Women's track lockers trashed

When the members of the women's track team returned after Thanksgiving break, they were greeted with a ransacked locker room. The room, in the Munger Athletic Complex of Franklin Field, was burglarized Saturday night at about 1:35 a.m. More than 80 percent of the lockers were vandalized, women's track coach Betty Costanza said. She said the doors to the locker room were also damaged. In addition, some equipment and personal items were stolen, including dress uniforms and shoes. Costanza said she has been in contact with the University's Risk Management office to try to estimate the extent of the damages. College senior Melanie Gesker, captain of the cross country team, said the burglars were probably looking for money and electronic equipment. But Athletics Supportive Services Director Larry Lauchle guessed that the burglars were just looking for cash. "It's a step down from just pure vandalism," he said. Costanza said that although the burglary has inconvenienced women's track, the incident did not affect the team's morale. "Nobody likes to see anything like this happen," Costanza said. "I was upset. It's a hard thing to come back from vacation and find your locker room in disarray." Costanza said that the Athletic Facilities Department has acted very quickly in making temporary repairs to the lockers until they can be permanently replaced. The damaged lockers will be replaced with combination lockers, which are much tougher to break into, Lauchle said. These replacements will be of the same model locker that is used in the Hutchinson Gymnasium. A locker company will be coming to campus today to determine the cost of the replacing the lockers, Lauchle added. Athletic Department officials plan to replace all the damaged doors and are considering installing an alarm system, Costanza said. Lauchle said he had a meeting Wednesday with Director of Security and Public Safety Chris Algard to discuss future security measures for the Munger Complex. He added that an alarm system is one of the main considerations. Gesker said that she was shocked when she first saw the damage upon entering the locker room. "I think people were just upset," Gesker said. "People were worried about the security of the room."

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