Saturday, April 14, 2012

Four event victories on the infield led the Valparaiso women's track and field effort on Saturday as the Crusaders finished in fourth place at the Eagle Invitational, hosted by Benedictine in Lisle, Ill.

Valpo tallied 63.2 points on Saturday for the fourth-place finish among the 20-team field. Olivet Nazarene earned top team honors with 133.5 points.

Sophomore Sarah Drozdowski (Roselle, Ill./Lake Park) picked up two of the wins for Valpo on Saturday, picking up first-place finishes in the hammer throw (159'7”) and javelin throw (109'0”). Drozdowski also earned top-ten placements in the shot put, placing fourth with an effort of 39'6”, and the discus throw, registering a mark of 117'11”, good for eighth place. Freshman Sara Greer (Union Mills, Ind./South Central) joined Drozdowski among the top-10 in the javelin throw with a distance of 87'1”, good for eighth place.

Meanwhile, sophomore Marissa Crafton (Chesterton, Ind./Chesterton) moved into Valpo's all-time top-five with a winning effort in the long jump, leaping 18'1 1/2”. The new PR for the sophomore ranks third on the Crusaders' all-time chart. Sophomore Kelley Freeman (Valparaiso, Ind./Chesterton) won the pole vault as well on Saturday, clearing 11'3” to earn top honors in the event. Elsewhere on the infield, freshman Brooke Hinstorff (Waterloo, Wis./Lakeside Lutheran) and freshman Eileen Carmignani (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy) finished sixth and ninth, respectively, in the triple jump with leaps of 31'10” and 31'4”, while freshman Jazmin Taylor (Rock Island, Ill./Rock Island) jumped 4'7” in the high jump to finish in a tie for eighth place.

On the track, the most impressive effort came from freshman Jessica Richardson (Columbus, Ind./North), who earned runner-up honors in the 5,000m run, breaking 18 minutes in the event with a time of 17:59.33, just nine seconds outside of Valpo's all-time top-five. The sprints featured a number of solid Crusader efforts, as Crafton placed seventh in the 100m dash (13.01), freshman Kelli Wosick (Mount Prospect, Ill./Saint Viator) finished eighth in the 400m dash (1:01.02) and freshman Malea Buck (Davenport, Iowa/Central) came home 11^th in the 200m dash (27.08).

Valparaiso returns to action next weekend at the Al Owens Classic in Allendale, Mich. The two-day meet starts Friday, April 20 at 11 a.m. CDT.