Pringle, Dawson, & Whatley's Conference Titles Lead Lady Koalas to 4th Place Finish at AACs
COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Columbia College women's track and field team, led by individual conference titles from freshman Mackenzie Pringle and junior Darci Dawson, led the Koalas to an impressive 4th place team finish at the 2024 AAC Championships, held this past weekend at Columbia Int'l University.
Pringle competed in the 100 meter Hurdles on Friday evening and finished in 2nd place out of 12 in a time of 14.3 seconds. She then competed on Saturday in the Triple Jump and came away with the individual title with a mark of nearly 12.4 meters to beat the runner-up by 0.4 meters. Fellow freshman Makayla Blango also fared well in the triple jump finishing in 4th place out of 11 with a mark of just over 11 meters.
Pringle also placed 2nd in the Long Jump on Friday with a jump of 5.5 meters while Blango was 8th in 5.1 meters. The Koalas' fourth place team finish, out of 13 AAC teams, had them with 121 points, just 18 points behind Milligan and Montreat for 2nd place. CIU won the meet with 191 points.
The Koalas also finished 2nd out of 9 schools in the 4x100 meter relay race on Friday in a time of 47.8 seconds, just 2 seconds behind the winning team from CIU to earn 8 team points. The relay team consisted of Pringle in the first leg, Ashante Shaw in the second, Myikayla Howard in the third and Latrice Brown running the final leg. In the 100 meter dash later Friday, the Lady Koalas were led by Howard placing 6th in 12.35 seconds while teammate Shaw was right behind in 7th in 12.36 seconds. Brown then came in 9th in 12.4 seconds. Freshman Kwame Marks also came in 17th place in 12.78 seconds.
Dawson then won her title in the Shot Put on Saturday afternoon with a throw of 12.94 meters and was one of six Koalas to compete in the 18-person event. Also placing high in the shot put was senior Zaida Carson coming in 6th at 10.86 meters while fellow senior Anaya Canty was 9th in 10.6 meters.
Senior Victoria Whatley then won her conference title in the 5000 meter Race Walk on Saturday finishing in a time of 28:50 while her sister, Jessica Whatley, was right behind in 2nd place in 28:57. Coming in third for the Koalas was sophomore Mina Shull in 32:16 while freshman Carly Fuel was 4th in 36:30. Freshman Kayla Ferrell also placed T-5th in the 400 meters in 1:01.
On Friday, Dawson also competed in the Hammer Throw and came away with a 7th place finish out of 26 with a mark of 40.5 meters. She was among a group of 8 Koalas that competed in the event. The top Koala in the Hammer, though, was freshman Doreshia McAllister finishing 4th with a throw of 43 meters while senior teammate Anaya Canty came in 6th in 41.3 meters.
Finally, in the final women's field event on Saturday, Columbia had three women compete in the Discus Throw led by Carson placing 6th with a mark of 37 meters while teammate Qusondra Wideman was right behind in 7th at 35.3 meters. Canty also finished middle of the pack in 10th out of 20 throwing it 30.6 meters.
In the Javelin throw on Thursday, CC was led by McAllister and Justina Renke placing 8th and 10th respectively. McAllister threw it 30.5 meters while Renke tossed it 26.1 meters. Freshman Carly Fuel also competed on Day one Thursday in the 10K meter distance race and finished 11th in 46:25. The women then finished 5th in the 4x800 meter relay on Friday evening coming across in a tiome of 11:30 led by Addison Martin, who ran the team's fastest leg in 2:36. Fuel ran the 2nd leg in 2:53 while Shull did the third in 2:50 with Jenyfer Vigueras in 4th in 3:10.
Pictured below is sprinter Kayla Ferrell and thrower Doreshia McAllister , courtesy of student intern Jada Robinson
