Belles struggle at first meet
By KATIE MCVOY
Assistnat Sports Editor
The Saint Mary's track team dropped its first conference meet of the season to Alma and Hope this Saturday at Hope.
The Hope Flying Dutch outscored the Belles 143-10 and Alma topped Saint Mary's 127-25.
With only 10 women competing, the Belles faced the problems of a small team.
"We couldn't run all of the relays and that was frustrating," freshman Bridgette Horne said.
The small team is going to be a problem the Belles will be faced with the entire season.
"It's a challenge. Because we don't have any depth, we aren't going to win. So we have to focus on individual goals," Kate Zimmer said. "As long as we do that we won't get too discouraged."
Despite its size, Saint Mary's boasted some very impressive individual performances.
Erica Burket led the Belles in points scored. Burket took first place in the triple jump against Hope with a jump of 33.17 feet. She also claimed a second-place spot in the 100 meter hurdles against Hope with a time of 17.2 seconds. Burket's 4 feet, 10-inch jump gave her first place in the high jump against Alma.
Teammate Lauren Brown joined Burket in the field events. Her 32-4 throw put her in second place in the shot put against Alma.
Erica Fulmer finished third in the 400 meter dash with a time of 1:18 against Hope. Joining Fulmer on the running team were Katie Zimmer and the Saint Mary's 4x400 team. Zimmer took third place in the 5,000 meter with a time of 22:24 and the 4x400 team finished second against Alma.
Despite their low finish the Belles felt good about this meet and have high hopes for future meets.
"Everyone improved," Horne said. "It was a better day for everyone."
Zimmer agreed with Horne's perspective.
"I think we did a lot better [this week]," she said. "It wasn't as windy, and having a meet under our belts really helped."
The Saint Mary's women are looking to keep their spirits up and improve on their individual events.
"As a team we want to keep spirits high," Horne said. "With a small team it's hard. We want to keep motivated even though it can be hard against big teams."
Zimmer explained that their goals are now "to keep improving our times. Our workouts are getting more intense and I know the sprinters want to improve their times."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, April 4, 2000
