Ohio track fine tunes for MACs

by Steph Woody
Staff Writer

Sometimes the toughest competition is against one's self. This was the case for the Ohio track and field teams Saturday at the Ohio Open, in which former team members returned to Athens to compete.

With only a handful of competitors outside the Ohio track team participating, sprinter Steve Schaub said it was hard to get motivated.

"It's really hard to compete when there's no one here," he said.

Schaub did get a boost from former Ohio sprinter Matt Kinsey. Kinsey, who was a Mid-American Conference champion in the 400 hurdles, came back to Ohio to run for several reasons.

"I ran to see if I still had it, but also to give Steve Schaub a good race today," Kinsey said. "I wanted to help him out."

Schaub, who edged Kinsey for first place in the 100-meter hurdles, said that he welcomed the challenge of Kinsey's presence.

"I never beat him in a meet before," Schaub said. "I always beat him in practice when we were teammates, but never in a meet. And today I beat him pretty good in the hurdles, which felt great. I've been waiting a long time to do that."

Schaub also took first in the 400 hurdles.

Sprinter R.J. Redd took first in the 100 and 200 for the Bobcats. Nick Pero finished strong in the field events placing first in the shot put, second in the discus and first in the hammer throw.

On the women's side, Melody Royster won the 100 hurdles with a time of 14.15 seconds. Royster also ousted teammate Jen Martin in the 100.

In the distance category, Ohio Graduate Assistant coach Melissa Converse took victory in the 3,000 and the 800. Converse beat out former teammate Jacki Waller in the 3,000 with a time of 10 minutes, 10.48 seconds.

Converse said she enjoys being able to push the girls.

Ohio coach Elmore Banton said it was nice to see the veteran Bobcats coming back.

"It's fun to have them come out," Banton said. "It was a spur of the moment thing. We just wanted to go through the motions."

Banton also said he was glad Ohio ran instead of taking the weekend off.

"Past history tells me we've always done better when we run the weekend before the MAC meet," he said. "One drawback was that we lost one of our top pole vaulters, Jill Meranda. That's a big loss."

Meranda broke her leg after a rough landing on one of her vaults. Banton said despite the injury, the team will prevail.

"Hopefully, we'll be able to bring it back and get real psyched up for the MAC meet," he said.

Ohio begins the MAC Championship Meet on Thursday at Miami.