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Upland, IN / Bloomington, IN / New York, NY — It was success across the Eastern United States for the Goshen College women’s track team this weekend, as athletes competed at three different competitions — and locations — in bringing back several high marks to the Maple City.
Freshman Tina Peters competed on the biggest stage — New York City’s Madison Square Garden — in placing fifth at the One Mile Race Walk National Indoor Championship at the Millrose Games. Peters finished the mile walk in a time of 7:18.54, nearly 18 seconds off her 2006 National High School Race Walking Championship time. While not an official distance per NAIA regulations, Peters’ clip in New York set the stage for what Goshen head coach Rick Clark called a brilliant future.
“There is no question that Tina is special in her event,” Clark said. “She is kind of pioneering the race walk event for us here competitively, and it’s obvious she has a chance to make some waves on a national stage.”
Closer to home, the rest of Peters’ teammates were performing at the Taylor University Invite in Upland, Indiana, while senior Petrana Petkova made the trip even further south to the Hoosier Relays on the campus of Indiana University. While there, Petkova won the 5,000-meter run in a time of 17:25.19, just a shade more than six seconds off her school-record mark of 17:19.53, set last season. Petkova qualified for the NAIA National Championships with her time Saturday, returning to the event in which she finished runner-up last season (click here for related article).
“Petrana’s time at I.U. was her third-fastest time ever,” Clark said. “She is showing signs of improving on her career-best time if she continues to improve as our season progresses.”
At Taylor, Goshen received a variety of stellar finishes, highlighted by a school-record performance in the 55-meter hurdles from sophomore Abri Houser. Houser, who took second in the finals with a time of :08.76, clocked a :08.62 during trials, shaving her school record by one tenth of a second. Both times were good enough for NAIA National qualification.
Classmate Laura Harnish took top honors in the mile run, finishing in a time of 5:15.51, an NAIA National qualifying mark. Freshmen Whitney Turner and Rachael Baker finished seventh and eighth in the event, respectively, charting times of 5:40.2 and 5:44.89.
Goshen’s distance medley relay team of Harnish, Turner, sophomore Rachel Versluis and senior Laura Herr captured a second-place finish in a time of 13:05.22, while Herr grabbed a third-place result in the 3,000-meter run in a time of 10:59.62. Versluis finished seventh in the pole vault with a clearance of 9 feet, 6 inches. Sophomore Deanna Kronk finished first in the shot put and second in the 20-pound weight throw with a 39 feet, 5 and ¼ inch toss in the shot put and a sling of 41 feet, 8 inches in the weight throw.
Houser completed her productive day by finishing fourth in the 800-meter run (:2:29.46) and fourth in the long jump (16 feet, 4 and ½ inches). She also picked up 3,092 points in the pentathlon, bettering her school-record mark from last week’s 2,745-point performance (click here for article).
Goshen will next host its lone indoor meet of the season on Friday evening, as the Maple Leaf Invitational will begin with the long jump at 5:15 p.m. Field events are slated to begin at 6 p.m. with track events slated for an approximate 7 p.m. start.
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Freshman Tina Peters 