Oberlin’s track and field teams saw plenty of action last weekend with both the Yeomen and Yeowomen competing in two different meets on Friday and Saturday.

Only select members of the team were in action on Friday, with senior Geno Arthur running at the 50th Annual Hillsdale College “GINA” relays and the rest of the athletes competing at the Ashland University Alumni Open at Ashland University.

Arthur stole the show in the GINA relay’s 5,000-meter run, beating his previous school record of 14 minutes, 36.09 seconds by 17 seconds, setting an impressive new time of 14:18.92. Arthur was already nationally ranked in the top five for the 10,000-meter run prior to the GINA relays, but his new mark also makes him the sixth fastest runner in the nation among DIII athletes in the 5,000-meter run this season.

Arthur said tha competing on the national stage is what drives him to compete at such a high level.

“Qualifying for nationals is what keeps me motivated to best my own performances,” he said. “It’s fun to see how hard you can push yourself, and it’s also fun to see how fast I can get. [Head] Coach Ray [Appenheimer] was a great runner, too, and he knows how to get people to be fast, which helps me a lot.”

At Ashland University, Oberlin’s field athletes also delivered strong performances. For the Yeomen, first-year standout thrower Hank Sinn came out on top in a field of 13 competitors, registering a shot-put toss of 12.92 meters. On the women’s side, sophomore Ana Richardson bested the 12-person field with a toss of 12.3 meters, concluding the shot-put sweep for Oberlin. Richardson went on to place second in both the discus — with a mark of 42.16 meters — and hammer throw, in which she threw a distance of 45.40 meters. Junior Jillian Hostetler capped off Friday by placing second in the javelin with a mark of 32.33 meters.

Oberlin continued to impress at the Ashland University Alumni Open on Saturday. First-year Imani Cook-Gist had an excellent day on the track, starting with a 15th finish overall in the women’s 100-meter dash with a time of 12.88 in a field of primarily Division I and II athletes. Cook-Gist added another impressive finish in the 200-meter dash, completing the race with a time of 27.73 to finish 19th overall.

In the women’s 800-meter, senior Kate Stevens earned a top-10 finish with a time of 2:23.78. The Yeowomen also earned back-to-back finishes from first-year Abigail Bellows and junior Alyssa Hemler in the women’s 5,000-meter race. Bellows completed the race in 19:13.74, and Hemler finished less than a second behind, clocking in at 19:13.90. Sophomores Annie Goodridge and Rayna Holmes also performed well in the triple jump, leaping to a mark of 10.92 meters and 10.25 meters respectively.

In the women’s discus, Richardson earned another top-10 finish with a mark of 41.23 meters. Richardson said Saturday was a great tune-up for this week’s North Coast Athletic Conference Championships.

“I looked at the last meets to instill some confidence [in myself] and feel prepared for the conference meet,” Richardson said. “In general, I like to be consistent, but sometimes you have dips and inconsistencies in performance. I do not think that will be reflected at the conference meet. I feel strong and ready to compete at conference.”

The lone Yeomen highlight Saturday came courtesy of junior Nick Care, who finished in seventh place in the men’s 5-kilometer run at 16:39.90.

Even with the conference meet this weekend, Appenheimer said the team’s mentality hasn’t changed. “We don’t change our message at all throughout the season,” Appenheimer said. “So the things that we were telling them back in January are the exact same things that we tell them right before the conference meet.”

Appenheimer also said there is not much left for the coaching staff to do. “The hope is that everyone is really confident in their preparation,” Appenheimer said. “At this point, the coaching staff is really left with little to do, except really help put the student-athletes in the right mindset.”

Oberlin’s track and field teams hit the road for Granville, Ohio, this weekend to compete in the NCAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships.