T&F Competes in Miami Invitational This Weekend

April 06, 2012 | Track & Field

By: Ball State Athletics

MUNCIE, Ind. - The Ball State women's outdoor track & field team returns to action this weekend at the Miami Invitational in Oxford, Ohio.

Ashland, Butler, Calvin, Cedarville, Central State, Cincinnati, Findlay, Hillsdale, IPFW, IUPUI, Kent State, Morehead State, Ohio State, Rio Grande, Shawnee State, Western Michigan and Wright State will be joining Ball State and host Miami in the women's competition during the two-day event.

The meet will start Friday at 2 p.m. with the hammer throws while Saturday's action begins with the discus and javelin at 10 a.m.

Last season, a four-hour lighting and rain delay limited the squad to just the 5,000m run and discus as Madeline Goheen (Fort Wayne, Ind./Bishop Dwenger) paced the Cardinals with a 15th-place time of 18:28.53 in the 5,000m run, while Kate Krull stood as the Cardinals' top performer in the discus with a toss of 126-5.

Ball State enters weekend action after claiming 11 top-10 performances, including one event win, during Purdue's Mike Poehlein Invitational at Dave Rankin Track.

Sophomore Rebecca Lomax (Indianapolis, Ind./Southport) posted a first-place finish in the high jump with a leap of (5-6.00), while freshman Haley Austin (Avon, Ind./Avon High) tied for third in the event alongside Purdue's Emily Becker (5-3.00).

In the sprint events, freshman Christina Crawford (Belleville, Mich./Romulus) posted an eighth-place finish in the 100m dash with a time of 13.17.

Junior MaryKate Mellen (Michigan City, Ind./Michigan City) and sophomore Esther Tirado (Dominican Republic (Lafayette Jefferson) each added seventh-place finishes in the 800m run (2:16.20) and 5000m run (18:38.52), respectively.

In other field events, freshman Hannah Ciasto-Poor (Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington South), Crawford and junior Alyssa Hurlburt (Huntington, Ind./Huntington North) each added sixth-place finishes in the pole vault (11-3.75), long jump (16-10.75) and triple jump (35-0.25), respectively.

Rounding out Ball State's top-10 performers were junior Melissa Dodaro (Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) with a fourth-place showing in the discus (143-6), while freshman Marie Lumpkin (Losantville, Ind./Union) recorded a distance of 121-6 to place 10th in the event.

Junior Jorden Traver (Lafayette, Ind./Harrison) also tallied a ninth-place finish in the javelin (98-10).

Overall, Ball State's student-athletes are ranked in the top-20 in this week's MAC Rankings a total of 32 times.

Ball State in the MAC Ranking

100m Dash

15th - Janae Taylor (12.30)

200m Dash

15th - Janae Taylor (25.33)

400m Dash

11th - Judah Smith (58.34)

14th - Hannah Lange (59.54)

800m Run

11th - MaryKate Mellen (2:16.20)