Racewalkers Qualify for Nationals

The Caminata Racewalk Challenge was held on Saturday, December 14th at Columbia International University. Columbia College sent 5 racewalking athletes to the meet in hopes of obtaining both national and conference qualifying performances.

Leading the Koalas were the freshman twin sisters, Jessica and Victoria Heiser-Whatley. Jessica placed 2nd in the 3000m racewalk with a time of 17:05, which is a new school record and qualifies her for the NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championship with a B-standard performance.

Victoria finished in 3rd place with a time of 17:26, which also meets the NAIA B-standard. Both Jesi and Tori will compete at the national meet in March, and will continue to chase the NAIA A-standard time of 16:30.

 Just behind Jesi and Tori, was sophomore Shelby Winn. Shelby just barely missed the B-standard with a time of 17:46, but she did run a conference qualifying time. Junior Brittany Robbins also hit a conference qualifying time with a 20:51 performance.

 Lastly, freshman Gabrielle Huggins made her racewalk debut with a time of 25:52. With the improvements she's made so far, Gabrielle will be on target to hit a conference standard at her next racewalk event.

 The Columbia College racewalker's next meet will be on January 12th, at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, NC.