Winston-Salem, NC- The Lady Blue Bears indoor track & field teams competed in the 2015 CIAA championships on February 15th and 16th and finsished very successfully in the event.

The lady Blue Bears success began on day 1 when senior All-American Quanera Hayes was able to run a 1st place qualifying time of 55.64 in the prelims of the 400 meter dash, then followed with a 5th fastest time of 7.62 in the prelims of the 60 meter dash to qualify for the finals in two events in less than an hour. Freshman Chrishana Glenn was able to achieve a personal best of 8.25 in the 60 meter dash to finish 18th in the event.

Although the lady Blue Bears left day 1 with no points, the tables were able to turn in a positive direction on day 2 of the championship event. Freshman Zariyah Moss began the day first by competing in her first multi-event pentathlon. After completing 5 events in 3 hours just to achieve one score; that one score of 2247 points was good enough for an 8th place finish and a new Livingstone school record.

Once the running events began, the positivity continued with sophomore Sherri Samson running a seasons best 5:57.23 in the mile good enough for a 12th place finish. The first individual championship was achieved when Quanera Hayes was able to outsprint 2014 400 meter CIAA champion Tovea Jenkins of JCSU running an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 54.19. With the NCAA track size conversion her time was good enough for an NCAA leading and new school record time of 53.48. With only a 25 minute break Hayes finished the 60 meter finals in 7.95 good enough for 8th place but bounced back strong besting the field by over 1 second with a 24.10 automatic qualifying time of 24.10 to achieve her 2nd championship of the day. The NCAA track size conversion of 23.74 is a NCAA Division II leading time and new school record.

Samson was also able to achieve a new personal best and new school record in the 3000 meters running an NCAA track size converted 11:43.11. The women shot putters also wanted to join in on the success, and sophomore Ebony Moore bested the competition throwing a new personal best and school record of 13.13 meters to become the first female indoor shot put champion in school history. Not far behind was freshman Ashley Wingo throwing a personal best 12.35 meters

The Lady Blue Bears finished with 36 points good enough for a 5th place finish which is much better than the 8th place finish in 2014. The Rams of Winston Salem State were the meet champions for 2015 followed by St Augustine and Johnson C Smith rounding out the top 3.

Hayes will now prepare for the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 13th and 14th at the Birmingham, Alabama Crossplex and the rest of the team will get ready for the outdoor season that begins on March 21st at Lenoir Rhyne University.

Written By: Justin Davis