Women's track ready for ACC Championships
By Jason Carter
Contributing Reporter

> February 1, 2001

On Jan. 27, the women’s track team split up and showed signs that they will be ready for the ACC championships on February 16.

Senior Rachel Burns, freshman Jamie Grayzer and sophomore Jill Kovalcik went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs to compete in the pentathlon, a multi-event race.

Meanwhile, freshman Nikeya Green, sophomore Shauna Danos and seniors Summer Shaw, Jill Snyder and Kelly Brady competed at Penn State University.

Right now, Head Coach Annie Schweitzer-Bennett is focused on preparing her team for the ACC championships.

One of her primary goals is to have her young team, which includes17 freshman, climb the ACC ladder and finish fifth place or higher in the conference after last year’s seventh place finish.
To her, every race is preparation for the championships.

Schweitzer-Bennett said she sent Burns, Grayzer and Kovalcik to the pentathlon as “a learning experience.” She said that the pentathlon helps prepare them for the rigors of the ACC, where they will have to compete in seven events.

“It’s a process of learning how to handle your emotions,” Schweitzer-Bennett said. “You have seven events, and some go your way, while others don’t.”

Things went their way on Jan. 27 as Burns, Grayzer and Kovalcik all represented the Deacons well placing 9th, 11th and 14th, respectively.

Grayzer posted a long jump distance of 16’8” and a 60-meter hurdles time of 9.33 on her way to a 3,224 point team-high finish.

Burns and Kovalcik contributed to the effort by posting scores of 2,905 and 2,692.

Meanwhile, at Penn State, Snyder had a standout performance in the mile run, recording a time of 4:49.81, 11 seconds better than her time the previous week.

Her time was just one second over the NCAA qualifying time and good enough for third place in the ACC.

The rest of the Deacs didn’t slouch either. Brady placed eighth in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:54.81, while Green, Danos and Shaw made improvements in their times, placing 13th, 14th and 16th respectively in the 800-meter run.

“We wanted to fine tune a couple of things,” Schweitzer-Bennett said.

Some of the coaches saw action, as well.

Assistant Coach Jennifer Hoppe almost broke the meet record, which she set last year in the Pentathlon, by scoring 3,753 points and winning the competition at Air Force.

Former Deacon star Janelle Kraus also set an example by placing third in the 3,000-meter run at Penn State with a time of 9:32.29.

“(The student coaches) help the young kids watch their work ethic and tenacity and emotions, and how they prepare for the meets, and gives them somebody to get to know and learn from,” Schweitzer-Bennett said.

By all estimations, the team is learning well. They will continue with their championship preparation next week.

Schweitzer-Bennett said the team’s goals are to “get a NCAA qualifying mark in the distance medley, achieve a couple open NCAA qualifying times, and prepare one last time for the championships.”

The Deacs will be traveling to South Bend the week of Jan. 29 - Feb. 2 for the Meyo Invitational, and with only a couple of weeks left to prepare, they are just starting to turn it up.