It's a new outdoor season for the Ball State women's track team, but recurring problems from the indoor season continue to haunt the Cardinals.
The team was able to keep up with Mid-American Conference opponent Miami for part of the Miami Invitational Saturday until the RedHawks pulled away with their depth.
Miami won the meet with 177 points while the Cardinals finished in second at 133. Ball State beat out two MAC schools in Ohio and Marshall.
The Cards had just one scoring finish in 11 of the 19 events while not scoring a point in the discus and pole vault.
"It was a good performance for us," head coach Sue Parks said. "Our top people did well, but we needed more than one person scoring in different events."
The Cardinals top freshman, Christina Poulson, won both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes with times of 12.01 and 24.88, respectively.
Also highlighting the meet was a strong outing in the long jump, headed by freshman Amanda Barnhart's second-place finish at 19-2 12.
She was followed by freshman Terry Abraham and sophomore Jennifer McCoy at third and fifth, respectively. In total, the team scored a combined 18 points in the event.
Sophomore Crystal Winfrey, a top sprinter for the team, sat out for most of her regular events in order to be fully rested for the 4x400 and 4x100 relays.
The strategy proved to work as Ball State took second in the 4x400 with a time of 3:47.13 and won the 4x100 at 46.18, just .27 seconds ahead of Miami.
"The meet was a good indication for us that we need to improve if we want to be a contender," Parks said. "We need to continue to improve and we still have a ways to go if we want to think of ourselves as contenders in the conference."
The team will resume its outdoor season Saturday with the Pacesetter Invitational in Terre Haute.
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