UNIVERSITY CENTER - Lake Superior State opened the 2011-12 indoor track and field season by winning nine events and breaking several sprint records at Friday's Holiday Classic hosted by Saginaw Valley State.
LSSU's first-place finishers included Leslie Ann Mitchell in the women's 60-meter hurdles (:08.68). She beat out teammate Sashawna Bennett (:08.71), who won the preliminaries. Laker Justin Balczak won the men's 60-meter hurdles in :08.24. Mitchell and Balczak both shattered LSSU school records. Mitchell and Bennett both reached NCAA qualifying marks and are ranked second and third, respectively, in NCAA Division II. Balczak also qualified nationally and is currently ranked No. 1.
Bennett came out a double winner, though, taking the women's 200-meter dash in :26.00 and the long jump with a distance of 5.34 meters.
Patrick Wright (6.42 meters) and Balczak (6.39 meters) secured a one-two finish in the men's long jump.
Jessica Myers took the women's 400-meter dash in a school-record time 1:00.22. Ben Monroe won the men's 200-meter dash in :22.29, and his time is currently the second fastest in NCAA II. LSSU swept the men's and women's 4x400-meter relays.
LSSU's Katie Winiarski, competing unattached, won the women's high jump at 1.67 meters and met the NCAA provisional qualifying distance.
The Lakers shattered school records in the men's and women's 60-meter dash despite two second-place finishes. Monroe placed second in the men's event in :07.08, while Michaela Newberry was the women's runner-up in :08.20. Newberry ran a school-record time of :08.01 during the preliminaries.
Bennett set a new school mark in the 200 dash, breaking the old record by one second. The Laker women's sprint relay also established a new school record. Kaleb Schweiger tied his own record of 4.11 meters and placed fifth in the pole vault.
At Grand Valley Friday:
LSSU sophomore Mark List competed at Grand Valley State on Friday and placed 14th in the men's 5,000-meter run. He clocked a time of 15:19.78.
The Lakers compete at Northern Michigan on Dec. 9-10.