As West Virginia women's track and field approaches the end of indoor track season and the excitement surrounding both the Big 12 Championship and the NCAA Championship, the Mountaineers had a pair of distance athletes come away from a weekend trip to New England with significant momentum.
WVU sent split squads to the separate meets in the city Boston this past weekend -- one group travelled to compete in the Eagle Elite inside of the TRACK at New Balance on Friday while another went to the David Hemery Valentine Invitational inside of the Track & Tennis Center on Saturday.
The Mountaineers were paced on Friday at the Eagle Elite by graduate student Ceili McCabe, who took the second-place finish in the Mile Run. The Canadian national record holder in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase won silver in the event with a mark of 4 minutes, 29.86 seconds in the race.
The finish stands as McCabe's season-best time in the event and her second-best career mark in the event -- her personal best in the Mile Run currently holds the program record at 4 minutes, 29.26 seconds and was set at the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Track and Field Championship in a sixth-place finish.
The trip to the northeast was capped by a massive record-setting run by freshman Joy Naukot, who etched her name in program history with her performance. A native of Kapenguria, Kenya and a former Gutenberg Half Marathon champion, she made her first appearance in the 5,000 meter run at the collegiate level during the David Hemery Valentine Invitational -- but she didn't let the pressure of an event debut hold her back.
Naukot blazed through a massive field of 167 competitors to secure an 18th-place finish -- the highest finish of any freshman who competed in the event. More impressively, however, Naukot crossed the finish line with a mark of 15 minutes, 36.87 seconds -- that stands as a program record, obliterating the previous best mark held since 2010 by Marie Louise Asselin (15 minutes, 50.53 seconds).
The Mountaineers hit the track one more time to close out the indoor track regular season this coming weekend on Friday, February 21st. WVU will once again send split squads to separate meets -- one unit returns to Boston for the Terrier DMR Challenge/Last Chance Meet will be held at the Track & Tennis Center, while the other unit is set for action at a regional rival's facility when they travel to the Penn State Tune-Up at the Multi-Sport Facility & Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track in University Park, Pa.