BEREA, OHIO --  The Baldwin-Wallace College women's indoor track and field teams will open the 2012 season this Friday, January 20 when they host the annual B-W Mid-January Meet on the Harrison Dillard Track inside the Lou Higgins Center. Field events are expected to begin at 4:15 p.m.  To view the entire schedule of events, please log on to the B-W web site at http://www.bw.edu/athletics/itf/sched/.

The annual goals of the B-W track and field team are to win the Ohio Athletic Conference and Division III All-Ohio meet titles, capture as many titles in other meets and qualify as many studentathletes as possible to the 2012 NCAA Division III National Championship meet.

"We return a strong group of veterans on each the men's and women's teams," said veteran Head Coach Dr. Bill Taraschke, who has helped the B-W cross country and track programs capture 48 titles in his 28 years at the College. "We have a number of performers back from a year ago who all improved last season. The key this winter is how much more each has improved again. We are looking forward to our first meet on Friday."

The women's team returns 28 lettermen from a team that won the 2011 Ohio Athletic Conference Championship with a score of 168.5 points and is expected to finish second this year via a preseason OAC Coaches poll. Despite that prediction, a veteran team will look to repeat its championship performance of a year ago. In the OAC preseason poll, the Yellow Jackets received four first place votes and totaled 70 points, eight behind the University of Mount Union who received 78 points and earned six first place votes.

The women will be led by returning All-OAC student-athletes throwers Cristina Perrine (Middleburg Heights/ Midpark) and Leslie Purnell (Springfield/Catholic Central), high jumper Victoria Brown (Berlin Center/ Western Reserve), sprinters Nicole Smith (Geneva) and Kaylan Lemon (Canton/Massillon Perry) and distance aces Sarah Rospert (Huron/Edison) and Brooke Hradisky (Aurora).

In the sprints at last year's OAC Championship Meet, Lemon earned valuable points in the 55-meter dash, 200-meter dash and as a member of the 4 x 200-meter relay team. She was second in the 200-meter dash in 26.30 seconds and third in the 55-meter dash in 7.41 seconds. In the 4 x 200-meter relay, she was joined by Smith and juniors Jessica Ballard (Cardington/Buckeye Valley) and Lauren Nanni (Parma/Padua Fransiscan). All four return this winter. Individually, Smith finished third in the 400 meter-dash with a time of 1:00.78. She was joined on the 4 x 400-meter relay team by Hradisky, sophomore Jaime Clapacs (Willoughby Hills/Willoughby South) and junior Brittany Sterling (Lima). All four return. And, she ran with Clapacs and Hradisky as three-fourths of the first place distance medley relay team.

In the hurdles, look for Sterling and sophomore Krista Wharton (Cincinnati/ Colerain) to be the key performers.

Hradisky and Rospert anchor a usually solid middle distance and distance corps.  In addition to running on the 4 x 400 relay, Hradisky placed second in the 800-meter dash with a season-best time of 2:19.72. Rospert returns after missing last winter due to injury. In addition, look for sophomores Lauren Hutka (North Ridgeville/Grafton Midview) and Blair Vrcan (Mentor) and juniors Lauren McGaughey (Allison Park, Pa./Hampton), Shaina Kovatch (Parma/ Valley Forge) and Tess Hoogeveen (Westerville/South) to add depth and strength.

Brown, Perrine and Purnell will lead the field event attack.  Perrine won the weight throw at last year's OAC Championship with a throw of 53'11. 75". Purnell finished third in both the shot put (38"11.5') and the weight throw. Brown earned All-OAC honors in the high jump by finishing third with a season-best mark of 5'2.50".  In addition, senior Kara Kasper (Amherst/Steele), freshman Nicole Christner (Minerva), sophomores Francesca Dore (Collins/ Western Reserve) and Brittany Gerhardstein (Mentor) and junior Stephanie Shockley (Tiffin/Columbian) to help.

In addition to hosting the annual Mid-January Meet on January 21, B-W will host the OAC North Split Meet on Friday, January 27 at 5:00 p.m., the annual Mid-February Meet on February 10 at 5:00 p.m. and the annual Greater Cleveland College Meet on February 17 at 5:00 p.m.

For more information on the meets and meet schedules, please contact B-W Head Coach Dr. Bill Taraschke at 440-826-3322 and e-mail at wtarasch@bw.edu or Assistant Coach Eric Schmuhl by telephone at 440-826-2005 and e-mail at eschmuhl@bw.edu.  You also can visit the Indoor Track Schedule page at http://www.bw.edu/athletics/itf/sched/.

FOR MORE B-W Sports Information, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu Fans can access the latest B-W athletics information at www.bw.edu/athletics and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.