Got a note from my daughter the other day. She’s married to a Heidelberg College grad and passed along some info from the ‘Berg’s newsletter.

One article that caught my eye was about the success women athletes at Heidelberg achieved in the 2001-2002 season.

For one, junior Missy Troyer became the second Heidelberg woman to qualify for the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships. She ran a school record 18:29 and finished 88th at the Nationals. For the season she was 1058-139 and was voted MVP.

In basketball, senior Rachael Poland capped off one of the best career performances in the school’s history by being named to the first team Kodak All-American. She also was named an All-American by two publications and was first team All-OAC and All-Region.

Her 1914 career points is a school record and third in the Ohio Conference.

Off the court, she was named a Verizon Academic All-District and OAC Student Athlete of the Month.

After the women’s soccer season ended in the spring, Jennifer Seminerio was named a third team Academic All-American by Verizon.

She was first team Academic All-OAC both in soccer and in track and was an Academic All-District honoree in track. She set a Heidelberg record as she won the 800 meters at the OAC indoor championships.

Congratulations to all three ladies.

All this comes during the 30th anniversary season of Title IX, the federal act designed to give women the same chance to accomplish athletic goals as men.

Now, you can find differing opinions about whether Title IX has made the world a better place, but there is no question it has increased athletic opportunities for women.

This has not been the case in all areas of sport, however.

From Nashville comes the story of a group of males who conspired to deprive a female of a championship in “their” sport.

Deborah Renshaw was leading the season points championship in the Late Model Series at Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville. She had taken over the lead and held it despite never even leading a lap.

Her performance was good enough to get her a drive in six ARCA races this season.

In mid-July, driver Mark Day got a dozen or so other drivers in the series, which is sanctioned by NASCAR, to post the $3600 needed to file a protest. They even fielded a non-competitive car with a brand new driver to finish behind her. Under the rules, a protest can only be filed by a car which finishes behind the car being protested.

The ringer car went six laps and pulled off, finishing last.

According to the Associated Press, such protests normally are handwritten on notebook paper, since there is a short time limit for filing them.

This one was typed … and, hopefully, spell checked.

Dennis Grau is president of Fairgrounds Speedway, whose alumni include Darrell Waltrip and Sterling Marlin. Grau called NASCAR and got permission to throw out the protest without considering it.

However, Renshaw and her father, who owns her car, asked him to go ahead and consider the protest. Inspectors began examining the car and found a cylinder was one cubic centimeter too big. Not much of an advantage, but technically illegal.

As a result, she lost the points she had gotten for her sixth place finish and with them any chance at winning the season title.

Doesn’t hardly seem fair, does it?

But, take heart. Mr. Day got his this week.

He won the Late Model race at Fairgrounds last Saturday. But routine post race inspection showed that the fuel in his car had not come from the speedway pump as required.

Day said it had come from the same pump as everyone else’s and he couldn’t explain why it was a different color.