Women's T&F Places Fifth at UW-Parkside

The 2016 Harper College women's track and field got underway on Saturday at the UW-Parkside Classic. Eight Hawks athletes turned in national-qualifying efforts in the season's first meet. Harper also placed fifth out of 15 teams in the meet.

Four Harper College sprinters began their seasons on high notes with times good enough to qualify for the national meet in the 200-meter dash, led by freshman Ashley Proksa (/Palatine). Proksa ran a time of 27.42 seconds to place seventh out of 37 sprinters. Sophomores Leah Kloss (/Grayslake Central) and Shayan Dussard (/Hoffman Estates) ran times of 27.65 seconds and 28.01 seconds, respectively. Beth Petrunich (McHenry, Ill./McHenry East) completed the race in 29.70 seconds, also sufficient for the nationals standard. Kloss also achieved a PR in the weight throw with a toss of 12.73m.

The 4x800m relay group of Ali Gutt (Schaumburg, Ill./Schaumburg), Dianne Barajas (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Schaumburg), Veronica Brooks (Arlington Heights, Ill./Battle (Mo.)), and Katie Thevara (Des Plaines, Ill./Elk Grove) finished in 10:31.87 (national-qualifying time) to take fifth place. In the women's 800-meter run, Barajas ran a 2:31.42 to place seventh in a 26-runner field. The 4x400m relay team of Barajas, Brooks, Leslie Rosiles (Mount Prospect, Ill./Rolling Meadows), and Gutt took third place in a time of 4:38.51.

Bobbie Buerer (/Cary-Grove) cleared 1.35m in the high jump to take fourth place and qualify for nationals.

Full results can be found at: http://parksiderangers.com/documents/2016/2/6/Parkside_Classic.htm

The Hawks return to action on Friday, February 12 at the Chicagoland Indoor Championships hosted by North Central College in Naperville.