PORTAGE | Striving for perfection, Portage senior Tori Bliss just keeps adding to her list of accomplishments.
Bliss set two Duneland Athletic Conference meet records Tuesday in the throwing events. She won the discus with a heave of 146 feet, 1 inch, and later won the shot put with a toss of 49-8 ¾ to beat her own record from last year.
Both were personal bests, and that's saying something, considering Bliss won state titles in both events last year.
"I'm pretty confident in what I can do," Bliss said. "I'm really looking forward to what I can do at state, where I'm hoping I'll peak like I did last year.
"I'm just going to be fine-tuning my technique to get near perfect, so I can get some big numbers at state."
Times No. 1 Lake Central captured its fourth consecutive team title, accumulating 147 points to beat No. 4 Valparaiso (103). No. 2 Chesterton was third at 90.5, followed by Merrillville (83) and Portage (80).
Bliss obliterated the oldest record in the DAC book in the discus. The previous mark of 136-6 was set in 1981 by Chesterton's Lisa Naumann, and Bliss beat it by nearly 10 feet.
"I wasn't as consistent in the discus as I'd like to be," said Bliss, who has her eye on Sherri Stamper's school record of 151-7. "I'm just working on getting better with my technique."
L.C. dominated in the other field events and used its depth to capture another team title for coach Ron Fredrick.
Freshman Brooke Lambert won the pole vault at 9-9 for the Indians. Sophomore Kaitlyn Moricz won the long jump at 17-4 3/4, and junior LeVisa Evans took the high jump at 5-5.
Other individual winners for L.C. were senior Isis Thomas in the 400 (58.75) and freshman Parriss Bettis in the 200 (26.65). Bettis finished the season unbeaten in that event against Duneland competition. The 400 relay team of Andrea Alvarez, Bettis, Moricz and Rylee Sullivan also won in 49.93.
"Our depth was one of our question marks coming into this year, and even this meet," Fredrick said. "How would our freshmen contribute, and which upperclassmen would step into roles and score.
"It's our fourth straight unbeaten regular-season and conference championship -- in a very tough conference. These are not easy teams to beat, so it's quite an accomplishment for our seniors."
Bettis shared running MVP honors with Valparaiso junior Katelyn DeVries, who had strong final-lap kicks in winning the 1,600 (5:25.16) and the 3,200 (11:42.36) after placing third in both events last year. DeVries also ran a leg on Valpo's winning 3,200 relay team to start the meet.
Other individual winners included Portage senior Kristy Evans in the 100 (12.50) and Valparaiso senior Blaney Keough in the 800 (2:19.47).
Chesterton's only individual winner was senior Stephanie Fisher, who set a pair of school records in the hurdles events.
Fisher won the 300s in 46.42, beating the previous Chesterton record of 46.77 (Lyndi Feithans, 2001). She also placed second in the 100s in 15.24 to beat the previous mark of 14.99 (Lauren West, 2003).
It took a meet record by Merrillville junior Jaleesa Holmes to beat Fisher in the 100 hurdles. Holmes clocked a 14.98, beating the former mark of 15.10 set by Merrillville's Rebecca Neville in 2006.
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