Saturday, May 02, 2009

Senior Amanda Body (Harlan, Ky./Harlan) lowered her own school record in the 100m dash Saturday as the Valparaiso women’s track and field squad competed on the second of three days at the Horizon League Track and Field Outdoor Championships in Lisle, Ill.

Body crossed the line in her qualifying heat in the 100m dash in 12.27 seconds, knocking four one-hundredths of a second off of her own school record in the event.  She was the third-fastest qualifier for Sunday’s event final.  Body also qualified second-fastest in the 200m dash, crossing the line in 24.73 seconds, and posted a tenth-place finish in the long jump, leaping 16’11 ¼”.

Also qualifying Saturday for a Sunday event final was Alyssa Bradford (Mukwonago, Wis./Mukwonago), who was the seventh-fastest runner in the 800m run preliminaries, crossing the line with a career-best time of 2:18.80, less than a second away from Valpo’s all-time top-five in the event.  In event finals Saturday, Sara Christensen (Bettendorf, Iowa/Pleasant Valley) scored for Valpo by placing sixth in the 3,000m steeplechase with a time of 12:08.10, while Natalie McCorriston (Lansdowne, Pa./Cardinal O’Hara) finished tenth in the javelin throw (72’2”) and Julie Flowers (Sterling Heights, Mich./Stevenson) 15th in the discus throw (97’10”).

Valparaiso enters Sunday’s competition, which begins at 11 a.m., in eighth place in the team standings.  Youngstown State leads the team title chase with 94 points.