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West Lafayette, IN — It was more of the same for the Goshen College women’s track and field squad at Saturday’s Purdue University Boilermaker Invitational, as the Leafs raced their way into two school records, one event win and two NAIA National Championship qualifying marks. The team now has nine individuals set to participate in the NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships in mid-March and has set eight school records, all just four meets into the 2007 season.
“It’s certainly been fun, I can tell you that,” said Rick Clark, Goshen head coach. “We had a very successful trip to West Lafayette on Saturday, and our athletes continue to train hard and improve. Their success is a direct relation of how hard they’ve worked.”
Leading the way for Goshen on Saturday was sophomore Rachel Versluis, whose :08.47 clip in the trials of the 60-meter dash broke a nine-year old program record. Versluis, who finished sixth overall in a time of :08.51 in the finals, knocks out Camilla Pflederer’s old school record of :08.54 set in 1998. Classmate Abri Houser joined Versluis in the record-breaking department, flying through the 60-meter hurdles in a clip of :09.18, replacing her old school mark of :09.41 set last year. Houser’s mark on Saturday was good enough to finish her in third place overall.
If that weren’t enough, Versluis and Houser joined sophomore Laura Harnish and freshman Rachael Baker to finish third overall in the 4 X 400 relay event, coming within a whisper of the school record in a time of 4:14.64 — the Goshen program mark currently stands at 4:14.22 set last season.
“Both Rachel and Abri had outstanding efforts in their respective short-distance events,” Clark said. “The women’s 4 X 400 relay team just missed breaking the existing mark by 42 hundredths of a second. They have been right there.”
Senior Laura Herr — second place in the 5,000-meter run clip of 18:43.91 — and sophomore Deanna Kronk — sixth place in the shot put with a throw of 40 feet, 5 inches — each qualified for NAIA national competition as a result of their performances Saturday.
“Laura Herr had her hard work pay off for her today,” Clark said. “It was also good to see Deanna come out and have one of her better days amongst a very large crowd of competition.”
Senior Petrana Petkova was the lone blue-ribbon getter for the Leafs on the day, finishing first in the 3,000-meter run in a time of 10:10.90. Other top-five finishes included a third-place effort from Houser in the long jump (16 feet, 1 inch) and a 4 feet, 8 inch clearance in the high jump. Houser finished third in the high jump as well.
No team scores were kept at the meet. For a complete list of results, click here.
Goshen will next travel to the Fred Wilt Invitational on Saturday. That meet will take place on the campus of Anderson University.
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Senior Laura Herr 