Ball State finished fourth at the Mid-American Conference Championships at Central Michigan. The two-day meet saw the Cardinals score 81.5 points, with Akron's 97 being the winning total. Also finishing ahead of BSU were Eastern Michigan with 95.5 and Kent State with 88.5.
"I think the team is used to the competition and responded really well," head coach Sue Parks said. "We had a good day on Saturday. We didn't do as well as we hoped on Friday but had a good day on Saturday."
Junior Jill Scully had one of the best meets of her career. She won the 3,000 and 5,000 meter runs and finished fifth in the mile. For that was selected by the coaches as the Most Outstanding Performer. She also set a MAC record with her time of 9:38.04 in the 3,000. In addition, her time of 17:09.21 in the 5,000 broke the CMU facility record. She scored 24 of the team's points by herself.
"She is a really tough racer," Parks said of Scully. "She rarely runs bad. Most days she is ready to go."
Another notable finish was the 4x400 relay team which finished second in 3:42.53. Two other strong performers were freshman Yvonne Ferguson and sophomore Amanda Ponsot. Ferguson was second in the 400 (55.91) and fifth in the 200 (24.94). Ponsot took fourth in the mile (4:59.10) and fifth in the 800 (2:13.11).
Scoring points in the field events were sophomores Amanda Barnhart and Terri Abraham in the long jump. Barnhart won for the second straight week and again provisionally qualified for the NCAAs with her leap of 20-4 1/2. Abraham was seventh in the long jump.
"I think last week gave [Barnhart] confidence when she beat Miami," Parks said. "It was a wide-open field where four or five girls could win. And even more than that, she had to come back to win. This performance shows what kind of competitor she is."
Senior Sarah Huddleston was seventh in the 5,000 meter, while sophomore Rose Lehe took fourth in the 3,000. Senior Ashley Gillies had two top-10 finishes with her third in the high jump (5-foot-8) and 10th in the triple jump. And sophomore Karmen Mabry rounded it out with a place of tenth in the shot put.
Ball State will travel to Notre Dame next weekend and compete in the Alex Wilson Invite.
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