Bataille Sprints into 55-Meter Finals

In December sophomore sprinter Judy Bataille (Felicity, Ohio / Felicity-Franklin) of the Heidelberg College women’s track and field team took her first strides towards making a trip to the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio with a provisionally-qualifying time in the 55-meter dash. She followed her December performance up with another provisional time and two automatic qualifying times. Once your there is when things get tougher, but Bataille stepped up to the challenge of racing at  nationals and won her preliminary heat in a time of 7.11 to earn a spot in the finals and topped her own school record of 7.12. Heading into the finals Bataille has the second fastest preliminary time.

Bataille will vie for a national championship tomorrow, March 15 at 3:45 p.m. A top-eight finish will earn her All-American honors for the first time in a ’Berg uniform.

On the eve of the championships Bataille was recognized as the 2008 Great Lakes Region Women’s Track Athlete of the Year. Aside from her trip to the national meet this indoor season, Bataille garnered four Ohio Athletic Conference Runner of the Week honors and capped off her first indoor season in the OAC as being tabbed the Fred Raizk Sprinter of the Meet at the OAC Championships. Bataille won the 55 and 300-meter dashes, while claiming a third championship as a member of the 4x200-meter relay team.

Within the Heidelberg record book, Bataille also set a new record in the 300-meter dash (41.94), the 200-meter dash (25.73), as well as a leg of the 4x200-meter relay team (1:45.55) and the 4x400-meter relay team (4:01.06).