The Marquette men's and women's track teams suffered a disappointing weekend at the Conference USA Indoor Track Championships in Houston this weekend.
The women's team finished tenth out of 13 and the men fifth out of eight in the conference, lower than the teams and coaching staff had expected.
Marquette head coach Dave Uhrich found solace in a few individual performances. Freshman Cassie Peller finished in second place in the mile, and junior Jon Shaffer, freshmen Joe Pierre and Jed Burey placed first, third and fifth, respectively, in the 800-meter run.
Peller ran a 4:57.05 mile to finish second to Cassie Ficken of Charlotte. The mile race came the day after Peller anchored a comeback surge on the women's distance medley team to a second place finish with a combined time of 11:49.68. After Michaela Courtney finished her 800-meter leg, the Golden Eagles were in fifth place, and Peller passed three runners during her mile leg to get into second.
"The first two girls were in reach when I took the stick and I caught them in the first half-mile," Peller said. "I caught up (with) the third girl in the last half-mile and fortunately held her off. My teammates put me in a good place where I was able to catch up."
Before leaving for Houston last week, Shaffer predicted that he and Pierre would finish first and second in the 800-meter run.
He turned out to be half-right, as he overcame Jackson Langat of Texas Christian in the final lap to take first place with a time of 1:53.48, a personal best. Langat finished in 1:54.17, with Pierre close behind at 1:54.36. Burey clocked in at 1:57.12 to finish fifth.
"I can honestly say I expected them to do as well as they did," Uhrich said of his trio of 800 runners. "Jon was so confident going in that it never occurred to him that he wasn't going to win, which is the outlook you should have going into any race."
"That was a classic Jon Shaffer race, coming from behind," Marquette assistant coach Bert Rogers said. "He's a really strong kicker and that's just Jon's personality, he always thinks he can win even if he's down."
Senior sprinter Crystal Andalcio-O'Neil fulfilled her career-long goal of placing at conference and finished sixth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.59, setting a school record.
Freshman high jumper Ray Bratchett finished second with a leap of 6-9 3/4 to Tristian Whitley of the host Cougars, who leapt 6-11 3/4.
Triple jumper Charles Mashozhera, who expected to contend for the triple jump crown, had been battling a tender hamstring for over a month. He had been pain-free and jumping well at practice last week, but the injury resurfaced in Houston, and he did not place in the triple jump after fouling out.
In other action, sophomore Jeremy Williams finished third in the 3000-meter run with a time of 8:35.26 and fourth in the 5000-meter run with a time of 15:02.49. Sophomore Zach Pawlowski came in fourth in the pole vault with a leap of 15-01, a school record. Seniors Jonathon Rosploch and Andy Ballard finished third and fourth in the shot put, and Ballard came in fourth in the weight throw.
Junior Matt Piekarski finished third in the heptathlon with a combined 5068 points, a Marquette record.
On the women's side, senior Jamie Haro finished fourth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:14.05. Senior Andrea Engelmann came in fifth in the women's weight throw with a heave of 52-11.
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 1 2005.