Cowgirls Fare Well at UNM Meet
The HU women’s track and field team faced off against more than 700 athletes, including many from top Division I programs, at the at the University of New Mexico 2/6 and 2/7 and came away with a top six national performance and several personal records for the weekend.
HU All-American Angella Graham recorded a score of 3598 in the pentathlon held as one-day event on Friday. The score moves Graham into the top six in the nation in Division II. Graham began the five events of the pentathlon with an 8.88 performance in the hurdles, matching her personal best in that event. The 3598 points are well short of the automatic national qualifying mark of 3800, a level no athlete in DII has yet to reach this season. Heather Miller of St. Cloud State leads the national list with 3792 points while Graham is just 55 points out of second place on the list.
“This was an okay performance,” said HU coach Bob DeVries, “We really need to take advantage of the opportunities to compete and score well—there aren’t that many pentathlons and Angella can score much higher based on her individual event bests. But for her to be in the top six nationally after an average day says a lot about what her expectations should be for nationals.”
HU throwers Ebonee Carter and Victoria Dominguez made huge improvements in their personal records in the 20lb. Weight Throw. Carter moved to top five in the RMAC standings with a throw of 47’6”, nearly 3 feet better than her previous top mark. Dominguez meanwhile, added over 4 feet to her previous best with a throw of 45’ 6 ½” to move into seventh on the RMAC performance list.
Freshman Arianna Andreatta (Hoehne HS, Hoehne, CO)continued to impress the coaching staff with her weekly improvement. Andreatta has raced faster each week in the 60 and 200 meter dashes and added a strong 60-second leg on the 4 x 400 relay this week.
The HU women were also recognized as the number 25 team in the nation in the first national; power ranking poll released on Feb. 2nd. The ranking marks the first time the HU women have been nationally ranked during the Indoor Track season.
The next meet for the Cowgirls is Feb. 19th at the Colorado School of Mines Twilight Indoor in Golden, CO.