April 29, 2022 | SPORTS | By Michael Braithwaite | Photo by Rikki Held
On Sunday April 24, the Colorado College Women’s Track and Field team placed second in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships in San Antonio, Texas. The Tigers scored a program record 176 points in the meet, breaking the previous mark set in 2017 by 46 points.
This record-breaking performance, albeit a whole team effort, represented the culmination of the individual record-breaking performances that team members had been experiencing throughout the entire season.
Sprinter Shekinah Oloyede ‘23 set a new school record in the 100-meter dash on April 2, posting a time of 12.43 seconds at the Central Nebraska Track and Field Challenge. A week later, at the University of Colorado Invitational in Boulder, Colo., Oloyede broke the record she had set only the weekend before, posting a new school record of 12.33 seconds, a whole tenth of a second faster than her time the previous week.
Earlier in the season, Kendall Accetta ‘23 set a school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase race at the Oxy Distance Classic and Spring Breaks Classic on March 12, finishing with a time of 11:11.04 –– a whole 33 seconds faster than the previous record.
At the SCAC Championship on Sunday, both Oloyede and Accetta broke their newly minted records again. Oloyede posted an absurd time of 12.16 seconds in the 100-meter dash, and Accetta finished with a time of 10:57.54 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, not only a new CC record but also the second fastest time ever in the history of the SCAC meet.
Mabel Gardner ‘22 also broke a school record in the pole vault with a height of 10-6, easily surpassing the previous record of 10-2 that she had tied earlier in the season. This performance represented the third individual school record broken by a Tiger at the conference championships to go along with their overall team result.
“We’re getting things together, we’re making things happen, and it’s so awesome to see the depth fill into this team,” said April Kwan ‘24, a member of the team who competes in sprinting events as well as the high jump. “I’m so happy just to be a part of it all.”
While the numerical accolades stand out on their own as a metric of the team’s success, the team’s chemistry has also been a large component of their great performances all season long. Both the Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Teams travel all throughout the southwest for regional competitions throughout the season, and these long bus rides give the team members plenty of time to bond and connect with one another.
However, the factor that may represent this team’s identity the most is their youth. The women’s team only has five seniors on their roster, and many of their top performers this season have been underclassmen who still have a few years to develop.
“We’re a good, consistent, strong women’s team,” said Kwan. “I see so much potential in this team, and I think that as long as we get the small nuts and bolts together that we will be an excellent team.”
The Tigers’ next contest is at the Air Force Academy Open on May 6.