The BG women’s track and field team has now finished 11th in back-to-back seasons at the indoor conference meet.
The Falcons recorded six points in 17 events this weekend at the 2010 Mid-American Conference Indoor Championships. Kent State was the event champion with 107 points.
Senior pole vaulter Sabrina Forstein earned three points with her sixth-place finish, while freshman sprinter Jeanette Pettigrew accounted for the other three points by placing sixth in the 60 meter dash.
The Falcons failed to record points Friday, but BG coach Cami Wells was optimistic heading into Saturday about the possibility of doing well enough to earn some points.
“I felt the team did a great job of executing what was asked of them on day two; it doesn’t always translate into points, but we got a lot closer to where we ultimately want to be outdoors and in the future,” she said.
“You always have to be optimistic about scoring points. In reality you focus on getting the best efforts you can out of each person, and the scoring will come if not this meet, in future MAC meets.”
Wells said the hardest part of the entire weekend was having athletes record career bests but still finish out of the scoring.
For instance, freshman Tatijana Jacobson recorded a career-best mark of 1.64 meters in the high jump and placed ninth, and junior Autumn Dettmann finished 10th in the one-mile run with a season-best of 5:05.93, finishing outside of scoring by a total of just three places.
The team basically performed to its potential, but really the result is what matters.
And so the team will use this meet as motivation in the future.
Wells said she was proud of the team’s effort but can’t be proud of the result.
“There were some areas I felt we didn’t reach our potential and several where I felt the athletes really rose to the competition and had great efforts,” she said.
“The team learned a lot this weekend and they have to build on that for the future. There is no time to feel down; there is work to be done.”
The Falcons will compete next at the Adidas Raleigh Relays in Raleigh, N.C., on March 25-26.
