In the run-up to the CIAA Women’s Indoor Championships, Coach Inez Turner of Winston-Salem State said having the home-track advantage at the JDL Fast Track would come in handy.
She was right.
That advantage paid off with the team title as the Rams easily beat St. Augustine’s, the two-time defending champions.
“Coming into this championship you could see by the times that we had a lot of our athletes who were in the top 6, and I just wanted them to run their races and to be calm in their approach,” Turner said.
The indoor title was the first for the Rams since 2011; it was their second title overall. St. Aug’s had won the title 20 times since 1979.
In the men’s championship, St. Aug’s won its 18th straight conference title. Virginia State finished a distant second.
Doing most of the damage for the Rams was 20-year-old freshman Domtila Kiplagat, who is from Africa. She arrived at WSSU in early January with the idea of redshirting the indoor season.
Turner, however, saw Kiplagat run at the JDL Fast Track during practice and those plans were changed.
“She had never ran indoor before,” Turner said. “So we welcomed her to the team and she just took off — literally.”
Kiplagat was second in the mile with a time of 5:17.60. Taylor-Ashley Bean of Virginia State was the winner in 5:16.61.
Kiplagat also won the 3,000 meters (10:13.12) and was part of WSSU’s winning distance-medley relay team (12:12.86). The other runners in the medley relay for WSSU were Raven Hamilton, Micalyne Zimmerman and Tametris Morrison.
Raven Covington of the Rams won the 60-meter dash in 7.47 and teammate Ty-Leah Hampton was fourth in 7.62.
In the 200-meter dash, Nya Michaux was second in 25.19 with Quanera Hayes of Livingstone first in 24.10.
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