MOUNT PLEASANT, MI - Ari Fisher continued her remarkable season with a victory in the 5000 meter run to lead Toledo's track and field team in day one action at the MAC Indoor Championships, hosted by Central Michigan.

Toledo finished with 16 points for the day, good for sixth place out of 12 teams. Kent State leads with 35 points and Miami is second with 31. Just five of the 17 events have been scored so far.

Fisher, a junior who also won the MAC cross country title, blazed her way to a victory in the 5000 meter run with her time of 16:42.87, nearly six seconds better than her personal-best and 26 seconds in front of the nearest competitor. It was an NCAA provisional qualifying time and the second-best time in MAC championship meet history. Also scoring for Toledo in the 5000 was Fisher's classmate Audra Brown, who placed eighth in 17:39.75.

"Ari's win was big for us - it really got the team excited," Kevin Hadsell, head coach, said. "She led from the gun and no one even challenged her."

Julie Snyder worked her way to a sixth place showing in the pentathlon with a tally of 3657 points. It's the second-best mark in school-history, eclipsing Michelle Hayden's 3651 (1993), and is just short of the NCAA provisional mark of 3725.

Toledo also tallied points in the distance medley relay, as the squad of Karen Sovacool, Danielle Jacoby, Danielle Thomas and Kristal Studer placed seventh in a time of 12:08.20.

Amanda Kaverman qualified for the finals in the 60 meter dash with her time of 7.65, a season-best mark which tied for fourth-fastest in the preliminaries. Her time of 24.57 in the 200 meter dash was the tops in the preliminaries and a career-best as well second-fastest in school history.

"Amanda really came through, particularly in the 200," Hadsell said. "We were very excited about her performance there."

Also recording a qualifying time was freshman Sarah Woodrum , who qualified for the finals in the 400 meter dash with her season-best mark of 57.53.

Action resumes at 11 a.m. Saturday from the Jack Skoog Indoor Track as Toledo looks to surpass its best-ever finish (5th, 2002) and challenge for the top spot in the conference.

"There are still a lot of potential points on the board for us, particularly in the triple jump, high jump and the 3000 meter run," Hadsell said. "There's a lot of this meet left for us to compete in, and we're still in the hunt for the team title."

Team Scores:
1. Kent State, 35
2. Miami, 31
3. Western Michigan, 29
4. Central Michigan, 26
5. Akron, 20
6. TOLEDO, 16
7. Buffalo, 12
8. Ball State, 11
9. Eastern Michigan, 9
10. Ohio, 6
11. Northern Illinois, 0
11. Bowling Green, 0

Contact: Scott Miles
scott.miles@utoledo.edu