Women's Track & Field | 5/3/2015 7:42:00 PM
FINAL RESULTS
PUEBLO, Colo. - It all started a decade ago with nine points in the 2005 Outdoor Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships. 10 years and 170 points better, the #4 New Mexico Highlands track and field team is your 2015 RMAC Champions.
At the Outdoor Championships hosted by CSU-Pueblo this past weekend (May 1-3), the Cowgirls bested Adams State by 42 points, 179-137. This ends the Grizzlies run of 11-straight outdoor championships and the first time since 1998 (Western State) a team that is in the conference in 2015 other than Adams State won the title.
"You know, we only scored in the multis the first year we competed in this championship," RMAC Head Coach of the Year
Bob DeVries - in his 23rd-year with Highlands - explained. "That is where I decided we were going to be a multi-event team. We were carried on day one and two, where there were very few scored events, in the long jump and heptathlon. This was a great win for this program and for New Mexico Highlands University."
Senior
Salcia Slack won RMAC Female Performer of the Meet again, scoring 59 points in eight events (7.375 points per event). She won a trio of championships: the heptathlon (5,361 points, won by 298), 400 (45.57, won by 0.38) and triple jump (12.32 meters, won by 0.39 meters in only two attempts). She took runner-up honors in the 100 hurdles to sophomore teammate
Osheen Erskine, who blasted to fourth in the nation with a time of 13.55 - 0.02 seconds faster than Slack.
Slack finished the weekend third in each of the shot put (13.52 meters), long jump (5.94 meters) and in the 400 hurdles - competing in the event for the first time in her life - finishing third (1:01.76). Her prelims time in the event of 59.64 moves her up to eighth in the nation.
To cap it all off, she took sixth in the javelin (35.88 meters).
The successful weekend all started with the long jump and 19 points on Friday. Sophomore
Shanice McPherson blasted the field on her final attempt, breaking the RMAC record and turning in the 10th-best mark in NCAA Division II outdoor track and field history with a mark of 6.38 meters. Slack took third, senior
Nacia Johnson (5.44 meters) took seventh and Dilworth (5.42 meters) finished eighth.
Slack scored 59 points, but the team still scored 120 other points on Sunday thanks to strong efforts on the track. However, it was the field events that put the Cowgirls riding high to begin the final day. Dilworth started by finishing sixth in the high jump (1.54 meters). Dilworth also took third in the triple jump (11.36 meters).
In the javelin, the Cowgirls rounded up 20 points with an event championship and a fourth, sixth and seventh place. Junior
Michelle Traynham won the event by 2.7 meters, throwing for 41.84 meters in her fifth attempt. Freshman
Piper Mullins, seeded sixth coming into the event, stepped up and took fourth with a season-best throw of 36.43 meters. Slack finished sixth and Dilworth took seventh with a throw of 34.74 meters.
The javelin set the tone, but the 4x100 relay put the rest of the conference on high alert. The team of Erskine, sophomore
Stefania Gyamfi, McPherson and senior
Velma Morant vaulted to third in the nation, easily winning the event with a time of 45.38. If that was not exciting enough, Erskine (13.55), Slack (13.57) and Johnson (14.16) took all three medal places in the 100 hurdles.
Besides Slack's championships in the 400, Morant (55.67) and freshman and Las Vegas-native Kristin Montano (57.77) took fourth and eighth.
It was back to a medal sweep for the Cowgirls in the 100, as McPherson took the title with a time of 11.80. She beat Gyamfi by 0.002 seconds. Erskine clocked in at 11.83.
Former West Las Vegas Don and sophomore
Jayme Quintana, seeded seventh in the finals, took fourth in the 800 with a career-best time of 2:17.90. Gyamfi (24.33), Erskine (24.80) and Morant (26.17) went second, fourth and eighth in the 200.
The meet capper came in the form of Montano, Morant, Quintana and junior
Danielle Vigil running an inspiring 4x400 to take third with a time of 3:57.36. Vigil, who was fourth on the handoff, ran a great anchor lead to move the Cowgirls to the podium to receive a medal.
Your 2015 RMAC Champions return to action this Friday (May 8) at the Air Force Academy Twilight Qualifier in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
