Junior Molly Martorella didn’t know what to expect running the first 10K run of her life at the Bucknell Outdoor Classic. She finished at 35 minutes and 11 seconds, and didn’t even know until after the race that she had just ran the fastest 10K in the nation for Division III this year. “My high school coach said that records just kind of happen,” said Martorella. “I just went out and competed as best as I can.”

“It was really impressive,” said spectator Deirdre Haren, “especially given the cold weather.”

Martorella usually runs the mile during the indoor season, or the 5K outdoors, but decided to switch things up and run the 10K on Saturday. While she isn’t planning on running another 10K until Nationals in mid-May, she has upped her mileage in training and will be running more 5Ks in the future in the hope of adding the 5K to her Nationals race program.

Alongside Martorella, every other Oberlin 10K runner posted personal-best times including junior Lauren Taylor (37:11.98), sophomore Kyle Neal (37:25.75), sophomore Erica Morelli (38:52.15), junior Hannah Wolfe (38:56.12), and first- year Sarah Jane Kerwin (37:25.94).

On the meet as a whole, Haren continued, “People did really well. It was great to show the other teams what Oberlin track and field is really made of.”

Other noticeable races from the weekend came from the All-Ohio Championship meet at Ohio Wesleyan University. Highlights include a first-place finish in the 4x400m relay of junior Katrina Gelwick, first-year Caroline Summa, sophomore Margaret Miller and senior Marissa Clardy, another first-place finish in the 5,000m run from sophomore Emma Lehmann (18:01.24), Clardy finishing third in the 400m dash (58.68), a fourth-place finish in the 100m dash from Miller (12.86) and a fourth-place finish from senior Piper Nash in the 3,000m steeplechase (11:26.24).

After a close second-place finish in the North Coast Athletic Conference indoor season, the team is hoping that the 10K along with the return of several injured sprinters will be what it takes for Oberlin to oust Ohio Wesleyan from its first-place position at the indoor track conference meet.

“I have really high hopes this year of winning outdoors [conference],” said Martorella. “The team is ascending; we’re trying to peak at conference.”

In the meantime, the team has much to look forward to with an upcoming dual meet at Baldwin Wallace University on Saturday, the Gina Relays meet at Hillsdale College the following Friday and the highly anticipated NCAC championship meet that weekend.

The team will be expecting a number of top eight finishes individually at the conference meet and are hoping to win both the 4x400m relay as well as the 4×100.