Jan. 27, 2007

Grand Valley State women's track and field team set and improved on five NCAA qualfying marks on Friday at the Notre Dame Invitational. The meet consisted of numerous Division I and Division II schools. GVSU will take part in the Division Challenge at Findlay on Feb. 2-3.

Freshman Katherine McCarthy took second place with a qualifying time of 2:15.93 in the 800 meter run. Senior Meredith DeVries recorded a qualfying mark of 5-05.00 in the high jump for a second place finish. Four Laker pole vaulters improved on their qualifying marks in the meet. Senior Rachel Duthler won the event with a mark of 12-01.50, while sophomore Dianna Noonan took second (12-01.50). Sophomore Kellie Kieren finished in fourth place (12-01.50), while junior Lindsay Jones posted a jump of 11-07.75 for a fifth place finish.

"This was a great weekend for us to compete against some great competition and see where we are at," said head coach Jerry Baltes. "We had some very nice performances as we added to our NCAA qualifyingg marks."

"We are looking forward to traveling to Findlay this weekend and competing against some of the best Division II teams in the country in a scored meet," added Baltes.