Saturday, September 24, 2005

Valparaiso placed four runners in the top-30 on the way to a fourth place finish Saturday evening at the Stanford Invitational.

Freshman Laura Rolf (Rochester, Mich./Lutheran Northwest H.S.) led the way for Valpo, finishing 12th with a time of 14:51 over the four-kilometer course. Danielle Nunnelly (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso H.S.) stopped the clock at 14:58, good for a 17th place finish.

Rachael Button (Farmington Hills, Mich./Farmington H.S.) was the next Crusader to cross the line, coming in 31st place with a time of 15:20. Following her was Jobeth Schmeising (Mankato, Minn./Mankato West H.S.) in 33rd place, finishing in 15:24. Rounding out the scoring for Valpo was Ashley Billstrom (Hales Corners, Wis./Whitnall H.S.) with a time of 16:13 for a 68th place finish.

Stanford's Amanda Trotter led the pack with a time of 14:03, leading the host Cardinal to the team title with 23 points. The Crusaders finished with 147 points, good for fourth place out of the 17 participating teams.

The Brown and Gold return to action this coming weekend, splitting the squad for two races. Some runners will be taking part in the Notre Dame Invitational on Friday, while others will travel to Chicago to race in the Loyola Lakefront Invitational on Saturday.