ELON, N.C. – In March 2014, Allyson Oram '14 won the 3,000 at the Southern Conference Championship with a time of 9:34.97. That time stood as Elon's school record in the event for nearly 10 years.
On Friday, Feb. 2, junior Jette Beermann toed the line on the storied track at Rector Field House at the Doc Hale Virginia Tech Meet. This 3,000-meter race was her indoor season debut and she went on to etch her name in the Elon record books.
As the gun went off, Beermann settled in quickly. Pacing the race was Elon freshman Cami Glebocki, who led the first five laps before dropping back. She was instructed by coach
Kevin Jermyn to run 9:45 pace for the first kilometer.
Once Glebocki dropped, Beermann picked up the pace considerably, coming through the mile mark in 5:10. She was followed by a pack of Elon runners, including Maggie Springer,
Katie Blount,
Hannah Miller and
Hattie Reynolds.
Beermann is often referred to as 'The Jet' because of her impressive closing speed. She said she relied heavily on that patented late burst to break this race open.
"I didn't know how much I could speed up for the last [kilometer], but it was definitely a nice surprise," Beermann said.
She started to wind it up with 600 meters left, dropping consecutive 35 second laps before closing with a 34. Her last kilometer clocked in at 3:04.
Beermann's finishing time of 9:34.19 put her comfortably under Oram's school record.
"I didn't know it when I crossed the line," Beermann said. "Pretty soon after, one of my teammates told me."
While happy about breaking the record, Beermann knows she has more to give. With the CAA Indoor Track & Field Championship coming up in just a few weeks, she said she plans to save her best for then.
"Mentally, I'm trying to prepare for every scenario that can happen in a race," Beermann said. "At conference, you never know if it's going to be tactical, because it usually doesn't go out like a normal race."
Last season, Beermann won the mile at the inaugural indoor conference meet. She is currently ranked third in the CAA for that event and fourth in the 3,000. Beermann said her biggest goal is to help the team score as many points as possible at the indoor championship and keep the ball rolling into the outdoor season.
'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.
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