Track teams fall just short of conference championships

Starting in early 1994, I worked for my first-ever newspaper, The Northern Student, the student newspaper at Bemidji State University, where I attended and received my bachelor's degree in mass communication. Over three years, I would be a staff writer, news editor, managing editor and editor. I wrote everything from news stories to feature stories to sports stories to opinion pieces. It was the greatest training ground a journalist could ever have, and I am grateful to the many talented people I worked alongside in my years at The NS.

March 20, 1996

By Devlyn Brooks

The BSU men's and women's track teams wrapped up their indoor seasons Feb. 23 and 24, finishing second and third, respectively, in the conference. Early in the season, both teams had goals of winning the conference, much like every sports team does. However, the two teams are not disheartened by their finishes.

"Our men's track team ended up second," said track head coach Craig Hougen, "and not by too many points, really."

Last year, the men's team also finished second behind the University of Minnesota-Duluth, but they lost by about 100 points. This year, the team once again finished behind UMD, but closed the gap to about 40 points, which is the difference of maybe five to six participants finishing one place higher, Hougen said. "We did very, very well for the men," he said.

Seven men earned All-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference honors, helping to propel the team into second. Four of the efforts were from first-place finishers; senior Todd Williams in the pole vault, junior Dan Pemble in the 5,000 meter, junior Ralph Beers in the 55 meter high hurdles and Kevin Blackburn in the 400 meters. The three other All-Conference participants placed second.

The women's team finished third behind UMD and Northern State University, but the team missed second by only nine points. "It's been four or five years since the women have done as well," Hougen said. "We have a bright future."

Seven women also earned All-NSIC honors, two of them capturing conference titles and setting school records in the process. Junior Megan Scott placed first in the high jump, and freshman Amber Bohman won the 400 meter title. The five other BSU women named to the All-NSIC team had second-place finishes.

The perennial conference favorite, UMD, had 10 first-place finishes in the women's competition and 11 in the men's. This contributed to their large scores, but Hougen said that being UMD has always had more athletes on their team, they have had more chances to win. "They just have a few more athletes ... a few more coaches ... a few more dollars than we do," he said.

Hougen said that the biggest disappointment for the team was that not one athlete was invited to the Division II indoor track championships. Throughout the season, there had been four tracksters, two men and two women, to provisionally qualify for nationals, but none of them were competing when the championship was held March 8 and 9.

When selections are made for the DII finals, Hougen said the selection committee only chooses 125 male and 125 female athletes for all competitions. That means that one year the committee could invite 10 athletes in a particular event, and the next year only invite five. Due to these types of decisions, this year the four BSU athletes hat had provisionally qualified for nationals were left wishing.

"It's not quite fair (how the participants are selected)," Hougen said. "I'm 90 percent sure (Todd Williams) would have placed in the pole vault if he could have went."

Senior Lori Leibhan's story was similar. Last year she qualified and went to the nationals in the shot put. This year, she had provisionally qualified but wasn't accepted. The irony is that the distance Leibhan threw last year would have won this year's shot put national championship.

Leibhan said she felt let down because she didn't make it to nationals, but she said she started slowly this season. "I didn't prepare for the indoor season that well, and I started to run out of time. I started getting serious too late this year," she said. "But, because of that, I was more disappointed for the others who couldn't go to nationals."

For now, it is a time for the track team to put the indoor season behind them and prepare for the upcoming outdoor season that begins April 6 at the St. Olaf Invite.

"We're going to have a few more athletes next year," Hougen said, "and then we're going to get the job done."