The baton fell to the surface of the Goldsberry Track at Peden Stadium during the handoff between Melody Royster and Tommi Crowley in the 400-meter relay of the Ohio women's track team's dual meet against Marshall Saturday.

Crowley picked up the baton, but she couldn't overcome the Marshall relay team, which won .88 seconds.

It was the only disappointment during the meet, Ohio head coach Elmore Banton said.

The Bobcats won 117-66, giving the women a 3-6 record in dual meets this season.

What could have been a bad situation with the relay wasn't one at all, Banton said.

"We have a doggone good 400 relay team when we get around the track," Banton said. "Two important things came out of it. One, neither Tommi Crowley nor Melody got down on themselves. Especially the freshmen (Royster), you worry about them.

"She came back and won the hurdles, and Tommi came back and took second in the 100 and had a pretty decent time on top of that. They didn't let it get them down, and that's the key.

"Crowley picked up the baton and kept running; she didn't stop, which means we got a point. It's always good to see your kids do that."

Royster won the 100-meter hurdles in 14.62 seconds and was third in the 100-meter dash in 12.63.

Crowley was second in the 100 with a time of 12.28 and third in the 200-meter in 26.37.

Tisha Franklin was first in both events for Ohio, winning the 100 in 11.96 seconds and the 200 in 24.48.

However, the Bobcats' big winner on the day was Katie Geib. She won the javelin in the morning with a throw of 103 feet, 11 inches, then cleared the bar at 5 feet, 6 inches to finish second in the high jump.

Geib then moved to the the track, where she had a personal record time in the 800-meters at 2:16.16.

Finally, she anchored the winning 1,600-meter relay team to a 4:01.63 finish.

Competing in two running events was a little different for Geib.

"One of our 400-meter runners, Sarah (Yeager), hurt her hip, so she didn't run at all this meet," Geib said. "Also, our other two usual 400 runners have been running four events every meet all year long, so (Banton) gave them a break today. That's why I was running the four by four."

Whether Geib will continue to run the mile relay, possibly at the MAC Championships May 20-22, will be determined by Yeager's health.

Yeager went to the doctor to have tests run on her hip, and Geib said the team will know the results today.

Melissa Converse ran the 800 and mile relay to work on turnover for her usual events, the 1,500-meter and 3,000 meter.

She was first in the 1,500-meter with a 4:39.48 performance and ran on Ohio's winning mile-relay team with Geib, Anne Lawhun and Carrie Bayless.

Converse was second to Geib in the 800 with a time of 2:17.62. Bayless took first in the 400-meter for the Bobcats in 56.94.

Hannah Naumoff impressed coach Banton with her 400-meter hurdles race.

Naumoff was behind her Marshall competitor for most of the race but overtook her before the last hurdle to win the event in 1:05.15.

Kellie Griffin also had two good performances for the Bobcats, winning the long jump with a 17 foot, 9 3/4 inch leap.

Her 14.97 finish in the 100-hurdles put her in second place. She edged out Tara Lee of Marshall.

Banton was happy with the team's performance overall.

"We had a very good meet," he said. "We're not going to win a championship, but at least we're peaking and looking like a pretty good team."