Women's Indoor Track & Field Win Four Events at Roanoke Invite

SALEM, Va. - The Columbia College women's indoor track and field team competed at the Finn Pincus Invitational on Friday and Saturday at Div. III Roanoke College in Salem, VA.

Winning the 4x400 meter relay in a season-best time was the team of junior Myikayla Howard, freshman Sharetta Jones, sophomore Tylashia Alston, and sophomore Faith Eugene as they ran a time of 4:20 to defeat Roanoke College on Saturday. Then earlier on Friday, the women's distance medley relay team finished 2nd out of five in the 4000 meters in a time of 13:53 defeating Mount Olive (NC), St. Mary's (MD) and Sweet Briar College (Va.). The DMR team consisted of freshman Aja Rushing (800m), freshman Shakayla Burroughs (400m), sophomore Avarose Buccino (1200m), and senior Juliana Gonzalez (1600m).

During the field events, Columbia was led by a first place finish from current AAC Field Athlete of the week, junior Doreshia McAllister in the Weight Throw with a mark of 15.5 meters (51 ft) while senior teammate Anaya Canty finished 8th at 13.9 meters and junior Jada Robinson coming in 15th out of 33 at 12.1 meters. McAllister won by almost a full meter over the runner-up as well.

Also winning individual events in Distance were Rushing in the 1000 meters in a time of 3:25 while teammate Buccino finished 3rd of 8 in a time of 3:35. Gonzalez then won the 5000 meters in 20:05 while senior Jennyfer Vigueras was 4th in 22:07. Then, in the 3000 meters, freshman Alissa McCann ran a solid race placing 5th out of 19 in a time of 11:55 for a personal record while Vigueras also placed 14th in 12:47 for her season-best. In the 1 Mile race, freshman Annsley Howle finished 7th out of 17 in 5:58 while McCann was 9th in 6:04.

Also placing high in other field events were junior Makayla Blango and Jayla Graham in the Long Jump finishing 2nd and 3rd overall with marks of 5.27 and 5.26 meters, only finishing behind a Div. II athlete from Mount Olive. Blango also led the way in the Triple Jump placing 4th of 13 with a season-best mark of 11 meters (36 ft) to set a new top 30 NAIA jump mark. Finally, in the Shot Put, A. Canty and junior Azia Holmes led the way placing 11th and 12th out of 33 with marks of 10.37 and 10.32 meters (34 ft).

In the 800 meters, CC was led by Burroughs placing 8th out of 14 in 2:49 for her personal record while freshman Micaela Cross was 11th in 3:10. Lynchburg, Randolph, East Mennonite, and Ferrum were other D-3 Virginia Colleges also in attendance. To wrap up the distance events, Howle led the women placing 4th out of 11 in the 600 meters running a time of 1:51.

In the Sprints, freshman Dara Gray led the way placing 6th in the 60m prelims in a time of 7.97 seconds before running a time of 8 seconds in the semifinals and placing 7th to qualify for the finals. She was one of five Koalas to qualify for the semis but the only one to make the finals. Gray then finished tied for 5th in the finals in a time of 8.07 seconds. Sophomore Jayla Graham also ran her personal-best time in the 60-meters coming in 10th in the prelims in 8.1 seconds. M. Howard then finished 13th out of 24 in 8.19 seconds in the semis while junior Kwamecia Marks was 17th in 8.27 seconds.

Graham led the way in the 200 meters placing 5th in 26.67 seconds while Alston, Howard, Gray and Eugene then all finished 9th through 12th out of 37 sprinters with times ranging from 27 seconds for Alston to 27.5 seconds for Eugene. Sharetta Jones also placed 14th in 27.6 while Marks was 18th in just under 28 seconds. Ty Alston then led the way in the 300 meters placing 7th of 15 in 43.5 seconds while Jones was 9th in 44 seconds. Finally, in the 400 meters, junior Taylor Shiver finished 14th in 1:11.

The women will next be competing next Sunday, Jan. 25 at 10:00 am in the Asics Superblast Invite at the JDL Indoor Track in Winston Salem, NC.