John Raffel

Sports Scene

 

Taryn Ostrander is in her junior season as a thrower for Ithaca’s track and field team, and in her third varsity year, has been showing substantial improvement.

“I’ve improved my shot by four feet,” she said. “The biggest challenge is getting the form down and actually applying it when you throw.”

Of the two throwing events, her best one is the shot put.

“My goal for the shot put is getting the record for the school,” she said. “I’m three inches away from the girls shot put record. For the discus, it’s getting close to 100. I’m working on my footwork.

“I like the shot put more than I like discus,”

She’s been breaking personal records. Besides throws, she also does pole vault, but she’s been focusing on the throws.

Ostrander has enjoyed the team concept.

“The team is doing well this year,” she said. “We’ve all improved. We’ve all been working hard. The team goal is to help each other out as well as we can.”

Ostrander also does volleyball and indoor track. She said track is her best sport and has been doing it since middle school.  Her personal record came at the Shepherd Bluejay Invitational when she threw 36-11 in the shot put. She took third place. She previously had thrown it 36-6 ½ at the Clare Invitational. Ostrander won with throws of 34 8 1/2 in the TVC meet at home and 34-10 ½ at the Alma College Scottie Classic. At Shepherd in the discus, her 90-8 was a personal record, although she placed 11th. She had a 89-19 at the Scottie Classic, but placed second.