By Bart Logan | bl245106@ohio.edu
Although Ohio's 10th-place finish at the Indoor Mid-American Conference Championships this past weekend did little to warrant much acclaim, one Bobcat took home some individual honors. Senior distance runner Annie Beecham finished second in the 5,000-meter and third in the 3,000-meter run and was named to the All-Mac second team.
"I'm nothing but happy for her," coach Clay Calkins said. "She just had a fantastic meet -- pulled through for us and showed her senior leadership."
In an indoor season where many individual performances peaked and valleyed from week-to-week, Beecham has been a stalwart, consistently garnering top-five finishes for the Bobcats. At the Meyo Invitiational on Feb. 5 -- lining up against many of the premier athletes in the Midwest -- Beecham finished fourth in in the 3,000-meter and set a school record with a time of 9 minutes, 32.89 seconds.
Beecham surpassed the previous record held by teammate Kari Summers by over 15 seconds. Summers has used up her indoor track eligibility but will return to the team in spring for the outdoor season.
Calkins said that addition of Summers to an already strong distance crew boasting Beecham and freshman phenoms Juli Accurso and Melissa Thompson, among others, should bolster the side. That, combined with warmer weather to accommodate the squad's practice limitations, should translate to better team performance come spring.
"It's tough. We've had a trend of finishing down in the indoor season but there's some reasons for that. We just do the best job we can," Calkins said. "The goal is vast improvement for the outdoor season, which normally happens."
-- Twitter: @bart_logan, @ThePostSports