S p or t s
Oberlin Track and Field Reclaims NCAC Championship Title
The track and field team poses with the NCAC Championship banner.
Andrea Nguyen The Oberlin track and field team competed in the North Coast Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships at Wittenberg University Feb. 25–26. The Yeomen placed sixth with 69 points while the Yeowomen took home their fifth indoor championship title with 166.5 points — an astonishing 65.6 points ahead of seond place DePauw University. In the women’s distance relay, first-year Margo Lee and second-year Lucy Curtis competed with fourth-years Anna Scott and Phoebe von Conta, finishing first with a time of 12:35.98. Scott and von Conta then went on to sweep first and second place in the mile at 5:10.66 and 5:12.97, respectively. Fourth-year Clare Tiedemann broke her own College record, as well as the NCAC record, in the women’s 60-meter hurdle pentathlon, finishing in second place with a time of 9.01 seconds. She currently stands at 19th place in the NCAA Division III rankings and earned allNCAC honors for her score of 3,157 points in the event. For Tiedemann, breaking this record was more for the team than for herself. “It was a complete surprise to do that well in the pentathlon — kind of mind-blowing,” she said. That morning, Tiedemann didn’t think she was even going to compete, let alone advance to nationals, due to a pinched nerve in her neck. In weight throw, fourth-year Zac Ntia placed first with
Courtesy of the NCAC Office
a throw of 54-09.50 (16.70 meters). Third-year Iyanna Lewis — who stands seventh in the nation in the NCAA Division III rankings — also finished first in weight throw at a distance of 56-07.25 (17.25 meters). Second-year Abby Cannon followed in third place at 51-06.50 (15.71 meters) and placed third in shot put with 39-09.25 (12.12 meters). Cannon also earned all-NCAC honors. Lewis and Cannon always compete against each other in weight throw, but they rely on each other as teammates and have a strong dynamic. “I know what I need from [Lewis] to succeed, and she knows what she needs from me to succeed,” Cannon said. “She’s exactly what underclassmen need in an upperclassman; she really stepped into that position as a role model for me.” Fourth-year Sarah Voit placed first in the pole vault, clearing an impressive 11-11.25 (3.64 meters). She is currently second in the nation going into the NCAA Division III Championships. In the women’s triple jump, fourth-year Malaïka Djungu-Sungu set a new school and conference record of 38-04.75 (11.70 meters). Djungu-Sungu was named NCAC Women’s Field Athlete of the Year and is currently ranked 15th place nationally. On the men’s side, fourth-year Kofi Asare earned his second conference title with 46-06.25 (14.18 meters), breaking a College record originally set in 2013. Asare, along with first-years Reese Hyatt, Sam Fechner, and Cole Fuller, set a College record of 1:31.26 in the
4x200-meter relay. It was their second time running this event all season. Fuller also broke his own personal record in the men’s 400-meter with a time of 50.80 seconds, earning him all-conference honors and third place in the event. “I know for [the first-years], it was a really big moment,” Asare said. “To be a first-year and say you have a school record — that’s pretty impressive.” One key factor that influences this team’s incredible achievements is the drive and support from other team members, creating a hard-working yet relaxed environment. They take cheering for their teammates seriously — from cheering at practice to creating spreadsheets with each athlete’s preferences on how they’d like to be supported. Cannon describes the team as something similar to a family. “We’re such a tight-knit group,” she said. “Whether it’s a home meet or away, we make it our meet; we make it our track … No matter what, I know my team’s gonna be behind me.” Not only did student-athletes find success at the conference, Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Ray Appenheimer earned NCAC Women’s Coach of the Year award. When asked about his approach, he cited the importance of training long before the competition season starts and emphasized the essential role of team captains. “[Winning] a conference title, breaking records, setting lifetime bests is not just something that happens on a Friday or Saturday in February,” Appenheimer wrote in an email to the Review. “For us, it happened in October when the semester started and we first got together as a team. It was built day in and day out at practice, working hard, supporting one another when no one else was looking. We asked a lot from our first- and second-years who had never been to a conference track and field championship. We have a wonderful group of captains who set the perfect tone at practice, preparing their teammates for big meets. They are awesome, and I couldn’t be more grateful.” On March 5, some of the athletes will go on to compete at the Last Chance Meet, an optional meet for those who haven’t qualified for nationals or for those who already qualified and want one last opportunity to practice or score even higher. As of now, Tiedemann, Lewis, Voit, and Djungu-Sungu are expected to compete at the NCAA Division III Championships in Boston March 10–12. On May 5–6, Oberlin will be hosting the NCAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
52 Years Later: Remembering Oberlin’s March Madness Moment John Elrod Contributing Sports Editor During March, college basketball grabs the attention of the entire American sports world. From the Division I NCAA tournament to smaller conference tournaments, this time of year seems to produce an unlikely number of dramatic games and underdog stories. Fifty-two years ago, Oberlin College men’s basketball team completed a March Madness Cinderella story of their own when they won the Ohio Athletic Conference tournament against all odds. The run was also marked by evolving racial dynamics on campus and the United States as a whole. At the heart of the OAC championship team were two fourth-years, Al Wellington — who passed away in 2012— and Randy Miller, OC ’70. They detailed the historic run in their book Oberlin Fever, A Championship Spirit in Black and White. Wellington, who was Black and grew up in the small, housing segregated town of McDonald, Ohio, came from a very different background than Miller, who is white and raised by a minister in Rochester, New York. However, the two were placed as roommates during their first year at the College, and despite differences in their upbringings and personalities, formed a bond that would be key to the basketball team’s success four years later. Wellington and Miller noted in their book that while Oberlin was a campus known for racial acceptance, Black and white students rarely associated outside of class. They also discussed how differing views on campus of how to address racial issues divided students. The authors expressed a belief that sports teams could serve not just as an opportunity to integrate but as a chance to encourage friendships between Black and white students.
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In the college basketball world at the time, integration was reshaping the game. For example, in 1966, Texas Western College — now the University of Texas at El Paso — won the NCAA tournament the year they became the first team in collegiate basketball history to play an allBlack starting five. Within the OAC in 1970, the Oberlin men’s basketball team, with Wellington and Miller as co-captains, set a standard of integrated athletics in the conferences with 5 of their 12 players being Black. The other 13 teams had a total of 14 Black players between them. Wellington believed the squad’s racial diversity brought a spark to the team’s play. “What Black students and players brought to Oberlin was an entirely different experience related to sports, and basketball in particular,” Wellington wrote in Oberlin Fever. Wellington also detailed how the representation of Black athletes drew interest from Black community members, who were often a part of packed crowds watching the team during their OAC championship season. He believed the support of fans gave the team a significant advantage. Before the raucous Oberlin crowds of the 1970 season, the Yeomen secured a 12–6 record and were poised for success as the No. 2 seed in the seven-team Northern Division section of the OAC tournament. In the first two rounds of the tournament, Oberlin coasted to double-digit wins over the University of Mount Union and Heidelberg University, then known as Heidelberg College. They then beat The College of Wooster by nine to win the Northern Division title. This set up an OAC championship matchup against Wittenberg University, whom Oberlin had not
beaten in 18 years. Not only did Oberlin have a history of losing to them, but Wittenberg was also on a 16-game winning streak going into the championship that season. It was estimated that around 1,500 Oberlin supporters showed up to the game at Baldwin Wallace University to cheer on the Yeomen, greatly outnumbering Wittenberg fans. In front of the fired-up crowd, Oberlin jumped to an early lead and held it the whole game despite Wittenberg cutting it close at times. Wellington and Miller played key roles in the victory, with Wellington leading scorers with 26 points and Miller leading the game in rebounds with nine. The excitement over the win extended back to Oberlin where fans gathered at Tappan Square to continue the celebration. The festivities were well documented in a March 1970 edition of the Review. “The win touched off perhaps the wildest athletic victory celebration in College history,” the Review reads. “A prolonged and insistent din of horns began to arise over usually placid Tappan Square shortly after the advance guard of returnees from B-W pulled into town, and it grew steadily into a tumultuous uproar.” Unfortunately for Oberlin, the OAC tournament extended past the NCAA’s deadline for naming participants of the NCAA tournament, so it would be Capital University, the OAC regular season champion, that would play in the national tournament that year. The greater significance of the championship team was documented by Wellington and Miller, who believe their win gave the Oberlin campus, which became politically and racially fractured during the late 1960s, something to unite over.
