4 Hoosiers notch personal bests in weekend invite

Four members of the IU women's track and field distance team competed in the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., notching two personal bests -- a regional qualifying mark and the second fastest 5K time in school history.\nJunior Jessica Gall made some gaudy predictions before the meet began and took it upon herself to follow through.\n"We would like to qualify as many people as possible for the regional meet and then get a lot of people through to nationals," Gall said.\nGall accomplished the first part of the goal by qualifying for the regional meet by earning the second-best 5K time ever recorded at IU in the 5,000-meter event. At 16 minutes 16.50 seconds, the mark was also a personal best for Gall and was good enough for a 12th place finish overall. The 5,000-meter race also saw freshman Wendi Robinson run for a time of 16:48.71 and a 22nd place finish.\nJunior Lindsay Hattendorf ran a 34:25.97, which was another personal best, and notched a 24th place finish in the 10,000-meter.\nSenior Kelly Siefker competed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and earned a seventh place finish with a time of 10:29.15.\nThe goal coming into the Diet Pepsi Invite was to compete well and use the results as a bridge to the rest of the season.\n"We want to be a better team on the women's side," junior sprinter Stacey Clausing said. "This meet will be a good starting point." \nThe Hoosiers were competing without the services of four distance runners who ran at the Stanford Invitational this weekend. Being short-handed did not seem to hinder the performance of any of the Hoosier athletes.\nSenior Lindsey Heisler was one of the top performers capping a sixth-place finish as she threw for a 34.89-meter mark in the javelin, which earned her the best mark overall on the team.\nFreshman Tiffany Howard threw for 13.58 meters and notched an eighth place mark in the shotput event. Senior Jean Schaffer and freshman Stephanie Greer both had top-10 finishes in their respective events. Schaffer leapt for a ninth place finish with a jump of 1.65 meters in the high jump. Greer ran a 4:42.64 in the 1,500-meter race and earned a 10th place mark.