Six Lady Eagles met national-qualifying standards at the Missouri Southern Lion Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
The goal for the runners in practice before the meet was to maintain strength and keep building, while trying to post better times every meet, freshman Paradise Henson said.
“I’ve been hoping to improve more and more as I practice and mainly try and stay healthy,” Henson said. “Even just practicing my block starts can improve my times and that’s what I am hoping to do.”
Day one of the meet went very well, Henson said.
“The first day of the meet was long but overall was pretty good,” Henson said. “We had people running and throwing qualifying times and we were hoping to escalate on that for the second day, which I believe we did.”
The Lady Eagles had four national qualifiers on the first day of the weekend meet.
Henson — a sprinter, Layne Hammer and Katie Jones, who are both distance runners and thrower Miranda Ostlund all qualified for the national meet on Friday.
Henson posted national-qualifying times on both the 60-meters and the 200-meters. Her time of 8.02 seconds in the 60-meters was her season best and good enough to place her at 11th among 61 women racing. She finished 16th in the 200-meters with a time of 26.82, which was a national-qualifying time.
Hammer and Jones both ran in the 5,000 meters and both posted season-best times that qualified for nationals. Hammer placed 19th in her heat with a time of 19:58.91. Jones posted a time of 20:06.62, also placing 19th in her heat.
Ostlund placed eighth among 43 women in the weight throw, posting a season-best top mark of 48 feet- 9 inches.
The second day of the meet contained more national-qualifying times for the Oklahoma Christian University women’s team.
Sprinters Maegan Cowan and Rebecca Bloodworth highlighted the second day of the meet. Cowan and Bloodworth both improved their national-qualifying times in two different events.
Cowan and Bloodworth each ran in the 400-meters and the 4×400 relay team for the Lady Eagles.
Cowan placed 10th in the 400 in 1:01.21, with Bloodworth close behind at 19th, posting a time of 1:02.70. Both times were season-bests for Cowan and Bloodworth and met the qualifying time with ease.
The Lady Eagles 4×400 relay team also posted a season-best time in this event with a time of 4:11.87. This team consisted of Bloodworth, Cowan, Kara Drewke and Wilmina Gley.
The Lady Eagles will continue their schedule, competing on Feb. 14 at the Oklahoma Baptist Indoor invitational in Norman, Oklahoma.
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