The Ball State University track and field team has highlighted today and Saturday with a thick red circle on its calendar in anticipation of the Meyo Invitational.
The Cardinals will travel to South Bend to compete in the 22nd annual invitational with host University of Notre Dame.
"This is the best invitational to date. Kids are traveling from all over the country," coach Randy Heisler said. "We're looking at appearances from schools from the Big 12, Big South and East, West Coast area, everywhere. This is a huge opportunity for the girls."
The Cardinals traveled to Marion last weekend where they continued to make headway in their indoor season with multiple wins at the Indiana Wesleyan Invitational.
Fifth-year-senior Amber Williams punched in three blue ribbon finishes. Williams broke the Indiana Wesleyan University Indoor Sport Complex records in the 60-meter dash, 200-meter dash and the 60-meter hurdles. Williams' hurdle time was .01 seconds away from being permitted to run in NCAA Women's Indoor Track and Field provisional.
"The curves are bigger, this isn't a tight track," Heisler said. "I would say about 50 percent of all the qualifying marks come from this invitational."
Other first place finishes came from sophomore Megan Bevans, who ran 800-meter race in 2 minutes, 22.01 seconds. Junior Jenna Schmitmeyer recorded a winning finish in the 400-meter with a time of 59.71 seconds for the Cards as well. Schmitmeyer also contributed to the first place finish 4x400-meter relay with her teammates freshman Kelsey Stephens, sophomore Thekla Lorenz and junior Katie Johnson.
In addition, juniors Ali Bishel, Brittany Ade and Lisa Arrowsmith and sophomore Erin Filak broke a medley relay track-record. In field events, sophomore Lindsay Bangert won the long jump with a distance of 18-09.75, and senior Lauren McNichols broke a track-record when she tied for first in the pole vault event with a vault of 11-09.75.
"We're looking to build off the confidence from last week and go for PRs and broken school records that will hopefully lead right into NCAA for us," Heisler said.
The Cardinals will lace up their cleats at the Notre Dame Loftfus Center with events beginning at 5 p.m. today and finishing at 9 p.m. Saturday.
"This invitational will give us a realistic scope of where we stand for the MAC Championship," Heisler said. "Our best performances could come from this weekend."
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