February 8, 2010

RedStorm track teams produce solid performances at Mt. Union

Alliance, Oh. --- The University of Rio Grande RedStorm men's and women's indoor track and field teams produced some solid performances at the Mt. Union College Jim Wuske Invitational on Saturday. This was a non-scoring meet. 

On the women's side, Rio Grande had two top 10 finishes in the shot put with freshman Kim Strunk (Milford, OH) placing third overall with a best effort of 37 feet, seven inches. Junior Cassie Mattia (West Chester, OH) continued her early season strong showing with a third place finish in the 800-meter run. Mattia covered the distance in 2:23.62. Sophomore Tracie Brown (Logan, OH) was 8^th (34 feet, five inches) in the shot put. Sophomore sprinter Kayla Graves (Chillicothe, OH) finished 7^th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.62. She was also 14^th in the 55-meter dash (7.78). Junior distance runner Hillary Haines (McConnellsville, OH) finished 8^th in the 500-meter dash with a time of 1:42.32. She was 18^th in the 1-mile run (6:31.57).

Freshman distance runner Amy Lower (Lancaster, OH) ran 10^th in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 12:38.08.

Other RedStorm women results: sophomore Danielle Stockham (London, OH), 11^th in the 3,000 (13:20.38); freshman Hayley McSurley (Plumwood, OH), 17^th in the 55 (7.85) and 31^st in the 200 (30.00).

"We had some very nice performances from both our men and our women," said Rio Grande head coach Bob Willey.  "Cassie did well in the 800 and our throwers are coming along nicely," Willey added. 

Rio will be busy this weekend with competitors at three different sites. On Friday (February 12) some of the members will be at Kenyon College. On Saturday (February 13) Rio heads to Bowling Green for the All-Ohio Indoor Championships and Sunday (February 14) some of the team members will compete at DePauw University in Greencastle, IN.