By Leen Quintyn (April 23, 2002)

Junior Mark Murchie and senior Leen Quintyn were the only two George Mason athletes to earn medals in the 11^th Annual Obie Calhoun Track Meet last Saturday at Brentsville High School.

Murchie earned 20 points for the team by placing 1^st in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.42 seconds. Murchie also placed 3^rd in the high jump by jumping 5’08" and placed 4^th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.27 seconds.

Quintyn finally achieved her goal by throwing the discus 100’06". She earned 4^th place out of 31 throwers in her event with the winning throw being over 122 feet. 

Although no one else earned medals for Mason, everyone was working hard at improving their times. "The team has been working really hard. They improve with each meet. Today was a great day for personal records to be broken," track coach Julie Bravin said. The majority of the mason track team successfully broke personal records and achieved personal goals. 

In the girls’ 1,600-meter run, Devin Roden-Reynolds dropped 9 seconds off of her old record and finished the one-mile run with a time of 6:22. While in the boys’ 1,600-meter run, Sophomore Orie Bumgarner dropped his record run by 5 seconds and finished with a time of 5:04. The most improved time came from athlete Melissa Womble who successfully dropped 18 seconds off of her old 3,200-meter run time. She finished the race with a pleasing time of 14:02. And, finally, in field events, shot putter Sarah Stanley improved her throw by 8 inches throwing the shot put 28’09". 

With districts coming up in less than a month, the Mason athletes were happy to have individually succeeded in this meet. The team will be competing against Madison County High School this Wednesday, April 24 at Madison County.