Saturday, January 23, 2010

The Valparaiso women's track and field squad saw its field contingent in action Friday evening at the Simmons-Harvey Invitational in Ann Arbor, Mich, highlighted by the fourth-best pole vault in program history by Gianna Mirabelli (St. John, Ind./Lake Central).

Mirabelli, competing in her first collegiate meet, cleared 10'6" on Friday evening to match Katrina Roberson (2005) for the fourth-highest vault indoors in the Crusader record books.  The freshman, who finished eighth in the event, is less than six inches off of the Valpo record height of 10'11 3/4".

Ini Umana (Cottage Grove, Minn./Park) paced the trio of Crusader throwers who competed in a pair of events on Friday.  The redshirt junior placed 11th in the shot put with a toss of 34'1 1/2", while also finishing 14th in the weight throw, recording a mark of 39'2 1/2".

The Crusader runners will take the stage Saturday on the second day of the two-day meet, taking to the track at 11 a.m. CST.