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SMU at UWEC Invite Saturday, April 15 |
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SMU makes it 3-for-3 as Valk hits provisional mark in 100 hurdles
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — When it comes to NCAA Division III Outdoor National Championship qualifiers, the Saint Mary's University track and field team is batting 1.000.
The Cardinals made it a perfect 3-for-3 Friday afternoon, as Autumn Valk (Appleton, Wis.) hit the provisional qualifying mark in the 100 hurdles, posting a time of 14.99 at the UW-Eau Claire Invitational.
Valk joins Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.), who provisionally qualified in the shot put in SMU's first outdoor meet two weeks ago, and Amanda Weinmann (Rochester, Minn.), a provisional qualifier in the shot put last week, as SMU's national championship hopefuls.
"We knew coming in we had a shot to get another (provisional) qualifier, and Autumn ran a great race," said SMU coach Kirk Nauman, "When you look at it, it was another great day for us — not only did we get another provisional qualifier, but we also broke two more school records.
"All-in-all, I was very happy with the way we performed."
Luehmann broke her one-week-old school record in the discus, bettering her old mark of 40.11 with a toss of 40.15, while Maria Roche (New Prague, Minn.) shattered the 400 school record by nearly a second, winning the event with a time of 57.67.
Ellen Koranda (Blue Earth, Minn.) and the Cardinals' 4x400 relay team of Valk, Koranda, Emily Bartusek (Albert Lea, Minn.) and Roche, also picked up first-place finishes, as Koranda stopped the clock in 2:18.22 to win the 800, while the 4x400 won with a time of 3:59.0. Megan Mason (Rochester, Minn.) chipped in a first-place leap of 1.60 meters in the high jump, while Luehmann was also second in the shot put (13.09) and fourth in the javelin (31.66).
Other Cardinal highlights included: Bartusek, second in the 400 (58.71) and 4th in 200 (26.40), Weimann, third in the shot put (12.97), Roche, third in the 200 (26.31), Kate Bosjoilie (Austin, Minn.), fourth in the 10K (41:05.17), Dan Gerber (Belvidere, Ill.), sixth in the 200 (22.64) and Joe Holman (Suamico, Wis.), eight in both the 110 hurdles (17.23) and the 400 hurdles (60.83).
"It's the time of year when things are really starting to pop, and I was very happy with what I saw again today," said Nauman. "Hopefully we can just keep it going from week to week."