10:21.02), upping her lifetime best by 10 seconds. Carr recorded a lifetime best in the 1,000-meter run at 2:56.05.

The initial success hasn't changed Jordan's objectives for the season.

"We had pretty high (goals) from the beginning," Jordan said.

The Lions await their next meet at 5 p.m. Thursday at Kent State. Thursday's preliminaries set the stage for the finals at 10 a.m. Friday.