The women’s indoor track and field team landed success at the Big Meet this past weekend, hosted by Grand Valley State in Allendale, Michigan, to close out the regular season. The Broncos ended their last indoor meet strong and came home with groundbreaking marks.
Sophomore Ayana Fields now has one of the highest marks in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II Indoor Track & Field, as she crossed the finish line with provisional qualifying times in the 200-meter dash, 400-meter run and as part of the 4×400-meter relay team. She is currently fifth in the NCAA Division II for the fastest time.
“Just going across the line, I just felt a little and slightly out of breath but at the end I was really happy that I got first,” Fields said. “Then, all my teammates came over and gave me high fives, gave me hugs and everything.”
Fields ran the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.59 seconds on Friday and won the event on Saturday with a personal record of 24.29. Her success didn’t stop there as she ran a time of 55.98 in the 400-meter run on Friday.
Last but not least, Fields set the bar and took her teammates to a strong finish as well. The 4×400 relay team of Fields, freshman Analexis Glaude, sophomore Elisha Salazar and freshman Jazminn Parrish finished third with a time of 3:51.32. On Saturday, the same relay team defeated its best time by almost a second with a time of 3:50.52.
Senior Elizabeth Hernandez competed in the 5,000-meter run and finished in eighth place with a time of 17:49:68 on Friday. On Saturday, the team of Hernandez, Charisma Byrd, Anahi Betart and Araseli Servin placed 16th in the distance medley relay.Not only were the runners top contenders for the Broncos, the multi-events crew took the Big Meet into their own hands.
On Friday, pole-vaulter Hannah Stueve also had an impressive performance. Stueve launched herself over the bar at 3.73 meters, which set her personal record and crushed her NCAA provisional mark of 3.64 meters from the Mines Winter Classic and Multi on Jan. 31.
“So what was going through my head (on the last vault) was just to have fun and whatever happens, I was just happy to be able to get another chance to compete again. Just to have fun and give it my all,” Stueve said.
Senior Byrd has been a consistent contender for the Broncos throughout the season. Byrd placed fourth jumping over the bar at 1.60 meters on Friday. She high jumped again on Saturday, but landed herself in 12th place after jumping 1.59 meters, which was just shy of her jump on Friday.
Senior Imani Williams launched herself in the long jump and placed ninth on Friday as she jumped to 5.18 meters. On Saturday, she long jumped again and placed 24th with a jump of 5.09 meters.
The throwers also came out with a vengeance. Senior Anela Miki-Han placed 11th place in the shot put and threw 12.35 meters. Miki-Han also competed in the weight throw and placed 37th among her competitors as she threw 13.40 meters.
The Broncos competed at the highest level and ended up finishing with 11 personal records last weekend in Michigan.
The five provisional-qualifying marks were set with three by Fields with the 60 meter, 200 m and 400 m; one by Stueve in the pole vault; and one by the 4×400 relay team.
With huge success from the team’s first indoor season, it is just the beginning. The first outdoor meet for both men’s and women’s track teams is at the Rossi Relays on Feb. 22 in Claremont.
The NCAA Indoor Championships will take place March 13-14 in Birmingham.