Africa delays Carnegie Mellon runner Wobb's goal
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Emily Wobb, a junior distance runner at Carnegie Mellon and a Pine-Richland High School graduate, left the country Jan. 26 to study in Ghana, but will have an opportunity to qualify for the Division III outdoor championships when she returns in May.
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Carnegie Mellon University track and cross country coach Dario Donatelli is the first to point out that junior distance runner Emily Wobb is a unique individual.
A Pine-Richland High School graduate and a junior at Carnegie Mellon, Wobb has run in two indoor meets this winter for the Tartans finishing first both times. She won the 5,000-meter race at Marietta College Jan. 14 with a time of 17 minutes, 44.24 seconds.
Wobb followed that up with a time of 10:08.71 in the 3,000-meter race at the Al Hall Freedom Games at Edinboro University on Jan. 21.
In both races, she destroyed the rest of the field. Edinboro senior Kacey Gibson, a former Neshannock High School standout and WPIAL Class AA cross country champion, was a distant second in the 3,000-meter race with a time of 10:36.49.
Then Wobb left the country.
A fine arts major, Wobb left Jan. 26 for Ghana and the opportunity to study in Africa. While her indoor track season has ended, Wobb still has designs on qualifying for and competing in the NCAA Division III outdoor championships at the end of May.
"She returns May 11 and we'll head to Chicago for a last chance meet so she'll have an opportunity to qualify," Donatelli said, adding that he isn't sure if Wobb will try to qualify for the championships in the 5-kilometer (3.1 miles) or 10K races.
To earn a trip to the championships, she will have to run a qualifying time -- 17:20 in the 5K and 36:20 in the 10K -- at the last chance meet.
For Wobb to take a shot at either of those two times she will have to maintain a training regimen on her own in a foreign country. That's not the easiest of things to do, although Donatelli has no doubts that Wobb will get the job done and can keep in touch with her via the Internet.
First Published February 3, 2012 12:00 am
