Saturday, April 02, 2011

The Valparaiso women's track and field squad continued the 2011 outdoor campaign at the Mike Poehlein Invitational in West Lafayette, Ind. Saturday, highlighted by a pair of top-ten finishes from freshman Sarah Drozdowski (Roselle, Ill./Lake Park).

Coming off a performance last weekend for which she earned Horizon League Female Field Athlete of the Week honors, Drozdowski improved on her marks in all three events at Purdue this weekend.  Her best finish actually came in the one event contested Friday afternoon, as the rookie finished sixth in the hammer throw with a toss of 153'4”, improving over eight feet on her mark from last week and maintaining her spot as fourth-best in Crusader history. 

Drozdowski then finished seventh in the shot put on Saturday, registering a mark of 41'0 1/2”, over a foot better than her effort from last Saturday and remaining third-best in Valpo history.  She also posted a 14th-place finish in the discus throw, improving over ten feet off of last week's showing with a throw of 128'1”, good for fourth on Valpo's all-time chart in the event.

A pair of Crusaders also posted top-20 finishes on the track on Saturday.  Senior Jorie Ballun (Oswego, Ill./Oswego) finished 16th in both the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles with times of 17.93 seconds and 1:15.16, respectively.  Meanwhile, freshman Nicole Zehel (Wixom, Mich./Lutheran Westland) crossed the line in 12th place in the 3,000m steeplechase, posting a time of 12:38.52.

Valparaiso returns to action next Friday, April 8, at the Chicagoland Championships in Chicago, Ill.  The first event is slated for a 1 p.m. start.