Women's TF Wins Region I Championship

Thursday, May 4, 2023 - 11:00 pm | Dylan Kessler

Mesa, AZ - The Thunderbirds women's track & field team won the NJCAA Region I Championship Thursday evening.

The lady T-Birds edged out Central Arizona College, 247-240, to win their second region title in program history, joining the 1993 squad as the only two teams to win the region meet.

Remarkably, Mesa was able to win the championship with just 15 athletes competing in the meet.

The 4x100m relay (Katherine Lemish, Zana Ryan, Zaria Hamilton, and Diane Ondobo) finished in second place to earn All-Region honors.

Kate Brockman earned individual region titles in the 1500m and 5000m. Story Alexander earned region honors in the 5000m (third place) and scored in the 1500m (seventh place). Lucy Lines scored in both the 1500m (sixth place) and the 5000m (fourth place).

Victoria Malaki earned region honors in the discus throw (third place) and scored in the shot put (fourth place). Kaprice Faraci also scored in the discus throw (eighth place). In the hammer throw, Malaki earned region honors (third place), K. Faraci was fifth, and Madison Hernandez was seventh.

Z. Hamilton, Taylor Jacobs, and D. Ondobo went 1-2-3 in the 400m dash. Z. Hamilton also broke the school record for the event after running 56.20 seconds and was also sixth in the 200m dash.

T. Jacobs won the region title in the 800m. Ryan Heiliger was fourth in both the 800m and 1500m.

In the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles, K. Lemish finished in second place in both events to earn region honors. Mia Sirimarco earned region honors in the 400m hurdles (third place) and scored in the 100m hurdles (sixth place).

Z. Ryan earned region honors in both the 100m dash and 200m dash after finishing in third place in both events.

Maliyah Ross scored in the high jump (fourth place), shot put (seventh place), and the 800m (fifth place). Zamirah Parker scored in both the high jump (tied for fifth place) and the triple jump (fourth place).

The 4x400m relay (Z. Hamilton, D. Ondobo, K. Lemish, and T. Jacobs) closed out the night with a second-place finish and a school-record performance of 3:50.00 to seal the region title for Mesa.

The lady T-Birds will wrap up the 2023 season at the NJCAA  Div. I Outdoor Championships from May 18-20 in Hobbs, NM.