West Lafayette, IN -— Apparently heart-set on breaking every tally in the Goshen College record books, the Leafs’ women’s track and field team put forth another outstanding performance Saturday, breaking four school marks at the Boilermaker Invite on the campus of Purdue University.

Freshman Rachel Versluis led a slew of incredible efforts at Purdue’s Lambert Fieldhouse, setting a new program record in the pole vault with a clearance of 10 feet, erasing the school mark that she had tied earlier in the season of 9 feet, 6 inches, That mark was initially set in 2005 by Erin Williams, while Versluis — in just her fifth collegiate meet — was able to raise the standard by four inches.

“It was good to see Rachel finally make the pole vault record her own after tying it earlier this year,” said Rick Clark, Goshen head coach. “She had a real challenge Saturday since 10 feet was the starting height for the event. It was satisfying to see her attack the situation in such a positive way.”

Versluis continued her attack mode in the 4 X 400 relay, where she teamed with classmates Lydie Assefa, Laura Harnish and Abri Houser in eradicating the program record with a time of 4:14.22, taking second in the event. Goshen’s school record stood at 4:24.94 prior to Saturday, a time that was not bettered in nine years.

“The totally frosh team of Assefa, Harnish, Houser and Versluis obliterated our 4 X 400 relay mark by 10 seconds, finishing runner-up by only one second,” Clark said. “It was a great race by four athletes who should only get better with experience.”

Houser was another piece to Goshen’s four-suited record push, as the speedster dropped the Leafs’ 60-meter hurdles mark with a time of :09.41, good for fifth place at the event. Erin Williams previously held the school mark with a time of 10:14 set in 2005, while Houser added her name to a third event in the program record books.

“Houser beat the 60-meter hurdle record by over a half second,” Clark said. “She had previously broken the 55-meter hurdle record and seemed to have little difficulty at the slightly longer distance.”

Junior All-American Petrana Petkova appeared to have no problems in the 3,000-meter run, erasing her own school record of 10:18.85 with a clip of 9:56.40 on Saturday, finishing second in the event and hitting the NAIA National Qualifying mark for the third time of the season in the event. Petkova’s performance was backed by an NAIA national qualifying mark of 5:15.97 in the mile run by Harnish, a clip that placed her fifth on Saturday and was just over four seconds off the Leafs’ school record time of 5:11.50 set by Heidi Saunders in 2001.

“Petrana and Laura really led us today,” Clark said. “Petkova ran to a runner-up finish and eclipsed her previous school record and personal best by 22 seconds. This performance also put her into the NAIA’s top five for the event. Harnish also met NAIA qualifying standards in another event (she previously qualified in the 800-meter run). Although this just missed a school record, Harnish is quickly putting herself among the best middle distance runners in Maple Leaf history.”

Assefa finished second in the 400-meter dash in a time of 1:04.83, while senior Rachel Yantzi finished third in the 800-meter run with a 2:28.52 clip. Freshman Deanna Kronk rounded off Goshen’s top five finishes with a third-place result in the shot put, charting a distance of 39 feet, 3 inches.

No team scores were kept at the event. To view complete results from the Boilermaker Invite, click here.

Goshen will next travel to Anderson University to compete in the Fred Wilt Invite on Saturday.