Saturday, May 05, 2012

The Valparaiso women’s track and field team remained in sixth place on Saturday after the second of three days of competition at the 2012 Horizon League Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Milwaukee, Wis.

The Crusaders have tallied 13.5 points through two days of action, leading Wright State and Detroit.  Milwaukee currently paces the team standings with 56.5 points.

On the infield, sophomore Sarah Drozdowski (Roselle, Ill./Lake Park) posted Valpo’s best finish of the day, earning a spot on the podium with a toss of 173’0” in the hammer throw to finish in second place.  The mark set a new PR for Drozdowski and improved upon her second-best effort in Crusader history in the event.  FreshmanSara Greer (Union Mills, Ind./South Central) finished tenth in the same event with a toss of 140’2”.

The Crusaders also earned a pair of fifth-place finishes on the infield as well.  In the pole vault, sophomore Kelley Freeman (Valparaiso, Ind./Chesterton) cleared the bar set at 10’7 ½” to finish in fifth place.  Then, in the long jump, sophomore Marissa Crafton (Chesterton, Ind./Chesterton) registered a leap of 17’9 ¾” to share fifth place.

In the only event final on the track that the Crusaders competed in on Saturday, freshman Eileen Carmignani (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy) ran to an 11^th-place finish in the 3,000m steeplechase with a season-best time of 13:14.83.  Freshman Kelli Wosick (Mount Prospect, Ill./Saint Viator) led the Crusaders with a time of 1:00.96 in the preliminaries of the 400m dash, while sophomore Claire Johnson (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) paced the Valpo contingent in the prelims of the 800m run with a time of 2:24.43, but neither qualified for Sunday’s event finals.

Valparaiso will conclude the 2012 Horizon League Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Sunday beginning at 11 a.m.