Freshmen Sarah Drozdowski (Roselle, Ill./Lake Park) and Kelley Freeman (Valparaiso, Ind./Chesterton) both posted top-five finishes Saturday as the Valparaiso women’s track and field team closed the first of two days of competition at the 2011 Horizon League Indoor Track and Field Championships in seventh place.

Valpo tallied 7.5 points on the first day of action in Geneva, Ohio to sit in seventh place entering Sunday’s event finals.  Milwaukee owns the team lead heading into the second day with 58 points.

Drozdowski shattered her previous PR in the weight throw on Saturday by better than three feet,  tossing the implement 53’11 ¾” to finish in fourth place.  The mark improved on her second-place standing on the Crusader all-time chart in the event.

Freeman continued her solid rookie campaign indoors in the pole vault as well on Saturday, clearing 10’6”.  The mark was good for a tie for fifth place, earning 1.5 points towards the Valpo team score.

The Crusaders picked up another fifth-place finish on the track Saturday, as the distance medley relay squad of Claire Johnson (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie), Jorie Ballun (Oswego, Ill./Oswego), Grace Shemwell (Clinton, Iowa/Clinton) and Nicole Zehel (Wixom, Mich./Lutheran Westland) crossed the line in 12:34.80, a Valpo season-best in the event.

Fifth-year senior Whitney Bowman (Portage, Ind./Portage [Purdue]) led the Valpo effort in the 5,000m run, finishing in 13th place with a time of 19:16.39.  Ballun set a new PR in the 400m run, completing the distance in 1:03.12, while Laura Harness ran a season-best time of 29.79 in the 200m dash, but neither qualified for Sunday’s event finals in their respective events.

Valparaiso concludes the 2011 indoor season with the final day of action at the league championship meet on Sunday morning.  Sunday’s activity is slated for an 8 a.m. CST start.