GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Spring Arbor University's Lady Cougars qualify for the NAIA in the Distance Medley Relay at the Big Meet at Grand Valley State University, and did so even with over 60 schools Spring participating in the meet.

Krista Broekema ran the 1200 leg, Lindsey Prether ran the 400m, Faith Gunderson ran the 800m, and Carissa Hudson anchored in the mile. The quartet combined with a time of 12:23 which is an A standard by 17 seconds and 4^th All-time in school history.  This time ranks the Lady Cougars  2^nd in the NAIA this year.

Spring Arbor split squads Friday night's with some heading to the Big Meet at Grand Valley State University and some heading to Defiance College in Ohio. 

The Defiance squad found success at the smaller meet winning four events and placing second and third a total of 14 times showing the depth of the Lady Cougars.

Winning events were:

Jessica Lee in the 60m with a time of 8.36, Shana Crouch in the 400m, clocking a 1:02.96, Vanessa Rogers in the Pole vault at 10'1", Meg Joiner in the Triple Jump with a distance of 32'4 ¼".  Crouch, Rogers, and Joiner's performances where all strong enough to qualify them for NCCAA's.

Other NCAA's Qualifiers where Paige Albert in the 800m with a time of 2:27.97,Kate Jones and Alison Kiekover in the 3000m with times of 11:09 and 11:12 respectively.  Qualifying in the field events was Kelly Tripp in the Triple Jump with a distance of 31'6 ¾".

Next meet for the Cougars is the NCCAA National Meet held at Indiana Wesleyan University on Feb 15-16.