Youth give women hope at Indoors
By NOAH AMSTADTER
Assistant Sports Editor
When the Irish women's track and field team steps onto the track Saturday for day one of the Big East Indoor Championships they will be relying on youth to improve upon last season's sixth-place finish.
Two sophomores provide hope for the Irish in multiple events.
Sophomore Tameisha King will compete in the 60-meter dash, the 60-meter hurdles and her specialty, the long jump
King's season-best mark of 6.10 meters seeds her first in the long jump entering the meet. King also will be right in the hunt in the hurdles, where she is currently ranked fifth, three tenths of a second behind Charmaine Walker.
In the dash, King's time of 7.56 seconds is currently ranked third.
"Tameisha is going to have to score in two of her three events," said Irish head coach Joe Piane.
With preliminary and final rounds in all three of her events, King will be a busy lady this weekend.
"Tameisha seems like the type of person that needs to be busy," Irish field events coach Scott Winsor said. "If she doesn't have the time to think about it, then she's fine. It's when she sits and waits and has time to let her mind wonder is when she struggles."
King's classmate, Jaime Volkmer, will compete in the pole vault and triple jump. The school-record holder in the pole vault comes in ranked second in the event.
"Jaime's a heck of a competitor," Winsor said. "She went into the outdoor Big East last year ranked No. 2 and she won it."
Volkmer enters the meet ranked No. 14 in the triple jump, but remains in striking distance.
Junior Liz Grow enters the meet with by far the best time in the 400-meter dash. Grow's two-week old mark of 53.30 seconds is more than one second ahead of Georgetown's Sasha Spencer.
Grow will not be competing in the 200-meter dash, where she has the No. 2 time in the Big East, because the 200-meters immediately follows the 400-meter finals on Sunday.
Grow will compete in the 60-meters alongside King, where she enters with an identical time of 7.56 seconds.
"We feel Liz can pick up some points there," said Irish sprints coach John Millar.
A young group of sprinters provide hope for the Irish. Sophomore Kymia Love and freshman Kristen Dodd have put up impressive times in the 400-meters this season, both running below 57 seconds.
"They're relatively inexperienced, both running on this type of track and running in a Big East Championship type atmosphere," said Irish sprints and hurdles coach John Millar. "I'm hoping both can reach the finals."
In the distance races, sophomore Jenn Handley will compete in the 3,000 meters Sunday alongside senior Chrissy Kuenster. Kuenster will be competing one day after running the 5,000-meters.
First-year law student Emily Bienko will step into the ring to throw the shot-put for the Irish. Bienko competed in the pentathlon for the Irish three of the last four years and is familiar with the Big East meet environment.
"I know she hasn't had the training under her belt that she has in the past, but if anybody can do it she can do it," Winsor said of Bienko. "It's going to take a good throw, but she has the ability to score."
All Sports Stories for Friday, February 16, 2001
