Track excels in season opener

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By Kristen Oxley

Assistant Editor

March 31, 2006

 

 

ABOVE: Erika Fox, Lindsey Davis and Nicole Moore prepare for the 1500-meter run. BELOW: Kortney Goulds took first place in the 1500-meter run on Wednesday Photos by Ryan C. Harris

The Milligan College track team started off their outdoor season well with a home meet at the Liberty Bell Track Complex at Science Hill High School on Wednesday.

Senior Megan Lease shined with her win in the women’s 3,000-meter race with a time of 10:39.55.

Senior Chris Wright placed second in the men’s 3,000-meter run and eighth in the men’s 1,500-meter run.

“I’ve never run this fast this early,” Wright said, hoping to make nationals with his 5,000-meter time.

The women took both first and second places in the 3,200-meter relay.

Sophomores Kortney Goulds and Brittany Bales and fresmen Jacklyn Talbert and Ashley Pearce finished first with a school record time of 9:53:41. The second-place team consisted of sophomores Lindsey Davis and Erika Fox and freshmen Kim Hogan and Emily Schmitt.

Bales finished first in the 400-meter dash and sophomore Kristen Bartlett placed fourth in the 200-meter dash with a personal record of 28:08.

In the women’s 1,500-meter run, sophomores Lindsey Davis, Erika Fox, Kortney Goulds and freshman Nicole Moore took four of the top five places. Goulds finished first with a national qualifying time of 4:45.52.

“It was a good run for the first outdoor race,” Goulds said.

Goulds expects to improve her 1,500 meter time, hoping the competition will push her to do better.

“I’m not letting up,” Goulds said.

Senior Brandon Talbert looks to finish his Milligan running career at the national meet in Fresno, Calif. to be held May 25-27. Talbert ran a half marathon in the Knoxville Marathon Sunday, qualifying for the marathon at the NAIA Outdoor Track National Championships.

Talbert said he had never run anything above 10,000 meters in a race. He had a healthy cross country season and qualified for nationals for the first time this past fall.

“I always felt like I had a lot of endurance and wanted to try something else,” Talbert said.

Talbert expected to qualify for the marathon, but he said he did not expect to run quite as fast as he did on Sunday.

Talbert may try to qualify for nationals in another race, but for now he intends to focus only on his training for the marathon by running 60-85 miles a week.