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Netters:
My
alma mater, St. Peter''s College, has made little contributions to the
international world of track and field in its (once interruped) century and a
quarter of chartered existence, but we may be on the threshhold of doubling our
current involvement in the elite circles of the sport.
The
Peaocks---a unique college nickname, by the way---already have one of the
nation's best younger walkers among their alumni, Sean Albert. Now, the school
has a junior distance runner who, despite a belated start in the sport, is
making some waves this CC season.
Katie
Kopacz is a junior (the senior designation in the present net report of the MAAC
meet is an error, as are many other such class listings for that meet) who broke
the collegiate record for the Disneyworld course last weekend at 17:07 and has
an outside chance of qualifying for the ig show this year at the Region II meet
at Happy Valley on Nov. 11.
Katie
was a soccer player at Holy Family Academy, Bayonne, where her only track
experience was a couple of weeks during her senior outdoor season. She went to
St. Peter's to play soccer and did so for two years, but also took up running
seriously and became the school's first ECAC scorer in the 5K at last winter's
indoor meet. Now she is in her first harrier season and has simply run away from
the field in most of her starts, including the Florida race which she won by
several hundred yards.
One
time this fall, she was actually too fast. In an amateur road race at Jersey
City;s Liberty State Park, she finished 2ighth overall and went by mistake into
the men's chute. The officials at first refused to believe that a woman could
run the course that fast---she was four minutes ahead of the next finisher---but
her coach appealed to some of the spectators, who luckily included distance
maven Tom Fleming,.and she got her award.
After her Florida win, which
was less than 30 seconds off the overall course mark for women, she told her
coach that she had plenty of running left, so it is possible she will be able to
match or better that time on the more difficult course at Penn
State..
Ed Grant
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