CEDAR FALLS, IOWA -- Junior Ari Curtis (Fort Collins, Colo.) finished second in the pentathlon with an NCAA provisional qualifying mark to highlight first day action for the Drake women's track and field team at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championship Saturday.  She also set a Drake indoor school record, breaking Jane Toporowski's mark of 3,500 points set in 1980.

Drake stood in fifth place in the MVC team race with 18 points, while Southern Illinois led the eight-team field with 40 points.

Curtis closed out the pentathlon strong by winning the final two events -- the long jump at 18 feet 7.25 inches and 800-meter run in 2 minutes 18.48 seconds -- to total 3,739 points.

Freshman Briana Isom-Brummer (St. Louis, Mo.), competing in her first pentathlon, placed seventh with 3,144 points.

"I'm really happy for Ari who finished strong to make the provisional mark," said Drake head coach Natasha Kaiser Brown. "Briana also performed well in an event that is difficult to score that young."

Drake junior Casey McDermott (Newton, Iowa) was fifth in the finals of the 3,000-meter run in 9:47.50, while senior teammate Nicole Braunsdorf (St. Francis, Wis.) was sixth in 10:03.47.

The foursome of senior Courtney Heinz (St. Paul, Minn.), junior Beth Hamling (Council Bluffs, Iowa), junior Clarissa LaFlora (Kewanee, Ill.) and sophomore Kirsten Lake (Parker, Colo.) led Drake to an eighth-place finish in the distance medley relay in 12:38.88.

Curtis came back to place 10th in the finals of the long jump at 18-4.25.

Freshman Marissa Smith (Ajax, Ontario, Canada) qualified for the finals in the 60 hurdles after posting the seventh fastest time of 8.89.

Drake junior Kara McCartney (Elgin, Iowa) also qualified for the finals in the 800 in 2:14.97.