SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Former University of South Alabama women's track and field All-American Lindsay Schwartz won the heptathlon at the 5th Annual Sam Adams Combined Events Invitational over the weekend, and in doing so she posted a qualifying score for the United States Olympic Trials.

Representing the Santa Barbara Track Club, Schwartz recorded a total of 5,991 points over two days at Westmont College's Thorrington Field to win the competition by three points over teammate Lindsay Lettow.  She now advances to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team Trials, which will be held July 1-10 at Oregon's Hayward Field, in an effort to represent the country at the Olympic Games later this summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Schwartz — who was a second-team All-American in the heptathlon for the Jaguars in 2011 and '12 — opened the meet on Friday by finishing fifth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.63 seconds, good for 1,031 points.  She scored 842 points and was among the top 10 in the high jump after clearing 1.69m/5'06.50", then followed with a career-best 13.67m/44'10" mark in the shot put to score another top-five result and 772 points.

After crossing the line in the 200-meter dash in 24.32 seconds, she added 950 points; Schwartz was third in the field of 20 competitors at the end of the first day with 3,595 points.

She began the second day of the meet, hosted by the Santa Barbara Track Club, with a fifth-place finish in the long jump, scoring 801 points after a leap of 5.84m/19'01.75".  With a 39.49m/129'06.50" throw on her final attempt in the javelin Schwartz scored 658 points to stand third, only nine points off the lead, entering the final discipline.

She record another career-best effort in the 800-meter run, finishing with a time of 2:11.93 to place third in the race and — with 937 more points — vault to first in the overall standings.  It marked the second time in three years that Schwartz has claimed the heptathlon at the meet.

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