March 21, 2008

Northridge, CA--Cassie Merkley never ceases to amaze as she captures another school record, the fourth for the season during the CSUN Spring Break Decathlon and Heptathlon Invitational. Merkley captured three school records during the indoor season in the 55-meter hurdles, 60-meter hurdles and the pentathlon.

Junior Merkley set her first outdoor school record in the 100-meter hurdles that she performed in the heptathlon with a time of 13.77 and a legal wind of +0 mps. The previous 100-meter hurdles record was set by Shannon Sinn with a time of 13.81 in 2001. Merkley surpassed her previous 10th place record of 14.39 that she set as a freshman in 2006, by 0.62 seconds. She also ran a personal best in the 200-meter run with a time of 24.67 and a legal wind of +1.3 mps.

With her amazing performances Merkley holds first place in the heptathlon with an extraordinary 3,441 points. She will only need to gain 1,574 points to beat her previous Heptathlon 7th place All Time Performers record of 5,014 points. She will need to capture 2,098 points to hold the schools Heptathlon record, which would be no surprise for the extraordinary Merkley.

The Bengal women have a good hold on the Invitational as it houses 22 competitors. Erin Bell who holds fourth place, Sydney Wendt is in sixth, Mandi Janowitz attains seventh and Sasha Buylova holds eighth place after the first day of competition. Assistant coach Jackie Poulson is in second place in the Heptathlon after the first day trailing Merkley by 187 points at 3,254.

The men's Indoor Heptathlon Big Sky Champion Brad Silvester holds the highest place for the Bengals at 11th place out of 16 athletes. Unfortunately, Brandon Graef pulled out of the competition due to hamstring problems.

The Bengals will continue with their remaining events on Friday, March 21st. The Heptathlon finishes with the long jump and javelin throw. The Decathlon has five more events including the 110-meter hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1,500-meter run.