Author: Alison Caditz
Imagine people catapulting themselves 15 feet into the air using only a long, thin pole, propelling spears through the air, and spinning at high speeds swinging a heavy ball attached to a chain. No, you have not traveled back in time to the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, nor the Gladiator arena of ancient Rome. These daring and potentially dangerous games are taking place daily at Occidental College, performed by the Field competitors of Oxy’s Track and Field team.
The Occidental Field team, who competed in the year’s first meet last Saturday at the Pomona-Pitzer All-Comers meet, is building off the impressive individual successes from last season. Senior Chris Kyles was the SCIAC champ in the discus, whose incredible throw of 158’11” now holds the 11th best mark in all of Division III throughout the nation. Junior Kera Barlett won the pole vault and moved on to compete in Nationals for the second consecutive year.
The field events in which Occidental students compete are numerous and encompass pole vaulting, jumping and throwing events. Jumpers can compete in the long jump, the triple jump and the high jump, and throwers can compete in the discus, the javelin, the shot put and the hammer throw.
Despite losing some talented seniors, the throwers are looking forward to an exciting and successful season. With five seniors graduated, the throwing squad is small, composed of about five throwers. Nevertheless, the throwers are excited about their new coach and are training hard.
“Practices are pretty intense,” Lisa Warren (junior) said. “It’s fun though. You get to throw spears.”
Warren’s main’s event is the javelin throw. Throwing the javelin however, is much more difficult than it may appear. “The javelin is a really technical event,” Warren explained. “I’m not fast, but I’m strong, and I thought it would be much easier than it turned out to be. People don’t realize the strength and speed it takes to do throwing events, and how much they require mentally.”
Warren is also training for the shot put but has not competed in the hammer throw, an event which entails swinging and throwing a heavy metal ball attached to a chain. A similar event is still a part of the Scottish Highland Games. That these events seem somewhat obscure and date back to antiquity is precisely the draw for Oxy throwers.
“I like doing events that are not the norm,” Warren said.The jumping squad also has a promising season ahead of them. “Our best guy, Sam Huie, was All-Conference in the long jump and the triple jump,” Assistant Head Coach Derek Turbin commented.
Huie made the provisional national qualifying mark in both events, jumping 46 feet even in the triple jump and 22 feet in the long jump.
On the Women’s side, Karuna Batcha and Sara Hooker were in the top eight in the Conference for the triple jump. Turbin is also anticipating that the talented group of incoming freshman will have a successful season. Newcomer Ethan Spiro will compete in the triple jump and the high jump.
“Spiro has a contention to be an All Conference in all three jumping events,” Turbin said.
Matt Tsujimura is also looking to be contender in the long jump and first-year Kasey Vaughn is looking to be all-conference in the high jump.
Past seasons replete with success, coupled with an extremely talented incoming class of jumpers presents a promising season for the jumping squad. “It’s very exciting. We have a legitimate SCIAC contender in every jumping event,” commented Turbin.
The pole vaulting squad is also looking forward to a successful season. “Our squad is enormous,” Diana Martin (sophomore) said. “When we are on the runway, there are so many orange jerseys.”
Leading the squad this season is Kera Barlett, who is hoping to make her third trip to Nationals this season. Although she studied at the UN first semester and was unable to train, Coach Andy Steben, believes “she has a real chance of going this year.”
Last year, Barlett was ranked number one in the nation for six to seven weeks. However finding competitive opponents last year was often a challenge. Oftentimes all of her competitors had used all of their turns before even reaching Barlett’s starting height. Last season, Barlett vaulted her personal best at 12’8”, and she is hoping to break that record this year. Coach Steben thinks Barlett can reach 13’4” or 13’6”, a height which would break the national record.
In his thirty years coaching pole vault at Oxy. Coach Steben continues to be impressed by Oxy pole vaulters. “Oxy kids are bright and can pick up the technique fast. We have a long really good pole vaulting tradition that people may not be aware of.”Oxy Field will compete next on March 7, at the SCIAC Invitational at University of Redlands.
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