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Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Results

Apr. 2, 2011-- Amanda Laesch established a new school record and hit two national qualifying marks, helping the North Central College women's track & field team obliterate the competition at the outdoor season opening First Chance Invitational inside Bendetti-Wehrli Stadium on Friday and Saturday.

The Cardinals scored 254 points while College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin rival Carthage College was a distant second with 144. Wheaton College was third at the nine-team invitational with 118 points followed by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (105).

Laesch opened the meet on Friday with a record breaking performance in the 10,000-meters, clocking an automatic qualifying time of 35:41.35, blowing away the previous school record in the event by over 22 seconds en route to the victory. Teammate Lauren Hooks was second in 38:02.71. Laesch added a provisional qualifying mark in the 5,000-meters on Saturday, winning the event in 17:33.05. Capturing the Cardinals' third distance event of the meet was Amanda Marek, prevailed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, clocking a winning time of 11:28.37.

Sheila Walsh captured the 400-meter dash, finishing the one-lap race in a provisional qualifying time of 57.10 seconds. Lauren Brightmore was second in 57.88 while also placing runner-up in the 200-meter dash (25.94), finishing behind fellow Cardinal Kayla Murphy. Murphy clocked a 25.48 in the 200 for th victory while finishing second in the 100-meter dash in 12.56 seconds.

In the field events, Basheeba Mays captured the triple jump with a leap of 35 feet 7 3/4 inches while Brianna Tolliver and Kristine Zizis finished 1-2 in the javelin throw. Tolliver won with a heave of 115' 0" while Zizis' toss of 108' 11" was good for second place.

Michelle Criscione cleared 5' 1 3/4" to place second in the high jump while Melissa Savino jumped 17' 2" in the long jump, also placing second.

Walsh and Brightmore teamed up with Krista Cota and Kala Bingham to close out the meet with a victory in the 4x400-meter relay, finishing in 3:59.75.

The Cardinals return to the track on Friday, April 8, competing at the Chicagoland Outdoor Championships.