These two St. Joe’s track stars took turns breaking records. Now they look to be a relay threat.
Tess Crossan and Karin Dobiasch have traded the school record in the 800 meters all season. Their competitiveness has improved the program. They're ready to show that at the Penn Relays on Saturday.
Records are made to be broken.
And members of the St. Joseph’s women’s track and field team wrote, erased, and rewritten their names all over the school’s indoor and outdoor record books this season.
Last year, senior Tess Crossan broke a 25-year-old school indoor record in the 800 meters, as she shaved off three seconds from the previous record by finishing in 2 minutes, 9.3 seconds at the Bruce Lehane Scarlet and White Invitational in Boston.
Less than a year later, on Jan. 11 at the Penn Select meet, she broke her own record with a time of 2:09.05. That record was short-lived, as junior transfer Karin Dobiasch broke it a week later with a time of 2:08.12.
Crossan reclaimed the record, posting 2:08.02 on Feb. 8 at the ECAC indoor championships. She took gold in 800 at the Atlantic 10 indoor championships while Dobiasch earned bronze.
But outside of the actual race, there’s no competition between the two teammates. There’s motivation to help each other.
On Saturday, Crossan and Dobiasch will be pushing each other in the college women’s 4x800 Championship of America at the Penn Relays, alongside juniors Quinn O’Brien and Samantha Korck.
“We have such a tight-knit group of girls,” Crossan said. “When we’re all taking things to new heights and new levels at workouts, then to see one of us, or many of us, do that in a race, it just makes the entire group feel so proud as a whole.”
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“Everyone’s getting faster, and it’s all because everyone’s getting inspired by athletes that are finding new levels and going to new heights,” she added. “With our group, we all have been, looking at each other and saying, ‘Hey, I’m with this person every day, I’m doing the same workouts as them,’ getting inspired by the people around you and wanting to turn that into a positive thing.”
That was the case for Dobiasch when she transferred to St. Joe’s from Central Florida. When she came in, she said three girls had faster personal records than her.
“Tess and Samantha, they’re doing the speed workouts, and they’re so quick, and their legs just move like crazy fast,” Dobiasch said. “And then there’s Quinn O’Brien and Majken Lutzen, who are just really aerobic. So I feel like I found the best of both worlds, because I always have someone to push me.”
Dobiasch saw those benefits when the Hawks took things outdoors.
She broke Lutzen’s 800-meter school record of 2:07.33 from last season with a time of 2:06.27 at Princeton’s Sam Howell Invitational on April 4. A week later, she posted a 2:05.31 at the Duke Invitational to record a top-50 finish nationally this season.
Crossan said the indoor season helps shake off the rust, while the outdoor season is when you “hit the ground running.”
“Karin has definitely done that,” Crossan said. “We’re killing it as a group now, and we’re rolling into Penn Relays this weekend, and then A-10s the following, just ready to absolutely kill it.”
During the indoor season, Crossan and Dobiasch won gold in the 4x800-meter relay at the A-10 championships while running with Korck and Lutzen, with a time of 8:48.14. On Feb. 8, the same day Crossan reclaimed the indoor record, the relay team broke the 4x800 indoor mark in 8:45.37.
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At the Penn Relays, O’Brien will be on the relay instead of Lutzen. Crossan and O’Brien were part of St. Joe’s 4x800 team that cut six seconds off the 27-year-old school record with a time of 8:43.95 last year at Franklin Field.
Dobiasch will be racing at her first Penn Relays, and is feeling all of the excitement.
“It’s always a team sport, but a relay really captures that,” Crossan said. “You’re grabbing the baton and ready to absolutely suffer and go through pain for your teammates. It’s something special, because you’re willing to go to new heights, because you know that you have the team counting on you and you don’t want to let them down. So it’s really a proud moment, and that pressure gets turned into so much excitement.”
This is also the first year the St. Joe’s 4x800 relay will compete in the Championship of America, the highest level at the Penn Relays.
Also competing at that level for the Hawks will be the men’s 4x200, 4x400 and sprint medley teams along with the women’s 4x100 and sprint medley foursomes.
“There’s been so much progress this year, there’s been so many PRs,” Dobiasch said, “so many spots on the all-time top 10 list where people have been moving around, up and down, adding themselves to the list, people who have been tying school records, breaking school records. At this point, there’s barely a meet where there’s not a school record, and there’s no meet where there’s not someone in like, the top 10 of our school’s history all time.”
They look to continue that trend this weekend.
“No matter what, we know that every single one of us is going to put their best foot out there,” Dobiasch said. “It’s four really capable women, so it’s going to be a great time.”