A fifth-place finish by senior Bill Rixon (Deerfield, Ill./Deerfield) paced the Valparaiso men’s track and field team on Saturday, while the Crusaders qualified a total of five runners into Sunday’s event finals as they competed on day two at the 2012 Horizon League Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Milwaukee, Wis.

The Crusaders have tallied 10 points through two days of action to sit in seventh place.  Milwaukee currently paces the team standings with 59 points.

Rixon earned a fifth-place finish in the hammer throw to put points in Valpo’s column on Saturday, recording a toss of 170’7” for the fifth-place showing.  SophomoreDavid Goad (Dixon, Ill./Dixon) also finished in the top-ten in the hammer, placing tenth with a season-best mark of 137’4”.  Sophomore Julian Smith (Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice) and freshman Cy Badertscher (Janesville, Wis./Joseph A. Craig) finished ninth and tenth, respectively, in the long jump with leaps of 21’5 ¼” and 20’2 ¼”.

On the track, Smith and freshman Nick Kowaleski (Lockbourne, Ohio/Grove City) both qualified for the event finals in the 100m and 200m dashes.  Kowaleski posted a prelim time of 10.67 and Smith 10.79 in the 100m dash, while Smith was the faster qualifier in the 200m dash, running a 22.05 in the preliminary heats versus Kowaleski’s 22.14.  Both runners ranked among the top-four qualifiers for Sunday’s finals in both events.

Elsewhere on the track, freshman David Rutkowski (Cedarburg, Wis./Living Word Lutheran) ran to a ninth-place showing in the 3,000m steeplechase, covering the course in 10:47.54.  Freshman Eric Loria (Crystal Lake, Ill./Central) led all Crusader runners in the preliminaries of the 800m run, crossing the line in 2:00.85, but did not qualify for the event final.

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