Paula Osborn of the Women's Track Team has been selected as this week's News-letter Athlete of the Week. Osborn broke two school records and competed in five events as she helped lead the Blue Jays to a second place finish as a team at the Centennial Conference Championships in Collegeville, Pa. this past weekend. The Jays scored 134.5 points, 26 more points than the team scored in 2008. The second-place finish is also the best for Hopkins to date.
Osborn competed in a grand total of five events. She placed second in the 55 meter dash with a time of 7.53, second in the 200 meter dash with a time of 26.18 (which broke the school record), fifth in the 400 meter dash with a time of 1:01.08 and broke the school record in the 4x200 alongside teammates Jordan Ireton, Anita Mikkilineni and Alison Smith with a time of 1:48.26. Finally, she placed second in the long jump. As if Osborn's accomplishments this weekend weren't enough, she raced in all the events with her leg bandaged up.
Head Coach Bobby Van Allen had nothing but kind words and the utmost respect when referring to Paula. "Paula has been one of the most valuable members of our team with her leadership. Paula is certainly one of the hardest working athletes that I have ever coached, and a leader both on and off the track," Van Allen said.
"She always pushes herself to the limits for the team's success. She is the prime example of a team player and always prioritizes the team well ahead of herself. Paula just started long jumping to help the team out as well, and she placed third at the conference meet in just her second time ever jumping. Paula sets the perfect example for all the younger athletes and will be almost impossible to replace next year."
Even though Osborn was injured this past weekend, she still managed to perform extraordinarily well. "I really freaked out when I strained my groin warming up for the long jump; I have never had a groin injury before," Osborn said. "But the trainers were very helpful, so with some painkillers and a really intense groin wrap I was good to go. I also knew that I could not let an injury prevent me from scoring the points I needed to add to our team score in hopes to beat Haverford for conference champs. I just took it one race at a time and focused on the goal of our team winning conferences rather than thinking about my injury."
Although she had not practiced the long jump a lot prior to this weekend's meet, Paula still managed to come away with a second-place finish.
"Long jump was so much fun! It was the second time I had ever done it, so I was surprised to have done so well. The other long jumpers were very helpful, telling me what to do and helping me with my steps. The whole team was [helpful] as well. all the cheering really pumped me up," she said.
With the season winding down to its final meet, Osborn has expressed great pleasure with the results from the winter season.
"I am so pleased with this season," Osborn said. "The whole team has really come together and everyone has done outstandingly. Personally I did better than I thought I would! I did Cross Country in the fall because I wanted to focus more on mid-distance, but it really helped me out with the sprints. Breaking the school records in the 55m and 200m as well as placing second in both events this weekend really was an exciting and satisfying end to my indoor sprint career."
This upcoming weekend, Osborn will try to qualify for nationals in the 400 meter dash, having already quailfied for nationals as part of the distance medley relay running the 400m leg, with Jordan Ireton, Laura Paulson and Rachel Hogan.
Check back in next week's News-Letter to see if Osborn qualified for Nationals.
