GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Siena Heights women's track and field team took third in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Championship, on Saturday. At the meet, SHU earned six First Team All-WHAC performers and an Honorable Mention All-WHAC performer while eight athletes had automatic-qualifying finishes and six provisional-qualifying marks. Eight SHU team members were honored as WHAC All-Academic performers.
With her best time of the season, Asia Gardner took first place in the 60m dash, finishing in an automatic-time of 7.64 seconds. Gardner also won the 200m dash with a time of 24.99 seconds, another automatic-qualifying time. Gardner was part of a three-way tie for the Performance of the Meet award.
Another Saint earning Performance of the Meet was Sheila Gardner with her first place finish in the pole vault, clearing the automatic-height of 3.77m (12-4 ½). Taking second place in the vault was Tasha McKinley, vaulting the auto-height of 3.57 meters (11-8 ½).
Charlena Williams earned first place in the triple jump with a jump of 11.40m (37-5), which was good enough for automatic-qualifying status.
First place belonged to Haley Hudson in the shot put, out throwing the second place contender by 0.74 meters, winning with a toss of 13.90 meters (75-7 ¼) that meets the NAIA automatic standards.
Another thrower winning their event was Rachel O'Neill in the weight throw. She threw the weight 17.07m (56-0) to claim the title and an automatic trip to nationals.
Automatic performances at the WHAC Championship (not All-WHAC):
Mildrenae Young-Brooks long jump 5.63 meters 5th
Provisional performances at the WHAC Championship (not All-WHAC):
Mildrenae Young-Brooks 60m dash 7.80 seconds 7th
Mildrenae Young-Brooks triple jump 11.19 meters 4th
Alexis Moore 400m dash 59.26 seconds 4th
Alexis Moore 200m dash 25.86 seconds 5th
Julia Forbes long jump 5.45 meters 5th
Siena Heights Relay 4x400m 4:03.54 4th
Saints earning WHAC All-Academic honors: Emily Hill, Haley Hudson, Ruth Ann Letherer, Sheila McKinley, Tasha McKinley, Rachel O'Neill and Brianna Pekel.
The SHU Champion of Character recipient was Tasha McKinley.
In order to be named First Team All-WHAC, the athletes must win the event. To earn Honorable Mention All-WHAC status, the athletes must be second or third in their event. In order to be nominated for the award, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.25 on a 4.0 scale and must have achieved a junior academic status.
Athletes earning automatic-qualifying status and a select few garnering a provisional-qualifying status will travel to the 2018 NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championships in Pittsburg, Kansas, March 1-3.
