May 4, 2008

UNIVERSITY CENTER - After qualifying third during Thursday's preliminaries, Lake Superior State's DJ Battistella moved up to second place in the men's 400-meter hurdles during the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Track and Field Finals held Friday at Saginaw Valley State.

Battistella bettered his school record of :54.00 by clocking a time of :53.50. He missed the NCAA Provisional Qualifying Time by 1/10th of a second.

Battistella also held onto his fifth-place spot in the 400-meter dash, finishing fifth in the finals with a time of :49.28. Teammate Paul Davis held onto ninth in the 100-meter dash finals with an :11.48 and moved up from eighth to seventh in the 200 with a :22.70 finish.

After qualifying seventh and eighth, respectively, in the men's 800-meter run, Lakers Evan Williams and Eric Ouellette placed eighth and fifth, respectively in the finals. Ouellette, a freshman, clocked a 1:55.57 and met the NCAA Provisional Qualifying Time. Williams, who had a time of 1:57.35 in the finals, made the qualifying standard with a preliminary time of 1:56.07.

Luke Allen qualified 11th in the 1,500-meter run and moved up to eighth in the finals with a 4:02.31. Also on Friday, Tom Thornton was ninth in the 10,000-meter run (15:35.68), while the men's 4x400-meter relay was fourth in 3:23.07.

Ashley Quick placed fifth in the women's 5,000-meter run (18:43.53), while Katie Scott was sixth in the 3,000-meter run (10.29.91). Shelby LaBuhn and Taylor Patton tied for ninth in the high jump (1.53m).

The LSSU men placed seventh in the team standings with 31.5 points, while the LSSU women were eighth with 24 points. Ashland won the men's title, and Grand Valley State claimed the women's championship.

LSSU Women's Results
100-meter dash: 15. Amanda Pieczynski, :12.75; 22. Chelsea Childs, :13.51; 25. Kayla Smith, :14.93
200-meter dash: 20. Pieczynski, :26.89; 27. Childs, :28.36
800-meter run: 19. Courtney Smith, 2:35.14; 22. Marissa Ingle, 2:38.91; 24. Heather Millard, 2:58.45; 25. Emily Bowen, 3:29.43
1,500-meter run: 21. Sarah Christilaw, 5:20.24; 26. Lindsey Mansfield, 5:44.85; 27. Alyse Smith, 5:47.45; 29. Jessica Theisen, 6:04.53
3,000-meter run: 6. Katie Scott, 10:29.91; 13. Ashley Quick, 11:13.78; 18. Stacey Leyder, 12:18.96
5,000-meter run: 5. Quick, 18:43.53
100-meter hurdles: 15. Shelby LaBuhn, :17.99; 16. K. Smith, :19.16
3,000-meter steeplechase: 2. Scott, 11:23.67 (met NCAA Provisional Qualifying Time)
High jump: T-9. LaBuhn and Taylor Patton, 1.53m
Long jump: 18. Patton, 4.40m; 19. LaBuhn, 4.30m
Triple jump: 7. Patton, 10.47m; 10. LaBuhn, 9.85m
Discus throw: 13. Jill Walton, 35.28m; 16. Kimberlee Booms, 34.87m; 21. Cassandra Vitton, 30.91m; 24. Mary McLeod, 27.7m
Hammer throw: 17. Booms, 38.16m; 23. McLeod, 32.74m; 24. Vitton, 26.28m
Javelin throw: 3. Walton, 39.2m; 24. McLeod, 25.53m; 26. Vitton, 23.12m
Shot put: 18. Walton, 11.47m; 22. Booms, 10.28m; 23. McLeod, 10.02m; 25. Vitton, 9.59m
4x100-meter relay: 8. LSSU (Childs, Labuhn, Patton, Pieczynski), :52.75
4x400-meter relay: 9. LSSU, 4:21.87
Heptathlon: 14. Patton, 2,898 points

LSSU Men's Results
100-meter dash: 9. Paul Davis, :11.48
200-meter dash: 7. Davis, :22.70
400-meter dash: 5. DJ Battistella, :49.28
800-meter run: 5. Eric Ouellette, 1:55.57 (met NCAA Provisional Qualifying Time); 8. Evan Williams, 1:57.35; 19. Zach Lynch, 2:06.96; 22. Jason Ferguson, 2:09.60
1,500-meter run: 8. Luke Allen, 4:02.31; 18. Kevin Macomber, 4:21.55
5,000-meter run: 9. Tom Thornton, 15:35.68; 16. Macomber, 16:03.86; 27. Lucas Pease, 17:13.46
10,000-meter run: 7. Ben Tarbutton, 32:36.01
110-meter hurdles: 10. John Preczewski, :16.39
400-meter hurdles: 2. Battistella, :53.50; 13. Preczewski, 1:01.43 3,000-meter steeplechase: 15. Jake Hoover, 10:35.56; 16. Joe Cantwell, 11:08.91; 18. Alex Gustafson, 12:12.10
Discus throw: 19. Dana Skytta, 37.67m; 21. Jordan Romel, 35.55m
Hammer throw: 12. Romel, 45.76m; 18. Bryan Pyle, 33.67m
Shot put: 11. Romel, 13.99m; 16. Pyle, 10.92m
High jump: 6. Rick Koon, 1.91m; T-7th. Skytta, 1.86m; T-13th. Preczewski, 1.81m
Triple jump: 10. Koon, 12.01m
Javelin throw: 20. Skytta, 40.48m; 21. Ferguson, 39.47m; 23. Pyle, 32.31m
4x400-meter relay: 4. LSSU, 3:23.07