River Forest, Ill. — The 2022 Indoor Track and Field National Championships are set to take place in Winston Salem, N.C., next weekend, with four members of the Concordia University Chicago women's track and field team qualifying to represent the school at the event.
The meet is hosted by Guilford College and will take place between Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12 at the JDL Fast Track in Winston Salem. In order to qualify, an athlete must rank in the top-20 in the nation in a given event.
All event times listed below are eastern standard time.
Fresh off her historic performance at the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Indoor Championships last weekend, senior Kayla Armstrong (Chicago, Ill.) will represent CUC in two separate events; the 200-meter and the 400-meter.
Armstrong set her season-best mark in both events during her big weekend at the NACC Championships. Her 400m time of 57.62 seconds is the 11th-best in the country, while her time of 24.96 seconds is good for fourth in the 200. She has experience running these races at a high level, placing third in both events last summer at the 2021 Outdoor Championships.
So far this season, Armstrong has won both events at the same meet on two separate occasions; the NACC Championships on Feb. 26, and the Windy City Rumble on Feb. 5.
Preliminaries for both events will take place Friday, with the 400m at 2:10 p.m. and the 200 following later at 3:50 p.m. The finals on Saturday are scheduled for 3:10 p.m. and 4:10 p.m., respectively.
Joining Armstrong in the 400m is graduate student Simone Wilson (Minneapolis, Minn.). Wilson became the first national champion in school history last May, taking home gold in the 400m hurdles at the Outdoor Championships.
Her season-best time of 57.76 in the 400m at the 2022 Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational ranks 14th in the nation heading into nationals. She has won the event at three different meets this year; The Firebird Opener on Jan. 15, The North Central College Snow Day Invite on Jan. 21, and most recently the Aurora Grand Prix on Jan. 29.
Graduate student Madeline Bobinski (Des Plaines, Ill.), who also took home two gold medals at the NACC Championships last weekend, will represent CUC in the shot put. Her mark of 13.47 meters at that meet was her best of the season, and put her in the top-20 in the nation at No. 17.
This impressive mark not only earned her the first-place medal, but also set a new record for both the school as well as the NACC Championships. She also won the event on Jan. 21, at the Snow Day Invite.
The event is set to take place on Friday at roughly 1:55 p.m. and Saturday at 11 a.m.
The final Cougar to qualify for nationals is junior Zahra Sammour (Berwyn, Ill.). Sammour will compete in the triple jump, an event she has won on four occasions this year. She most recently placed first at the NACC Championships with her mark of 11.59 meters.
Her best mark of the year came at the Valentine Invitational in Boston, Ma., where she placed fourth among athletes from all levels with a mark of 11.76 meters. This mark is the 15-best in the country heading into nationals.
The triple jump is set to take place Saturday at 11 a.m.
Coverage and results for the event will be available on cucougars.com/coverage. You can also find information including the weekend's itinerary here.
You can keep up with all things CUC Track and Field at cucougars.com as well as on Twitter @CUChicagoTFXC.
