QUINTIN JAMES
Staff Writer
At the Brockport Golden Eagle Invitational track meet last week, junior Brittany Feldman broke a school record for fastest time in the 500-meter race. The record was held for 31 years and she set a meet record with a time of 1:18.14.
That was her first time running the 500-meter race and she earned 10 points for the Blue Devils, who finished 3rd out of 12 teams in the invitational.
The previous record was held by Laura Meier, who set the record in March of 1986. Head coach Thomas Wilson was not surprised about Feldman’s performance.
“I had high expectations for her coming into this race. She’s a strong athlete and I wanted her to have the demeanor so could break a school record,” said Wilson.
He says this will serve as motivation for the rest of the team. “Players want to break the record. Her voice is heard on the team and after coming back from fracturing her foot, she is a good role model for the other players to follow,” he said.
Feldman, even though it was her first time competing in the 500-meter race, was going with the mindset of breaking the school record.
“I went into the meet with the goal of breaking the school record. Since I’ve never ran it before, I had no idea what to expect. In the middle of the race I saw the clock going and knew that if I went all out on the last lap that I could do it. So, that’s what I did and when I saw my time I was extremely excited and very proud of myself,” she said.
She went on to add that she was very nervous before the race because she hadn’t raced anything longer than 400 meters before, but once she got on the starting lineup then the nerves went away quickly.
When asked how she prepped for the race, Feldman explained that she had to modify her normal routine because she was running a longer race. “The day before the race I prepped by doing starts without starting blocks. Since it was a longer race than I’m used to I didn’t need to go out as fast. So, I did probably 4 starts at a slower pace than I’m used to, to get me used to running slower at the start.”
The track team competes next on the Feb. 11, when they will travel to Tiffin University in Ohio for the Tiger Invite.