Full Results

University Park, Pa. – Junior Tara Van Schie (Haarlem, Netherlands / Driehuis NH) and the 4x800 meter relay squad of the Robert Morris University women's indoor track & field team each broke school records at the Penn State National Invitational conducted Friday and Saturday at Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track.
 
Van Schie and the quartet of relay runners were five of the six Colonials to qualify for the ECAC Championships with their performances this weekend as the Colonials competed against teams from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC. With this meet in the books, RMU has now had 10 distinct individuals qualify for the ECAC Championships, which sets a new program record in that department.
 
Van Schie was competing in the pentathlon for the first time this season but still racked up enough points to top her own school record as she finished with 3,498. She won one event, set career bests in two others and tied a career best in a fourth event. After tying a career-best mark in the 60-meter hurdles (9.25 seconds), Van Schie cleared 1.61 meters in the high jump to reset a personal best. She then topped the 14-women field in the shot put with a toss of 11.80 meters before tallying a mark of 5.28 meters in the long jump. She finished with a career-best time in the 800 meters (2:36.97), resetting her personal best by more than three seconds, to clinch the record-breaking performance.
 
Freshman Samantha Logan (Cabot, Pa. / Knoch), junior Marissa Polk (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Oakland Catholic), senior Lindsay Erath (Aliquippa, Pa. / Hopewell) and junior Alexis Ebersole (Altoona, Pa. / Altoona) combined on the 4x800 relay squad. The quartet absolutely shattered the school record as their time of 9:20.15 is more than 23 seconds better than the previous top mark at RMU. The relay team also surpassed the ECAC qualifying mark by more than five seconds while easily posting the best time in the Northeast Conference this season in the event. The event also marked the first time that Logan had run the 800-meter distance at the collegiate level (as an individual or in a relay).
 
Senior Rachael Kotula (East Berlin, Pa. / Bermudian Springs) added to the good news for the Colonials as her personal-best of 13.55 meters in the shot put qualified her for the ECAC Championships in that event. Kotula's throw was the fifth-longest in school history and made her the third different Colonial to qualify for ECAC's in the shot put this season. She also competed in the weight throw Friday evening and put forth a toss of 14.72 meters.
 
Two other Colonials netted results that ranked among the top 10 in RMU history.
 
Sophomore Olivia Loy (Lemoyne, Pa. / Cedar Cliff) took third place in the pole vault by clearing 3.56 meters, the fourth-best mark in school history.
 
Senior Yulia Vasilyeva (Volgograd, Russia) tallied a leap of 11.69 meters in the triple jump. The distance helped her extend her league-leading mark in the event this season and was also the sixth-best triple jump in school history.
 
Other Colonials that competed at the event include sophomore Jessica Guyett (Washington Court House, Ohio / Washington), freshman April Krivoniak (Greensburg, Pa. / Latrobe), junior Bethany Ledford (Huntingdon, Pa. / Huntingdon) and sophomore Tatianna Struble (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock).
 
Guyett and Krivoniak each competed in the shot put and posted distances of 12.95 meters and 13.21 meters, respectively. Ledford tallied a mark of 3.36 meters in the pole vault while Struble crossed the finish line in 9.29 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles.
 
Team scores were not kept at the event.
 
This was RMU's final meet before contesting the NEC Championships as the Colonials will head to Landover, Md. next weekend to compete for conference titles. The meet starts Saturday, Feb. 8, and will conclude Sunday.