Pitt track setting early-season tone

The Pitt track and field teams returned home with two event titles and several top-three… The Pitt track and field teams returned home with two event titles and several top-three finishes from the Penn State National Open in State College, Pa., this weekend.

The women’s 1600-meter team of Kari Hedderick, Shanea Calhoun, Shantea Calhoun and Kaetlyn Brown ran comfortably to victory with a time of 3:45.87, a full tick ahead of the second place team from Saint Augustine’s. The squad, made of two sophomores and the senior Calhoun twins, competed against 15 other teams.

In the men’s 5000-meter run, Pitt teammates Curtis Larimer and Josh Christopher placed first and second respectively, with Larimer turning in a winning clip of 14:44.99. Larimer, a senior, crushed the rest of the pack, cruising to the only sub-15 minute finish.

“There was nobody even close to him,” Pitt coach Alonzo Webb said. According to the coach, Larimer’s leading time was a personal best by more than 20 seconds.

The freshman Christopher, who turned in a time of 15:11.36, wasn’t far ahead of fellow first-year runner Sam Weiser, who placed fourth in the event with a time of 15:21.10.

Webb, who was happy with his team’s two first-place results, was also happy with the progression he’s seen over the past couple of weeks. And while he believes his team is nowhere near where it could be, he’s hopeful.

“I’m feeling kind of good,” Webb said. “Not really good, but you see some progress. This is only our third meet, and we haven’t started to make the moves we’re capable of.”

In what was perhaps the most impressive result of the weekend, senior Sam Bair came in second in the men’s one-mile run invitational. Posting a time of 4:00.16, Bair earned himself an automatic bid to the NCAA championships.

Bair narrowly missed breaking four minutes but will continue his quest to do so.

“It will be history if he makes it,” Webb said. “He and his dad [current Pitt volunteer assistant coach and former Pitt standout Samuel P. Bair] will be the first father and son in history to break that time [in NCAA competition]. That was the most impressive performance over the weekend.”

Other top three finishers included Shantea Calhoun, placing second in the women’s 200 meters, Brown, coming second in the women’s 400-meter dash, narrowly missing first by less than a second, and Janessa Murphy, placing third in the long jump.

But with still much room for improvement, Webb knows there’s only one way for the team to improve.

“We need to continue to work hard in practice and gain confidence,” he said. “The ultimate goal is always to be [the] Big East champion. That’s always been our goal. We go into the season believing we can be champions.”

And though the team has definite goals, Webb says it will be a couple of more weeks before he can completely judge where his bunch stands in a large Big East conference. Webb, who hasn’t even seen all the conference teams compete yet, said it typically takes until midway through the season to assess where he thinks his team falls.

“We have a fairly young team, so it takes time to get to a place where we can handle all the things we need to do,” Webb said. “It’s all about attitude. The kids’ attitudes are getting better, and we’ll do better as the year goes on. We’ll get more serious about what we want to do.”

Next week a portion of each team will travel to Lexington, Ky., to participate in the Kentucky Rod McCravy Memorial and to State College for the Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup. Pitt will look to continue to measure its place in the Big East. Webb, though, is confident.

“We’ll always be right in the hunt for one of those top places,” he said.