University of Southern Indiana sophomore and Chesterton grad Mary Ballinger has been named the Great Lakes Valley Conference Women's Outdoor Track Athlete of the Week in a vote by the league's head coaches.

Ballinger won the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the SEMOtion Relays this past weekend, recording the nation's top mark with an NCAA II automatic qualifying time of 10:48.49. The time exceeded the automatic qualifying standard by nearly 12 seconds and was less than six seconds off the USI school record, set by former All-American Missy Burgin a year ago.

This marks the second weekly honor for Ballinger this year after she was named the GLVC Runner of the Week during the cross country campaign. Ballinger earned All-America honors on the cross country course this past fall as well as in indoor track, where she was second in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA II Indoor Championships in March.

Ballinger, a finance major, transferred to USI from Indiana University/Purdue University-Ft. Wayne where she set the school record in the steeplechase last spring.

Posted 4/11/2008