It's been over a month since the UD Women's Indoor Track and Field team has competed as the Flyers traveled to Muncie, Ind. to contend in the 2006 Ball State Open this past weekend. Their little layoff did not stop the Flyers from performing outstanding in this event. UD runners and throwers were up against the likes of those from Ball State, IPFW, Middlebury and a couple other club teams. Overall, the Flyers scored five first places, three second places and one third place finishes in this first meet since coming back from winter break.

With a month off since competing seriously, coach Kandice Erwin was optimistic her team could get back into the right mindset. Erwin wanted her runners to train and condition both physically and mentally over the holidays, and that they did.

Topping the charts last weekend was freshman Amy Kremer as she broke the UD indoor record in the high jump event, with a leap of 1.68 meters, which also won her first place for the day. Kremer also contributed to the team's success by finishing in sixth place in the 60 meter hurdles.

Another impressive performance was by senior Kelly Pohlman, who won both the shot put and weight throw events. Pohlman dominated both events by throwing the shot 13.9 meters and throwing the hammer 17.14 meters, both of which were much further than all other opponents. Since the Findlay meet last December, Pohlman has shown great improvement and has no plans of stopping.

Perhaps the most exciting event of the meet was the 4x400 meter relay, which came down to a nose to nose finish. The Flyer team consisted of junior Tara Hentgen, junior Liz Forster, freshman Lisa Aubry and freshman Stacy Chew. Upon receiving the baton after the third leg of the race, anchor runner Chew found herself in second place trailing Ball State. Only 59.31 seconds later, Chew passed Ball State, winning the event by an incredibly close margin of only a tenth of a second, with a total time of 4:05.20.

Chew ended up winning the 400 meter dash as well, with a time of 1:00.70. Following close behind her was teammate Forster, who finished the sprint with a time of 1:01.10.

Coach Erwin was very impressed with the improvement of her distance runners as well. Freshman distance runner Ann Oltman placed fifth in the one mile event with a time of 5:27.00. Junior Emily Hass placed seventh in the mile with a time of 5:33.10, two seconds off of her personal record and twelve seconds better than she finished last year. In the 3000 meter race, junior Amanda Tucker has also shown a great deal of improvement, finishing fifteen seconds faster than she finished in last year's meet.

'I'm very pleased with our performances coming off the holidays' said Erwin. 'To improve on your success from Findlay wasn't something I was expecting. I'm looking forward to seeing what this team can accomplish this year.'

Erwin sees much potential in this young team and is looking forward to future meets, specifically the one coming up this Friday at Bowling Green.

The competition rises this weekend as the Flyers travel to the Bowling Green Triangular and will be up against runners and throwers from rivals Cincinnati and Xavier, as well as Bowling Green, Ball State and IPFW. Erwin believes her team is ready for this meet and is really looking forward to the competition. There are a couple team members coming off injuries for this race; however Erwin is optimistic about their return.

With a promising team and confident coaches, the Flyers have four more meets, including this weekend, until the Atlantic 10 Indoor Championship on Feb. 18, in which they plan on being a force to be reckoned with. 'I can tell we have a lot of potential' assistant coach Ann Alyanak remarked.

Taking one step at a time, however, the Flyers have high hopes on this Friday's meet at Bowling Green.