Miami University's women's track and field team had a strong showing at their outdoor season opener. Competing at Vanderbilt's Black and Gold meet March 25 and 26 the RedHawks, despite strong persistent winds, earned six event victories during the weekend.

Junior Kelley Miller made her presence felt Saturday. With a first place finish in the 1500-meter and a time of 4:26.47, she broke teammate Amanda Mirochna's mark of 4:26.77. Mirochna finished second behind Miller with a time of 4:31.40.

The RedHawks also scored a victory in the 4x400-meter relay, with junior Ruth Rasch, sophomore Diona Graves, freshman Maria Holtztrager and sophomore Rachael Cray running a combined time of 3:53.90. Miami also took second in the event and second in the 4x100-meter relay with a time of 47.20.

Miami proved to be especially strong in the field events. The 'Hawks took first and second place in the long jump, with junior Magda Wikar picking up the victory with a personal best 18-9.75 (5.73 m), and senior Nicki Mitchell taking second with a jump of 18-5.75 (5.63 m). Junior Hope Alexander also won first in the triple jump with 38-4.75 (11.70 m).

Sophomores Alexandra Roberts and Samantha Gable went 1-2 in the shot put and discus.

Roberts claimed first place in both events with a toss of 45-3.75 (13.81 m) in the shot put, and 139-01 (42.39 m) in the discus. Gable recorded a toss of 44-2 (13.46 m) in the shot put, and 132-6 (40.40 m) in the discus.

"It was a great first meet," Head Coach Kelly Phillips said. "It was really windy but we had nice weather and everyone competed well."

Even though the snow has been holding back the men's track team from getting fully prepared for their outdoor meets, it looked like they had been practicing outside all winter. By winning 10 of 18 events at Vanderbilt's Black & Gold Meet, Miami has started off the way they want to - dominating the competition.

Miami had high hopes coming in to this meet and surpassed nearly all of them. Two big surprises came from sophomore John Brockman and junior Michael McCarty. In the javelin event, Brockman got a personal best by throwing 199-06 (60.82 m), 50 feet more than the second place score, putting him fourth all time at Miami in the javelin throw. Not only this, but McCarty won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.47 seconds, putting him eighth all time at Miami.

With these personal records and the other strong wins, Miami looks poised as the season is starting to come to a head. The team, despite large junior and freshman classes, is starting to mesh and is finding out what it needs to do to be successful.

"Our junior class is a big one and was one of our better recruiting classes in a while, so they are expected to step up and do well," Assistant Coach Ceith Creekmur said. "Because of that, the freshmen have looked up to them and have filled all of the rest of the teams needs."

With this unselfish teamwork, the team has started off on the right foot and is ahead of the learning curve. Though the team started out well, this is only the beginning for them, especially now, with the sun starting to come out, giving them the ability to move their practices outdoors, allowing them to get more reps in events that have previously been limited.

Look for the team to continue improving as the competition heats up at their meet Saturday, April 3, which is hosted by the University of Cincinnati.

The women's team will continue their outdoor season April 2 to 3 at the Tiger Track Classic hosted by Auburn University.