Goshen, IN — In what has been an exciting opening to the 2006 Goshen College women’s indoor track and field season, the squad’s lone opportunity to showcase its talents in the Maple City arrived with this Friday’s Maple Leaf Invitational.

The team didn’t disappoint.

Bolstered by a large and vocal crowd at the Roman Gingerich Center, the women’s team took a close runner-up finish to Mid-Central Conference rival Bethel College, setting three school records, five facility records and hitting three NAIA automatic qualifying marks in the process. The team accounted for 10 first-place finishes in a total 14 events, pleasing head coach Rick Clark with the performances.

“We were very excited with how we competed tonight,” Clark said. “To break as many school and facility records as we did, not to mention the qualifying marks for the indoor championships, gives us a sense that we are on schedule.”

Goshen was led by both youth and experience, as freshman Laura Harnish and senior Petrana Petkova came away as the most decorated athletes of the night for the Leafs. Harnish was part of two-record breaking runs, finishing first in the 800-meter run in a time of 2:20.68 and helping the 4 X 2-lap relay team to a program-best 4:32.84 clip. Harnish’s 800 time erased a six-year old mark set in 2001 by Heidi Saunders (2:27.94), while the relay team of Harnish, freshmen Lydie Assefa, Rachel Versluis and Abri Houser erased a six-year mark of 4:44.44. Harnish’s time in the 800-meter run was an NAIA automatic qualifying mark, her first of the season.

“Laura Harnish continues to impress,” Clark said. “Last week she ran two excellent relay legs which made us excited about her ability in the open 800. She motored around our indoor facility in a record-smashing time of 2:20.68 which dropped our school record by seven seconds and the fieldhouse record by five. In the process she went well under the automatic qualifying mark for the NAIA indoor championships. Later she teamed up with three classmates in an impressive 4 X 2-lap relay run. It was a very good night for our freshmen.”

While Harnish and company were busy re-writing the record book on the shorter distance events, senior All-American Petrana Petkova casually wrote her name in two more slots in program history, winning both the 1,500-meter run (school record time of 4:55.12) and the 3,000-meter run (facility record time of 10:27.30), automatically qualifying for the NAIA indoor national championships in both events. Petkova’s 1,500-meter time replaced a mark of 4:57.64 set by Saunders in 2004, while her 3,000-meter time could not better her own mark of 10:18.85 set in last year’s NAIA Indoor National Championships, but did shatter a Roman Gingerich Center record.

“Petrana turned in two hard runs at shorter distances as she worked on her speed endurance for the 5,000-meters,” Clark said. “She currently has the best time in the NAIA at the longer distance.”

Houser added another facility record for the squad in the 55-meter hurdles, clocking in at a first-place time of :08.84, just off her school record clip of :08.72 set earlier this season. Versluis also brought home a blue ribbon in the 200-meter dash, finishing in a time of :29.05.

Goshen’s first-place efforts were rounded out by freshman Betsy Freeman in the high jump (4 feet, 10 inches), junior Lorna Matura in the triple jump (31 feet, 8 inches), freshman Deanna Kronk in the shot put (37 feet, 6 inches) and senior Rachel Yantzi in the weight throw (38 feet, 5 inches).

Bethel finished as team champs at the meet, taking a total 77 team points to Goshen’s 69. Tri-State University finished with one point.

Goshen will next travel to Purdue University, where the team will take part in the Boilermaker Invitational on Saturday.