The CPP women’s indoor track and field team took its travel to Golden, Colorado as the team competed at the Mines Winter Classic and Multi at Steinhauer Fieldhouse and came out with profound performances.
Senior pole vaulter Hannah Stueve pushed herself over the bar to earn her National Collegiate Athletic Association provisional-qualifying mark with a jump of 3.64 meters. Stueve launched herself over the bar on her third attempt to win. However, Stueve was not the only one with success during the weekend’s meet in Colorado.
Sophomore Ana Tovi threw 15.86 meters in the weight throw event, which landed her in second place as an honorable runner-up for the Broncos.
Senior Charisma Byrd and sophomore Keiana Hamm took on the high jump event and gave it their all. Byrd marked 1.60 meters, landing her in fifth place. Hamm leaped over the bar at 1.55 meters, landing her right behind her fellow Bronco as she ended up placing sixth against the other high jumpers.
Not only did the Broncos dominate the multi-events in the field, the runners darted to success.
Sophomore Ayana Fields came out with a vengeance to beat her time from last weekend’s meet. With the utmost success from the previous weekend’s meet in New Mexico, Fields grasped another provisional mark in the 60-meter dash that landed her a big victory in first place with a time of 7.61 seconds.
In the 60-meter dash, Fields won her preliminary heat with a time of 7.67. With that being a warm-up for her, she ended up in the finals with a provisional time of 7.61 as University of Colorado, Colorado Springs’ sprinter, Kayla Zink, trailed behind her by only two-tenths of a second.
With tight competition on the track, junior Zaria Francis came into the meet with success from this past weekend as well. Francis also ran the 60-meter dash and placed fifth in the preliminaries with a time of 7.72 to earn her a spot to race in the finals. She fought to the finish during the final heat, and ended up in fourth place with an outstanding time of 7.75.
The hurdlers were up next, and senior Nia Vance was the one to watch out for. Vance came out with the win in the 60-meter hurdles. She also placed second in the triple jump with a huge jump of 11.34 meters earlier in the day, which definitely pushed her to do her best in the 60-meter hurdles event. Vance has been a front-runner for the Broncos in the past meets.
“I did want to get under nine seconds in the 60 (meter) hurdles and I didn’t do that, but I got close. In the triple jump, this was my first triple jumping indoors, so I just wanted to complete that start to finish so those were my only two goals, just to triple jump to the best of my abilities and to get under nine seconds in the hurdles. I didn’t even consider winning, so that surpassed my goals for the weekend,” Vance said.
As Vance brought home two big achievements, another Bronco jumper leaped to triumph.
Senior Imani Williams ended up finishing in third place as she sprung herself in the long jump event. Williams’ 5.51-meter jump ended the weekend strong for the Broncos.
“Something that really stood out is that any time there was somebody from our team competing, you knew because you can hear our team cheering for them,” assistant coach Sara Macey said. “The amount of excitement everybody has for each other to do well, and how much everybody wants each other to do well even if you are competing against each other in the same event, they’re working together to do it. As much of an individual sport that track is, I think they’ve done a really good job of making it a team effort.”
The Broncos rounded their weekend with three enormous victories to take home. The women’s indoor track and field team has just started for the very first time in CPP history and this year’s team has already set the bar high.
With a full week to prepare for their next meet, the Broncos will take flight to Allendale, Michigan to compete at The Big Meet Feb. 14-15, where they look to take home some more big wins.
