NMHU's Topal looks to cap exceptional career on the podium at next week's NCAA Championships

LAS VEGAS, N.M. --- It has been a long, winding journey for New Mexico Highlands senior Annie Topal as she gets set to compete at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships starting Thursday in Allendale, Michigan – the final time she will compete as a Cowgirl.
 
It started as a young student-athlete coming from Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, for the 2016-17 season where she was shut down one meet into the outdoor season as the coaching staff felt she needed to gain strength. Two years later, she was standing atop the podium raising a national title trophy in the triple jump. The next season she was set to defend her title as the top triple jumper in Division II when the pandemic hit and wiped out the 2020 indoor and outdoor season and the 2021 indoor season before injury knocked her out of the 2022 indoor championships.
 
However, Topal's ready to get back to the podium one last time representing the purple and white – ranked fifth in the nation in the triple jump – and cap her storied career that includes arguably the most dominant stretch by a triple jumper in RMAC history.
 
"Annie is a champion," NMHU head coach Bob DeVries said. "When she 'showed up' at RMACs this year, coaches and athletes alike are asking, 'How's Annie?" She is one of the most well liked and respected athletes I've ever coached."
 
Topal's journey at NMHU started during the 2016-17 season when she arrived from Papua New Guinea as a shy, slight freshman.
 
"Coming from Papua New Guinea, Annie didn't have much access to strength training facilities before coming to NMHU," DeVries said. "She got serious in the weight room and began to show signs she could be a special jumper, winning her first RMAC championship and earning All-American honors the following indoor season in 2018."
 
That 2018 RMAC indoor title in the triple jump for Topal started a run of dominance in the event – both indoors and outdoors. She hasn't lost in the triple jump in any RMAC championship she has competed – winning seven RMAC titles between indoor and outdoor (she didn't compete this indoor season due to injury and missed both the 2020 indoor and outdoor and 2021 indoor seasons due to the pandemic). She's the only person in RMAC history to win four outdoor triple jump championships.
 
Following that first indoor RMAC title, she followed it up with her first of five All-American performances in the triple jump by taking 12^th at the 2018 indoors before taking fourth at the 2018 outdoors.
 
Another year of training took Topal a step further at the national level, finishing fourth at indoors at 2019 before becoming the first Cowgirl to win a national title in four years at outdoors in 2019 with a distance of 13.02 meters.
 
It was aligned for Topal to go for her first indoor national title in 2020 as she headed to the championships ranked No. 1. However, 18 hours prior to the start of the championships – the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic also wiped out the 2020 outdoor and 2021 indoor season for Topal and the Cowgirls.
 
"More than any other athlete, Annie's career was severely impacted by the pandemic," DeVries said. "She was at the top of her game and coming off a national outdoor championship in 2019."
 
Topal returned to national prominence at the 2021 outdoor national championships where she qualified for both the triple jump and long jump. Topal earned her fifth All-American honor in the triple jump by taking third while she finished 14^th in the long jump.
 
Topal took advantage of the NCAA ruling to extend student-athletes' eligibility a year due to the pandemic and returned for the 2021-22 season this year, but injuries have hampered her final season as she missed the 2022 RMAC Indoor Championships and NCAA Indoor Championships.
 
However, she has toughed it out in limited time and grinded out a No. 5 ranking heading into the 2022 Outdoor NCAA Championships thanks to winning the RMAC title with a mark of 12.78 meters.
 
"Her work to overcome the injury has been pretty remarkable," DeVries said. "It seemed likely she was done - not much of a chance to compete this year and looking at getting healthy enough to represent Papua New Guinea in the Pacific Games this summer. … Coach Myra Hawkins worked on Annie's rehab along with our training room staff and doctors and Annie took a couple jumps in April - only to suffer a little bit of a setback - then it was just wait, work and see what happened at RMACs."
 
Whatever the outcome of next week's national event, Topal – who graduated with honors in 2021 - has continued the Cowgirls' tradition of great jumpers in NMHU history that include 10-time All-American Angela Graham, 11-time All-American and three-time national champion Jillisa Grant, three-time national champion Shanice McPherson and 12-time All-American and four-time national champion Salcia Slack.
 
"Annie is definitely one of the greats in program history," DeVries said. "Her seven conference championships rank second only behind Salcia Slack – who will be inducted into the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame this spring – and Annie is one of six athletes who have won a national championship for us. …
 
"She has a shot at another national championship next week and that would be an amazing finish to an amazing career."