EVANSVILLE, Ind.—University of Southern Indiana senior All-American Mary Ballinger has been selected as the Great Lakes Valley Conference Women's Indoor Track Athlete of Week for the second straight time after her performance at the Indiana University Relays last Friday night.

Ballinger recorded an NCAA Division II automatic qualifying time with her eighth-place finish in the mile. Her time of four minutes, 53.53 seconds currently ranks fourth in the nation and bettered her previous NCAA provisional qualifying (4:55.24), which she set at the Saluki Fast Times Challenge in Carbondale, Illinois, in December.

The automatic qualifying time assures Ballinger her third consecutive trip to the NCAA II Indoor Championships, which will take place March 12-13 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In addition to the mile, Ballinger also contributed to the Screaming Eagles' ninth-place finish in the distance medley relay Friday night. She currently ranks first in the GLVC in both the mile and the 3,000 meters.

A food and nutrition major, Ballinger won the 2009 national championship in the 3,000-meter steeplechase last spring and finished fifth at the NCAA II Cross Country Championships last fall. She was recently named the GLVC Scholar Athlete of the Year for cross country.

This marks the second time in Ballinger's career that she has been named the GLVC Indoor Track Athlete of the Week. She has earned the honor three times in outdoor track and was named the GLVC Runner of the Week in cross country five times during her three years in a USI uniform.

USI returns to action Saturday when it sends a small squad to the DePauw University Tiger Invitational in Greencastle, Indiana, though Ballinger likely will not compete until the Eagles travel to Allendale, Michigan, to compete in the Grand Valley State University Big Meet February 12-13.