Junior Amy Schmidt of the Muhlenberg women’s tennis team will compete in the NCAA Division III Singles Championship at Kalamazoo, Mich., this weekend.

Schmidt was one of 32 players from 27 Division III schools selected for the tournament. She is the first tennis player in Muhlenberg history to receive an invitation to participate in the NCAA championship event.

Schmidt’s scheduled first-round opponent is Jeannine Liang, a Claremont junior who is appearing in the tourney for the second year in a row. Liang won her first-round singles match in 2004 to earn All-America status. She finished the year ranked nationally in both doubles (10th) and singles (16th).

Liang was third in the West Region in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Mid-Spring rankings. One of her losses came in three sets to Sonya Reynolds of Swarthmore, with whom Schmidt has split two matches. Schmidt takes a 19-1 singles record and No. 6 ranking in the Atlantic South Region into the national tourney.

Should Schmidt advance to the second round, she will most likely have to face the tournament’s top seed, Lindsay Hagerman of Washington & Lee. The two met last year in a doubles match.

Stephanie Gong of Rhodes, Schmidt’s opponent in the first round of the NCAA Team Tournament, is the third seed. Gong won the first set against Schmidt, 6-3, before the match was halted.

Click here for the championship Web site.

Muhlenberg’s two relay teams broke school records, and senior Ashlie Hankee topped herself once again, on the second and final day of the ECAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Springfield.

The Mule women finished in 21st place with 16½ points. The men’s

Seiler holds nine school records (including relays) indoors and outdoors.

team scored six points, all coming with the third-place finish of sophomore Stephen Rothwell in the 800 meters.

The 4x100 relay team of Hankee, freshman Jenna Lombardi, senior Katie Macomber and junior Danielle Seiler broke the 50-second mark for the first time in school history, coming in sixth with a time of 49.68. The foursome knocked more than a full second off what had been the school record coming into the 2005 season.

The 4x400 quartet of Lombardi, Macomber, Seiler and junior Karen Mount placed eighth in 4:01.41. Macomber and Seiler were members of the team that set the mark of 4:02.63 in 2003.

Hankee broke her own school record in the 100-meter high hurdles for the fourth time this year – and the third time in a row. She crossed the line in 14.87 seconds, good for a third-place finish.

Seiler (fourth in the 400 hurdles), Lombardi (eighth in the 100) and sophomore Jacquelyn Inverso (eighth in the triple jump) also won places.

Muhlenberg’s five declared provisional qualifiers — Hankee (100 hurdles), Seiler (400 hurdles), seniors Jenna Belisonzi (10,000 meters) and John Brodowski (decathlon) and sophomore Rachel Drosdick (heptathlon) — will find out on Monday if they are going to the NCAA Championships.

Click here for complete results.
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