May 4, 2019 - As it normally happens, the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference's Outdoor Track & Field Championships bring about enough excitement to its participants. But for the Concordia University Chicago women's team, the 2019 event will likely be long and fondly remembered for its course of events, topped by a spectacular moment for senior Jessica Wilson, as the Cougars  finished with a hard-fought third place finish in the two-day event in Lisle, IL. 

Fittingly, Wilson opened the scoring for CUC's women on Friday afternoon as she won the championship of the discus. Wilson's throw was 130' 10", nearly four feet better tan the runner-up. The Cougars also added team points in the javelin, with senior Michelle Hennig finishing eighth with an 86' 7" effort, and in the final event of the day as Molly Cullinane ran the grueling 10,000-meter race and finished fourth with a time of 40:14.05.

Early on Saturday, the Cougar women got some points from a rather unexpected source, freshman Claire Urchell. A member of the team for only a week after playing softball for CUC this spring, Urchell's first collegiate meet resulted in a strong performance in the shot put, with her best throw going for 36' 5" and sixth place.

Shortly after that, the CUC points began coming in bunches as the running events kicked into high gear. First was the 4 x 100-meter relay of Crystal Holden, Dejah Sartin, Kayla Armstrong and Simone Wilson, who ran a season-best time of 49.39 seconds and winning the event. S. Wilson would be back on the track for the finals of the 100-meter hurdles. Yesterday, she ran a 15.34 in placing first in the prelims, but she would not give anything a better chance today to catch her as she ran a season-best 15.12 in pocketing 10 more points for CUC.

The next event was the finals for the 400-meter dash. On Friday, Armstrong ran a 1:00.14 in the prelims and finished third, but she was ready for the first-place effort when it counted in the finals, and she trimmed a second off of Friday's time and won the race with 59.14 seconds. Less than a half-hour later, Armstrong was back at it for the 100-meter dash. She set a school-record time of 12.01 in the prelims, and even though Saturday's time was at 12.42, she would still stand above the field in this event and mark her third win of the day.

S.Wilson looked to add another win in the hurdles, this time in the 400, and she would succeed with a time of 1:06.97, winning by a second. She and Armstrong would then go head-to-head in the finals of the 200-meter dash. They finished one-two in the prelims on Friday, and history repeated itself today. Armstrong won with a time of 24.51 seconds, just .04 off her season-best and national qualifying time, and Wilson was second with a 26.07.

Late in the afternoon, when the 5,000-meter run was preparing to start, the drama shifted back to the throwing area, where the hammer throw was competing. Jessica Wilson was the number one seed going in, and she received some stiff competition from an Aurora University athlete. As Wilson's last throw was approaching, most of the other results were in, and it appeared like Wilson would win the event by a couple of feet. However, Wilson left absolutely no room for doubt. She unleashed an absolute bomb of a throw which was measured at 183' 0". Not only was this a new school record, obliterating her own record of 172' 10" which was her national qualifying throw last May, this throw rocketed her into the top spot in all of Division III.  

The adrenalin and overall great feeling carried over into the ensuing minutes. Kimberlyn Gadawski threw her career best of 148' 9" to finish third in the event, giving CUC 16 points in the event. Moments later, the 5,000-meter results were in, and Cullinane ran a great race to finish third at 19:16.97. At this point, the Cougars were looking to catch Wisconsin Lutheran College for second place. However, despite a nice third-place effort by the 4 x 400-meter relay team of Armstrong, Maddie Vojacek, Holden and S. Wilson (4:12.29), WLC would win the final event of the meet to retain second. The top three scores on the women's side were Aurora with 224, WLC with 126 and CUC with 121.

Along with some of the conference titles in the individual events, the Cougar women also took two of the special awards. J. Wilson was named Co-Field Athlete of the Meet for her hammer and discus titles, while Cullinane took the title of Freshman of the Meet, repeating her honor from the Indoor Championships a few months ago.

"I really can't say enough about our efforts today. This was a great third-place finish," said CUC head coach Phil Kopinski. "Our athletes really came through when it counted this weekend, but sometimes you just get beat, and my hat's off to Aurora and WLC. But I certainly felt we gave it all we had and did what we had to do."


 



 


 
Kayla Armstrong school record in 100m – 12.01
Kayla & Simone Wilson two fastest in 200 – 24.62 and 25.86
Simone 1^st in 100 hurdles PL with 15.34