Irish run away with victory at home meet
By NOAH AMSTADTER
Sports Editor
With a small squad, the Irish women's track and field team was anything but undermanned on Saturday.
With many athletes competing in multiple events, the Irish placed first in the home spring opener, finishing with 170.5 points to top Miami (Ohio)'s 129 and Western Michigan's 90.5.
Placing in three events for the Irish was Jaime Volkmer, who won the pole vault while taking second in the long jump and triple jump.
Volkmer, who rarely competes in the long jump, extended a leap of 18 feet, 1 1/2 inches.
"She's doing well," Irish jumps coach Scott Winsor said. "She actually asked me after the meet if she could long jump more often. I said `By all means.'"
In the pole vault, Volkmer cleared 11 feet, the same height cleared my teammates Natalie Hallett and Jill Van Weelden. Winsor expected more from his sophomore.
"She lets her head take over a little bit too much," Winsor said. "She just needs to let her talent take over. Honestly I thought she's be vaulting much higher by now."
In the triple jump, Volkmer leaped 39-4 1/2 — an impressive leap considering that she concentrates almost solely on the pole vault in practice.
"I think she's capable of jumping further than that," Winsor said. "Whether or not I can expect that out of her, that's a good question."
Volkmer wasn't the only Irish jumper who had a good day. Classmate Tameisha King took first in both the long jump and the 100-meter hurdles.
King cleared 20 feet-1 on her fourth attempt, her last jump due to coaches limiting her attempts on the afternoon.
"She quite often jumps her best jumps four, five and six," Winsor said. "Not having two more jumps may have cost her."
In the hurdles, King's time of 14.31 seconds was more than half a second ahead of second place Erin Connolly of Miami.
Junior Dore DeBartolo, who missed the indoor season due to injury, had a busy afternoon, collecting two first-place finishes to go along with two second-place marks.
DeBartolo won the hammer throw with a throw of 182 feet, just missing the NCAA provisional qualifying mark. She also won the shot put with a distance of 46 feet-6 while taking second in the javelin and discus, an event in which she usually excels.
"Technically she's got a lot of things to iron out in the disc," Winsor said. "She's just got to learn how to do that. In the hammer she's doing really well, she just keeps improving."
In the sprints, the 4x100 relay team of Liz Grow, Ayesha Boyd, Kristen Dodd and Kymia Love provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships with a first-place time of 44.74 seconds, more than four seconds ahead of second-place Western Michigan. Sprints coach John Millar thinks that that time puts his team right at the top of the Big East.
"I'd like to say that that time probably could win it," Millar said. "Last year we were third and we ran high 45's. I think Miami is probably the only team that's run faster than that."
After the relay, Millar gave Grow the rest of the day off, setting the stage for a great day by Dodd, who won the 100-meters in a time of 12.72 seconds before taking first in the 200-meters, running 25.07.
"I think she ran a terrific relay leg and really got us started out there," Millar said. "She had a real good day, I was really excited for her."
Sophomore Jennifer Handley won both the 1,500-meters and 3,000-meters.
Handley's time of 4:42.92 was nearly three seconds ahead of Miami's Kylee Studer in the 1,500. In the 3,000, Handley's mark of 10:15.78 put her more than six seconds ahead of teammate Krissy Kuenster.
In the middle-distance races, Megan Johnson won the 800-meters in a time of 2:12.35 while Love won the 400, finishing in 55.25 seconds. Senior Carri Lenz won the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, going over her obstacles in 62.04 seconds.
In the field events freshman Jennifer Kearney leaped 5 feet-7 to take first in the high jump, while Andre Duplechain won the javelin with a throw of 120-feet-10.
All Sports Stories for Monday, April 9, 2001
