Track photos

Andy Dygert
News Editor
May 6, 2004, Page 6

Senior Charles Ware breaks away from the pack in the 100-meter dash. Ware finished second in the finals of the event.

Sophomore Alyssa Jefferson plants for the pole vault at the GPAC championships. Jefferson finished tied for 12th in the event.

Track teams field great marks at conference meet

Ryan Moore
Staff Writer
May 6, 2004, Page 6

The Doane women’s track team continued their Great Plains Athletic Conference domination by winning their 6th straight conference championship Saturday on Lauritsen Track.
The Doane women beat runner up Nebraska Wesleyan by an astounding 153 points. Senior Rochelle Schmidt won Outstanding Performance of the Meet with her contribution in the triple jump. Schmidt set a GPAC, school and stadium record with a jump of 41-03.50.
Senior Andrea Swanson also set a GPAC record in the javelin, with a throw of 140-01. Doane took the top three spots in the javelin. Following Swanson were sophomore Jocelyn Spurgin taking second, and sophomore Rhonda Egger in third.
Also contributing was senior Brittany Price who set a GPAC record of 11:07.96 in the steeplechase.
The Doane men fell short of a conference title losing to Nebraska Wesleyan by 35 points, taking the runner up spot.
The men’s team was led by Senior Dan Underwood who took first in both the hammer throw (175-05) and the discus (154-06).
The only GPAC record that was set on the men’s side came from freshman Ben Francis when he tied the javelin mark with a throw of 197-02.

Kosmos keeps breaking records

Jey Sin
Staff Writer
April 29, 2004, Page 8

The Heptathlon is as hard to compete in as it is to pronounce. It consists of the 100 hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 meter dash, long jump, javelin, and 800 meter run.
Freshman Katie Kosmos was last week’s Athlete of the Week for her outstanding performance in the women’s Heptathlon. She scored a Doane record of 4876 points in the event.
Kosmos has been involved with track since she was 10 years old and has loved it ever since. She grew up in rural Saline County until high school, when she moved to Lincoln and attended Northeast High School.
Kosmos was active in gymnastics early on, but when she was about 10 years old she dislocated her thumb and couldn’t participate in gymnastics anymore.
Since she couldn’t play softball or do gymnastics, Kosmos bugged her mom to find her something to do. Her mom suggested track.
Ever since then Kosmos has been an active track athlete and has been focused on excelling in any event she competed in.
Outside of high school track, Kosmos also ran with the Saline Spartans, a summer track program in Crete. This is where she found her calling for the Heptathlon.
When she started out she competed in the Pentathlon, which consists of five events instead of seven.
Kosmos came to Doane this year as a freshman, and instantly fell in love with the track program. She said that track at Doane has helped her excel more than she was able to anywhere else.
“I love to be active and being in track and competing gives me an uplifting feeling,” Kosmos said.
She recalls the last race for her record breaking Heptathlon and what her coach said to her. He told her that she could break the record if she ran a fast enough time in this race She was stunned.
“I had no idea until that moment that I had a chance to set a new record,” Kosmos said.
To be the best at anything you do, you have to be consistent and consistency seems to be Kosmos’ middle name.
She competed last Friday at Nebraska Wesleyan and broke another record, in the 400- hurdles.
She ran a time of one minute, 2.6 seconds beating the past record of one minute 2.9 seconds.
Kosmos takes all the attention in stride and keeps on competing:
“I just stay focused on what I have to do.”

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down 04/15/04

• Thumbs up to all the activities that are going on around campus the next few weeks.
• Thumbs up to the nice spring weather.
• Thumbs up to men’s track team for winning their dual against Nebraskan Wesleyan.

• Thumbs down to watering the sidewalk.
• Thumbs down to having to experience the spring weather by glancing out a window while stuck in a classroom.
• Thumbs down to tests that are scheduled back to back.

Track teams sweep Prairie Wolves in outdoor duel

Ryan Moore
Staff Writer
April 15, 2004, Page 6

The men’s and women’s track teams both won their dual against Nebraska Wesleyan Friday on the rain soaked Lauritsen Track.
The Tiger women dominated, winning by a final score of 139 to Nebraska Wesleyan’s 47. The women took first place in 13 out of 18 events.
Doane was led by senior Rochelle Schmidt who took first place in two events. Along with taking first in the long jump with a jump of 18 feet 9 ½ inches, Schmidt took 1st place in the triple jump by breaking her previous school record with a jump of 40 feet 4 ¾ inches.
Junior Kim Svoboda was also a key contributor taking first in the discus with a throw of 141 feet 7 inches and first in the hammer throw with a throw of 158 feet 6 inches.
The men’s side of the dual was much tighter than the women’s. The two teams were so even that the meet came down to the last event of the day, the 1600-meter relay.
“We weren’t scared or nervous, we just wanted to run our race,” said sophomore relay member Jeff Luebbe. “We just treated it like every race we run.”
The relay team, which was made up of freshman Matt Hollman, sophomore Jeff Luebbe, and seniors Dusty Krusemark and Jonathan Pingel beat Wesleyan by five seconds and set a national qualifying time of 3:17.63. The victory in the 1600-meter relay allowed the Tigers to edge out the Prairie Wolves in the team standings 94 to 92.
Luebbe also took first in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 53.86. Senior thrower Dan Underwood contributed by taking first in the discus with a throw of 141 feet 7 inches, as well as first in the hammer throw with a throw of 167 feet 10 inches.
Doane competes next in the Doane Relays Friday and Saturday in Crete.

Track photo

Jerrome Morgan
Photo Editor
April 8, 2004, Page 6

Senior Cassie Baker practices the hurdles.

Schmidt, Underwood lead teams to success

Andy Dygert
News Editor
April 8, 2004, Page 6

Seniors Rochelle Schmidt and Dan Underwood, both former NAIA National Champions, led the Doane track team last week as they won the men’s and women’s SCHEELS/GPAC Outdoor Track and Field Athletes-of-the-Week awards.
Both athletes qualified for NAIA nationals with their marks in last week’s meets. Schmidt qualified in long jump with a leap of 19-00.5 ft. and in the triple long jump with a mark of 38-03.5 ft. Schmidt won the indoor and outdoor National Championships in the triple long jump in 2003 and won the indoor National Championship in long jump and triple jump this year.
Underwood excelled in the hammer-throw to win his award with a toss of 167-04 ft. at the Nebraska Kearney Open on March 27. Underwood won the outdoor National Championship in the discus in 2003.
Doane did well in the Dana Invite as a team, despite windy conditions, winning 12 women’s events and five men’s events. Schmidt won both the long jump and the triple long jump. Freshman Katie Kosmos won the 400 meter hurdles and came in second in the 100 meter hurdles.
“It was pretty windy,” freshman Blake Houchin said. “We pole-vaulters had to move to the high school.”
On the men’s side, Underwood won the hammer-throw and came in third in the discus. In the javelin throw, freshman Ben Francis won with a throw of 197-00.75 ft. and sophomore Ryan Dorhorst came in second with a toss of 160 ft.
The Tigers’ men’s and women’s teams next meet is Friday at Doane’s Lauritsen Track.
“For most people, the meet at Dana was their first outdoor meet,” sophomore Paul Sanders said. “Most people did all right, but the wind affected pretty much everyone. Hopefully we get some better marks in on Friday.”

Teams hope outdoor season will build off indoor success

Andy Dygert
News Editor
Mar. 4, 2004, Page 7

Doane’s track and field athletes have burst out of the confines of another long indoor track season and are headed for the open air.
The outdoor season is about to begin as indoor track nationals begin today. The Doane men’s and women’s teams are looking for a successful and victory-laden season.
“We set the standard at the beginning of the year,” freshman Joel Bacon said. “We decided that we would dominate this year.”
The women’s track team is coming off their fourteenth consecutive Great Plains Athletic Conference victory in indoor and they are looking to make it complete by winning in outdoor as well.
They are also prepared to give a shot at winning a third national championship in four years. The women won back to back national championships in 2001 – 2002 and finished second last year.
“In the past there were one or two teams that were really able to win the championship,” Head Coach Ed Fye said. “This year there’s about six that should get a lot of points, but we’ve got a chance as we should be scoring a lot of points as well.”
The men are also hungry for a win in conference after losing to Nebraska Wesleyan University by 14 points in the indoor GPAC meet.
“You can bet your ass that Wesleyan will be going down in conference this time,” Bacon said.
The outdoor season meets begin March 26. The GPAC Championship will be held May 1 at Doane’s Lauritsen Track.
The outdoor national championships will be held on May 27-29 at Lousville, Ky.
“We’ve got a good looking team going into the outdoor season,” Fye said. “We’ve got national champions and great new athletes. We can chip away with everyone and I think we have the opportunity to compete strongly.”