May 1, 2006

Stanford, Ca. - Grand Valley State All-American Mandi Zemba (Menominee, Mich.) qualified for the 2006 AT&T USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships with a record-setting performance Sunday at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational in Stanford, California. Zemba qualified for the U.S National Championships with her time of 15:48 in the 3000m run which was good for sixth place among a star-studded field. Zemba's time was 12 seconds faster that her previous school-record time that she set in April at the Stanford Invitational. The U.S. National Championships will be held June 21-25 in Indianapolis, Ind.

"Qualifying for the United States Outdoor Track & Field National Championships is anoutstandingaccomplishmentforMandi," said GVSU head coach Jerry Baltes. "We are very proud of everything Mandi has done for the Laker Track & Field program and we are excited about the remainder of her career at GVSU. We certainly feel she can continue to make progress towards becoming one of the top distance runners in the country at any level," added Baltes.

Grand Valley State will next compete at the GLIAC Championships Thursday (May 4) and Friday (May 5) in Big Rapids, Mich.