Women show improvement at Mayo Invite
Until the Mid American Conference championships, it doesn’t matter what place you come in. All that matters to track and field director Willie Randolph is times and measurements.
Senior Shanaye Carr was the only athlete to finish in the top five of any event at the Meyo Invitational at Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., but what matters is that nearly every athlete improved on their times this season.
“We’re excited about the meet and the marks we put up,” Randolph said. “It was a good meet — they were competitive against some very solid teams and we need to just continue to execute.”
Carr came into the day No. 1 in the long jump and in the 60-meter hurdles. She improved her time in the hurdles from 8.66 to 8.61 seconds. She also improved her long jump coming into the meet from 6.02 feet to 6.05, coming in second in the event. She also nearly broke CMU’s indoor record with the jump, missing it by just 3/4ths of an inch.
“I was really excited to go to Notre Dame because I knew there would be a lot of us in competition and I wanted to place high in all of my events so I could see where I was at,” Carr said. “Our coaches did a great job preparing us all week.”
Randolph was very happy about the Carr’s performance this weekend.
“She had a very strong week and did a great job,” Randolph said.
Carr wasn’t the only who improved. Freshman Shawntoreah Turk got her best time in the 400-meter, finishing with a time of 56.99, improving on her previous best by more than a full second. Turk, along with fellow freshman Kelsey Ritter and juniors Christina Farrow and Stephanie Hurley, had their best time in the 4x4 400-meter relay, improving on their time by nearly 16 seconds.
Farrow also beat her time in the 800-meter run by 1.75 seconds. Her teammate senior Alexandria Sissions improved on her time as well by cutting of 4.15 seconds.
Senior Brittnee Shreve competed in the 200-meter dash for the first time this season and got the best score from Chippewa all season with a time of 25.48 seconds.
“Shreve and Turk had really strong meets, as did Stephanie Hurley coming off a hamstring injury she suffered in the fall,” Randolph said. “Christina Farrow and Alexandria Sissions had a really good weekend in the open 800-meter.”
The team looks ready for their title run this month and are continuing to improve on the scores which is exactly what they need at this point.
“I think we need to be more aggressive,” Carr said. “But I think we’re all heading in the right direction everyone is really excited.”
