Warner set standard for Comets' speed

By the time she arrived at Carthage, Frances Warner was already a winner.

Warner, who grew up in a military family, transferred to Carthage for her final two years of high school. Before the move, she won a combined total of five state titles in track and field and cross country while competing for teams in North Carolina and Kansas.

At Carthage, she proved she wasn't done.

In the fall of her junior year, Warner stormed through Frontier League and Section 3 competition, setting various records along the way for the Comets. Often winning races by more than a minute, Warner quickly established herself as the area's top runner.

After Warner won the Sandy Creek Homecoming Classic race for large schools on Oct. 15, 1994, then-Carthage coach Ron Roggie made a prediction in an interview with the Times.

"I probably shouldn't say this too confidently," Roggie said. "But I don't think she'll have anyone with her until the state meet Nov. 12."

He was right.

In the state Class B championship at Albany, Warner threatened to add another state title, finishing just 1.5 seconds behind winner Jen Fazioli of Averill Park.

Another near miss followed in the state indoor track meet in Ithaca, when Warner finished in second place in the 1,500 meters. The winner, Dana Ostrander of Shenendehowa, beat Warner by approximately three seconds.

Ostrander and Warner repeated the 1-2 finish in the 3,000 at the state outdoor meet in Buffalo, with Ostrander extending the winning margin to a mere six seconds.

The following day, however, Warner broke through in the 1,500 final. Leaning at the finish line, Warner edged Bayshore's Chante Daily by .28 seconds for the win. It was Carthage's first state championship in any sport.

During Warner's senior year, she was one of the favorites in the state Class B cross country final in Corning. Warner, though, fainted during the race and was unable to finish.

A highlight of her track season was a second-place finish in the 1,500 at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia. She also added another second-place finish in the state indoor 1,500 in Ithaca.

Warner went on to run cross country, indoor track and outdoor track at the NCAA Division I level for the University of Virginia. Warner dealt with injuries for portions of her college career, but was competitive against Atlantic Coast Conference athletes when healthy.

Warner earned a bachelor's degree in speech pathology from Virginia in 2000. She received a master's degree from Vanderbilt in 2002.

She married Lee Dingman, a fellow 1996 Carthage graduate, in 2001. They have two sons, Jack, 5, and Logan, 3, and a daughter, Kasey, 9 months. The family lives in Johnson City, Tenn.

Frances Dingman, 30, is employed by Yeatman Executive Search, a firm based in Annapolis, Md.