By Mike Walker.
While for some students Winter Quarter may be quickly drawing to a close, the outdoor track and field season is just starting up. On Saturday, Feb. 24 SCAD Savannah’s Track and Field teams attended their first meet of the season at our neighbor Savannah State’s campus.
The competition was predictably fierce, with some larger schools such as Mercer University and Albany State present, but SCAD’s Bees were still able to produce some impressive results. Caroline Cook and Diana Gorin of SCAD took the first and second places, respectively, in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, while Nicole Kurtz took first in the women’s 800m run finals. On the men’s side, SCAD’s Max Groff and Sage Reiger placed third and fourth respectively in the men’s 5000m run.
SCAD absolutely swept the women’s 5000m, with Grace Tinkey taking first, Lemi Wutz second, Malia Skidmore third and Elise Engles fourth. Taylor Morris of SCAD achieved a 37.22m score in the women’s hammer throw, which involves not the standard construction too,l but essentially a cannon-ball like item on a long wire which is deftly whirled around before being carefully tossed forward.
Katelyn Foster and Kelly Benton as well as Morris of SCAD both produced good scores in the women’s shot put and discus. Trey Wilder and Teresa DiMercurio both competed in the hurdles and they, along with many other SCAD athletes, showed strong promise of greatness to come this season.
For some spectators, these are just quickly-run races or feats of deft skill in throwing stubborn, heavy implements. For others, it’s the numbers which matter: track and field results can be quantified in a manner uncommon to most other sports. Where you need a sportscaster’s voice-over to explain a lot of the action in football, baseball or basketball, in track and field the numbers can tell much of the story. Yet for these artist-athletes it’s so much more than the event itself or the impressive results.
It’s getting up for early morning practices back in January when the weather seemed more appropriate for Detroit or Chicago than Savannah; it’s running up and down stadium steps because a coach requested it; it’s leaving practice exhausted but knowing you have a full day of classes and homework awaiting you—and that you’ll be back here at that early morning practice tomorrow as well.
What the Savannah State Eyeopener track meet provided was an eye-opening first look that should turn some heads. The performances by SCAD at the Savannah State Eyeopener meet are most certainly harbingers of even bigger and better things yet to come this track season.
