by Kevin Byrne
“Our team loves the Dick. It’s big, and many come for it. Although it can be long and hard, it’s a great chance to perform for the student body.”
This statement, made by sophomore distance runner Dave Honig ’06, is of course referring to Grinnell’s home track meet, the Dick Young Classic. Named after the very successful former Grinnell track coach, Dick Young, the annual meet is in its 14th year. Coach Young, who is now 80 years old, will be in attendance and at approximately 1:15, will be honored in a short presentation at the finish line.
The meet will take place on Grinnell’s state-of-the-art track and field facilities located just north of the football field. The events will commence at 9 a.m. with the 10k race, and will continue throughout the day until approximately 4:30 p.m. Grinnell will host and compete against teams such as Clarke, Colorado College, Coe, Cornell, Iowa Wesleyan, Knox, Midland Lutheran, Mt.. Mercy, Simpson and William Penn.
Coaches and players alike understand the importance of the season’s home meet.
“[The Dick Young] is usually our only meet at home unless we are hosting conference and there’s something to be said for a ‘home court advantage’,” said women’s coach Evelyn Freeman. “We do back off the training a bit during the week before the meet so we can perform well at home.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams will have some numbers from last week to try to improve upon. Grinnell traveled to Wartburg, for the school’s invitational track meet, and had some good performances that can be used as a measuring stick for this upcoming weekend of competition. Yaw Nti-Addae ’04 won the men’s long jump with a distance of 20’11.75", and Chad Rapp ’07 threw 132’3" in the discus, which ended up being one of the best throws in the conference this season. Adam Booth ’04 and Justin Riley ’06 put up respectable times in the 5k (15:01.31 and 15:13.55), and Honig ran only three seconds behind Josh Moen of Wartburg in the 1500m race. Moen was last year’s Division III champion in the race.
“It was exciting to finish close to a fast runner like Moen,” said Honig. “My season is starting to come around.”
On the women’s side, Renata Heberton ’06 had personal bests in the pole vault (8’6") and discus (100’0"), while Liz Jarvis ’04 ran the 800m in 2:30.86, good for fifth in the conference. Maria Stanislaw ’04 performed well for the Pioneers, posting her top numbers of the season in all of her events: the long jump (14’11.5"), triple jump (33’1"), and pole vault (9’6.25"). Hurdler Anna Veit ’05 is now ranked fifth in the conference in the 400 IM hurdles with her time of 72.7.
All of these performances are a good sign for the Pioneers as they head into one of their most important meets of the season. The team hopes that the home crowd should give the athletes the boost they need to perform at a high level.
“We get terrific support from the student body as close to 80 students volunteer to work as officials at the meet and support their friends on the track team,” said Evelyn Freeman. “We go into most meets attempting to improve our performances from meet to meet. Competing at home in front of the campus community is a rare occurrence for us during the season and does make it more special than when competing out of town.”
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