Feb. 13, 2008

DeKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois women's track and field team is preparing for its largest indoor meet of the season, the Iowa State Classic. The two-day meet will be held in Ames from Feb. 15-16.

Friday's events for Northern Illinois begin at 1:30 p.m. with the weight throw. Running events start at 2 p.m. with the 60-meter hurdles.

The Huskies will look to maintain the momentum and confidence they gained from a win at the Tadd Metzger Invitational last week. At the meet, eight Huskies earned first-place finishes as NIU took an easy win. With just over two weeks remaining until the Mid-American Conference Indoor Championships, several Huskies are hitting their stride.

One of those athletes is junior Shoshanna Brown (Plainfield, Ill./Romeoville), who set a new personal record in the long jump with a leap of 17'04.25".

Several distance runners are also finding their track legs of late. Junior Meghan Ginter (Aurora, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) set her top season mark in the 3,000 meter run, and Allison Grissom did the in the 5,000 meter run. Denisse Valladares (Mt. Prospect, Ill./Hersey), Brittany Sasek (LaGrange, Ill./Lyons Township) and Ashley Rittenbacher (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way Central) also set top times for the year in distance events at the Metzger.

Senior thrower Meagan Guenther (Highland Park, Ill./Highland Park) will try to continue her breakout year. Guenther has won five events titles this season, and has only finished lower than third once.

The Huskies will have one more meet before traveling to the MAC Championships. NIU competes at the Ball State Quadrangular, Feb. 22.