While temperatures outside are slowly climbing, DePauw's track and field teams continue to heat up indoors.
The women's squad earned a third-place finish while the men took seventh on Saturday at the DePauw Indoor Track and Field Classic. The meet marked the final home event of the indoor season at the James A. Hollensteiner Track in the DePauw Indoor Tennis and Track Center.
Senior Courtney Lauer said the Tigers' results are indicative of their progression in training each week.
"You can tell by the meets how much improvement we're making," she said. "It's all starting to come together, piece by piece."
DePauw's women totaled 97 points to place third of 12 squads. Bellarmine University won the meet with 134 points.
Senior Jackie Boehmler was a winner in the women's triple jump at 10.19 meters (33-5.25), and junior Samantha Wong won the long jump at 4.99 meters (16-4.5).
Other top performances included a second-place finish by junior Lisa Becharas in the 600-meter run (1:46.29). Becharas also took third in the one-mile run, clocking a time of 5:24.11.
In the 3,000-meter run, sophomore Jess Macy placed second (10:44.54) and freshman Siri Retrum finished third (10:46.75). Also scoring for the Tigers was freshman Katie Doron, who placed second in the 800-meter run (2:28.94).
The women's 4x200-meter relay team came in third with a time of 1:53.35, while the 4x400 relay team finished fourth.
Another strong performance came from across the state border, as Lauer finished second at the Ohio Wesleyan Pentathlon Saturday in Delaware, Ohio. Lauer recorded 3,143 points to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Div. III Championships after turning in the top performances in the 800-meter run, shot put and long jump.
"I struggled a little bit with high jump, which is unusual," Lauer said. "But I did well in the shot, the long jump and the 800, so it kind of made up for it. It was a little lower than I expected, but being on the national list and still being a little disappointed is a good problem to have."
On the men's side, DePauw finished seventh of 14 teams, scoring 47 points. Wabash College won the meet with 136 points.
Freshman Grant Clary led the way with a third-place performance in the men's long jump at 6.37 meters (20-10.75). Junior Jon Cripe took fourth in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:43.71, while freshman Stu Newstat finished right behind him in fifth at 2:44.57.
In the men's high jump, senior Nate Evans placed fifth at 1.75 meters (5-8.75). Sophomore Noah Droddy clocked a time of 9:09.68 to take fifth in the 3,000-meter run, and freshman Nick White placed fifth in the 400-meter dash at 52.94 seconds. White also came in sixth in the 55-meter hurdles (8.60 seconds).
The men's 4x200-meter relay team turned in a fifth-place performance (1:34.52), and the 4x400-relay team also finished fifth with a time of 3:39.37.
"I thought it was good as far as being our last meet indoors at home," Clary said. "We're getting better and better every day and each week."
The Tigers will travel to Anderson, Ind., Saturday to compete at the Fred Wilt Invitational.
