Steve Bartholomew (Valparaiso, Ind./Morgan Township) and Philip Lohrmann (Battle Ground, Wash./Battle Ground [Clark C.C.]) broke school records Sunday in the weight throw and pole vault, respectively, as Valparaiso competed on day one of the Mid-Continent Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in Bloomington, Ill.

The Crusaders have tallied 20 points through five scored events, placing them in fourth place out of the five competing teams. Southern Utah leads the team competition with 75 points, while third-place Oral Roberts is just 13 points ahead of Valpo.

Bartholomew broke his own school record in the weight throw, a mark he had just eight days prior to Sunday's competition. The junior posted a mark of 60'8 ¾", almost two-and-a-half feet past his previous best effort in the event. The toss was good for second place, the Crusaders' highest finish on the day.

Lohrmann recorded a mark of 14'1 ¼" in the pole vault, good for a fourth-place finish. The vault surpassed John Wood's 21-year-old school record of 14'0", and was nearly a foot higher than Lohrmann's previous-best vault.

Three other Crusaders recorded points in individual event finals Sunday. Eric Smith (Portage, Ind./Portage) recorded a toss of 48'8 ¾" in the weight throw, finishing eighth in the event. Also posting eighth-place finishes were Chris Honig (Glen Ellyn, Ill./Glenbard South [Indiana]), who crossed the line in 8:50.78 in the 3,000m run, and Tom Heun (Brecksville, Ohio/Brecksville-Broadview Heights), who registered a jump of 20'2 ½" in the long jump.

Heun also competed in the 60m hurdles, but did not qualify for the event finals, crossing the line in 9.55. Jules Gilimpundu (Kigali, Rwanda/Stony Brook [N.Y.] School) led the Crusaders in both the 200m dash and the 400m dash, running the events in 23.51 and 51.89, respectively, but neither effort was fast enough to qualify for Monday's finals. Aaron Brackett (Rockton, Ill./Rockford Lutheran) paced Valpo with a time of 7.87 in the 60m dash, but did not qualify for the finals.

The Crusaders' distance medley relay team ran to a fourth-place finish in the only relay action of the day. Rich Krupar III (Elyria, Ohio/Midview), Ben Radke (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge), Bryan Gill (Columbia City, Ind./Columbia City) and Josh Parker (Roselle, Ill./Lake Park) completed the race in 10:43.09, just three-tenths of a second behind the third-place squad.

Valparaiso returns to the track Monday morning at 10 a.m. for the second and final day of competition at the conference championships.