El Paso provides women's track with prime record-setting conditions

By Natalie Clericuzio     4/15/10 7:00pm

With only a week of classes remaining, many students are trying to ace that last test or paper to bring up their grade before finals. With only two weekends remaining in the women's track season, many members of the team have a similar goal: finally hit the mark that has eluded them all season in time to get on the national list. Head Coach Jim Bevan said this weekend's meet at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, will give them a chance to do just that.

"It's a critical time of year because we are balancing academic loads with training," Bevan said. "We have six to eight girls on the edge of making a breakthrough. Baylor provides us with the opportunity to make a breakthrough."

The team's performance at last weekend's meet, the University of Texas-El Paso Invitational, demonstrated that several Owls are either steadily improving or on the verge of a jump in their marks.

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Junior Tina Robinson is a member of the former group, as she broke her own school record in the hammer throw that she set on March 19 at 170' 5", increasing her mark to 171' and placing third. Robinson also finished third in the shot put with a season-best mark of 43' 4.25" and second in the discus at 138' 4".

Bevan attributes Robinson's consistent improvement throughout the season to her own diligence.

"Tina has an extremely hard work ethic," Bevan said. "She is a very motivated young lady, and she's not done improving. She's becoming more of a technician every year.

"[Her improvement] is the culmination of hard work, experience, knowledge of the event and of herself."

Throwing events went smoothly for the whole team at UTEP, with senior Katie Dollinger finishing in fourth behind Robinson in the hammer with a mark of 162' 8". Sophomore Brittany Brown finished fourth in the discus behind Robinson at 134' and fourth in the shot put with a season-best distance of 42' 4.25".

Senior Shakera Reece was another Owl who showed further improvement over the weekend, placing second in the 100-meter run with a hand time of 11.20 and third in the 200-meter run with a season-best time of 23.95.

Bevan said that he felt the hand timing was detrimental to Reece's time.

"The timer device in the 100 was not turned on and they had to go to hand timers," Bevan said. "There was a back-up film which shows her at 11.04-11.045 but at the hand timer it was 11.20. It was unfortunate because that would have been her second-best 100 of her life."

Reece said her success in the 200 was due to preparation.

"In the 200, I was ready," Reece said. "My 100 was so off, and in the last 200 the same thing happened with the clock not working. We got 100 meters into the race and they called it back, so I did better in the 200 because I didn't have to run it twice."

The Owl relay teams also lowered their times at UTEP. The 400-meter relay team of Reece and juniors Kimberly Stanford, Brittany Washington and Sarah Lyons placed second with a time of 46.42, a season-best time for them and for Rice. The 1600-meter relay also saw success, as the team of freshman Lilian Nwora, Lyons, senior Vicki Walker and Washington finished second at 3:46.21, another season-best for Rice.

In pole vaulting, the Owls improved and also showed promise for even greater marks. Sophomore Cleona Oliver placed second overall with a vault of 12' 3.5" while junior Ari Ince finished third at 12' 3.5".

According to Bevan, Oliver seems to be on the right track this season.

"She's starting to run down the runway really well," Bevan said. "She's the best I've ever seen her as an athlete."

Ince, on the other hand, is performing well, but Bevan sees the potential for even greater vaults than she's notched so far.

"If anybody's ever seen how high Ari can get her hips, she can get her hips around 14 feet," Bevan said. "It's just the timing of her height and a part of the mastery of the event. Her hips get up close to 14 feet, and it's only a question of when the breakthrough is going to come for Ari."

This weekend, the team will split up, with distance runners traveling to Walnut, Calif., for the Mt. Sac Relays and the rest of the team traveling to Waco, Texas, for the Michael Johnson Invitational hosted at Baylor University.

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