2001-2002 Track and Field Roundup

Sprinter Natasha Jarrett led ESU women's relay teams to three school records during the 2002 outdoor track and field season. The Warriors smashed the 4 x 100-meter record twice during the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championships with times of 48.24 in the trials and 47.94 in the finals. The old school mark was 48.25 set last year.

They finished second in the conference, losing to Lock Haven by four-hundreths of a second. Jarrett almost ran down the Bald Eagles' anchor runner down the stretch. Jackie Babbini, Jen Eye and Tawny Youtz ran the other three legs. The women's team set two school records in the Penn Relays The 4 x 200-meter relay set a mark of 1:41.82 with a team of Babbini, 26.6; Angela Gray, 25.4; Youtz, 25.3, and Jarrett, 24.1. The sprint medley relay of Youtz, 26.1; Jarrett, 25.4; Gray, 58.6, and Kristin Mullin, 2:21.3, clocked a school-record 4:11.62

Also competing in the Penn Relays, the Warriors' 4 x 400-meter relay of Babbini, Jarrett, Youtz and Gray was second of 11 teams its heat in 3:57.50, losing only to Lock Haven. ESU was fourth in the conference 4 x 400-meter relay in a season-best 3:55.12 with Youtz running a blazing 56.7 anchor. Jarrett placed third in the conference in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. Her best times of the season were 12.19 in the 100 and 25.25 in the 200. Mullin was fourth in the 800-meter run in 2:15.85, second best in the school's history.

The team had two other PSAC individual place-winners in Becky Fitz, fourth in the triple jump with a season-best 36-7 1/4, and Babbini, fifth in the 400 hurdles in 65.30. The Warriors won the Lehigh Valley Championships with Jarrett a double winner in the 100 and 200. Other champins were Gray in the 400, Mullin in the 800, Christa Sandvig in the javelin with a meet-record 133-8, and the 4 x 100 relay. Other leaders for the team were sprinter Heather McMillan, distance runners Erin Coyne, Kelly Curry and Holly Holtzinger, hurdler Melinda Erbe and weight performer Mikaela Thorne.

Javelin thrower Barry Krammes gained All-America honors and high jumper Brad Fees won a conference title for the 2002 men's outdoor track and field team. Krammes finished seventh of 16 competitors in the javelin at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships in San Angelo, Tx. to give the Warriors an All-America in the sport for the eighth straight year and 14th of 15 years.

The sophomore from Pottsville threw the javelin 203-4 at the nationals, the second best mark of his career. He had placed third in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championships with a career-best 205-5.

Fees, last year's runner-up, won the PSAC high jump with a leap of 6-9. He defeated teammate and defending champion Mike Newhard, who finished second at 6-7. It capped an outstanding end-of-the-season performance for Fees, who was third in the Eastern college high jump at the Penn Relays and won a five-team meet at Kutztown, both with jumps of 6-9.

The Warriors placed in four other events at the conference meet. Darryl Brown was fourth in the 1,500-meter run at 4:03.26 while Newhard was fourth in the 110-meter high hurdles at 14.25. Placing fifth were Glenn Kercher in the long jump at 22-2 3/4, Mark Stinson in the 100-meter dash in 11.31 and the 4 x 400-meter relay team of Dan Garibaldi, Newhard, Jim Dawson and Stinson in a season-best time of 3:20.68.

The ESU men tied for first place with eventual PSAC champion Kutztown in the Lehigh Valley Championships. Stinson was a double winner in the 100 and 200 while other individual champions were Garibaldi, 400; Rob Thomas, 1,500; Brown, 3,000 steeplechase, Newhard, high jump; Dan Gale, javelin, and the 4 x 100-meter relay team of Stinson, Garibaldi, Kercher and Newhard.

Newhard also was the high jump champion in the Bucknell Open and the Virginia Commonwealth Invitational. Rob Georges took first in the triple jump at Bucknell. Other leading outdoor competitors included sprinter and relay runners Matt Bevan and John Van Soest, javelin thrower David Dean, distance runners Mike Loenser and Mike Petrizi and weightman Bill Hnat.

Middle distance runner Kristin Mullin, sprinter Natasha Jarrett and the 4 x 400-meter relay team all finished second to lead the Warriors in the first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships. Mullin, a junior transfer student from Millersville, gained a runner-up finish in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:21.88. Jarrett, a sophomore newcomer to the squad, sprinted to second place in the 55-meter dash in 7.33.

The relay team narrowly missed winning with a time of 4:03.68, losing by less than a second to Shippensburg's 4:03.07. Mullin ran the fastest split of 60.4 and was joined by Jackie Babbini, 61.8, Tammy Youtz, 60.5, and Angela Gray, 61.0. Youtz, a freshman, also placed in two individual events with a fourth in the 55 dash in 7.41 and a fifth in the 200 in 26.53. Jarrett was a three-event place-winner with fourths in both the 200, 26.38, and the shot put, 38-11. She threw a season-best 41-2 1-2 in the shot put at the Bison Open at Bucknell. Junior Becky Fitz turned in the top finish of her career with a third in the triple jump at 35-1 1/2. The 4 x 800-meter relay was foufth in 10:16.98 with a team of Hibbard, Melissa Werner, Babbini and Mullin.

The Warriors were seventh of nine schools in the team scoring with 48 points. The meet was held at Lehigh University's Rauch Fieldhouse. For the third year, ESU sponsored the Dick DeSchriver Invitational in the Koehler Fieldhouse. The Warriors had a pair of winning relay teams with Babbini, Mullin, Jen Eye and Gray taking the 4 x 400 and Werner, Monica Schelling, Mullin and Krystal Klugh winning the 4 x 800.

Other top indoor performers were hurdler Melinda Erbe, sprinter Heather McMillan, distance runners Crystal Hibbard, Holly Holtzinger and Erin Curry and Heather Bjorndahl.

High jumper Mike Newhard earned NCAA All-America honors and won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference title as the top performer for the men's indoor track and field team. Newhard tied for sixth in the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships in Boston with a jump of 6-9 3/4. He had qualified with a season-best 6-10 1/2 in winning the event at the Lafayette Invitational.

The sophomore from Coopersburg went over the bar at 6-9 in capturing the PSAC indoor title. He had won the conference outdoor crown in 2001. He also finished first in dual meets at Bucknell and Kutztown. The Warriors had two conference runners-ups in Mark Stinson, second in the long jump with a personal-best 23-8 1/2, and Brian Holkovic second in the pole vault at 15-1. Stinson also was third in the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.60 and fifth in the 200 at 22.89.

Other individual PSAC place-winners were Brad Fees, third in the high jump; Darryl Brown, fourth in the 3000-meter run, and Glenn Kercher, fifth in the long jump. Two ESU relay teams finished second. The 4 x 400-meter relay featured a stretch run dual between Stinson and his twin brother, Matt, the anchor runner from Lock Haven. Mark started 10-15 meters behind Matt and just missed catching him with a 50.1 split. The Bald Eagles won in 3:25.75 with ESU clocked in 3:26.10. Other ESU runners were Matt Bevan, Dan Garibaldi and Jim Dawson. The Warriors' 4 x 800-meter relay of Bevan, Dawson, Rob Thomas and Matt Brown was runner-up in 8:01.25.

In the third annual Dick DeSchriver Invitational at ESU, Stinson won the long jump in a meet-record 23-0 while Fees also broke a meet with a winning leap of 6-10 in the high jump. Stinson broke an indoor school record in placing second in the 60-meter dash in the John Covert Classic at Lehigh with a time of 7.13. Newhard also set a school mark in the meet with a time of 8.67 in placing fourth in the 60-meter hurdles. Other top competitors for the team included Jim Dungee, triple jump; Bill Hnat, shot put; and Barry Krammes, weight throw.

Sports Information Maintained by Pete Nevins, Sports Information Director

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