Saturday, April 10, 2010

Ini Umana (Cottage Grove, Minn./Park) improved on her own school record Saturday in the discus throw and also posted the second-best mark in Crusader history in the hammer throw to lead the Valparaiso women’s track and field team as it finished in 12th place at the Miami Invitational in Oxford, Ohio.

The Crusaders tallied 12 points on the meet for their 12th-place finish.  The host RedHawks took the team championship with 188 points.

Umana, whose previous best and school record in the discus throw came two seasons ago at 141’6”, surpassed that mark by a full two feet Saturday, registering a mark of 143’6”, good for a runner-up finish.  In the hammer throw, Umana moved past Emilie Marsicek and now trails just Holly Hagen in the Crusader annals after coming up with a toss of 156’8”, placing her seventh and setting a new career best by nearly 12 feet.

Elsewhere, Alyssa Bradford (Mukwonago, Wis./Mukwonago) helped contribute to the Crusader team score with a career-best time of 2:18.39 in the 800m run, crossing the line in seventh place.  Fellow senior Sara Christensen (Bettendorf, Iowa/Pleasant Valley) also tallied a top-ten finish, placing ninth in the 3,000m steeplechase with a time of 12:00.59.

Valparaiso returns to action next Saturday, April 17 at the Northern Illinois Invitational in DeKalb, Ill.