Women's TF Qualify Six in Outdoor Season Opener

Sunday, March 19, 2023 - 9:00 pm | Dylan Kessler

Phoenix, AZ - The Mesa Thunderbirds women's track & field team opened up their 2023 outdoor season at the Mesa Multi Invitational and the GCU Invitational this past weekend.

Six lady T-Birds hit qualifying marks for outdoor nationals across five events.

In the 800m, Taylor Jacobs (Second - 2:15.72) and Kate Brockman (Fourth - 2:19.02) both ran personal bests and hit qualifying marks for outdoor nationals.

Story Alexander ran a PB time of 12:11.24 in the 3000m steeplechase and hit a qualifying mark. MaKena Thornton was just a few seconds shy of qualfying as she ran 12:22.81.

The 4x400m relay (Diane Ondobo, Zaria Hamilton, Brockman, and Jacobs) ran a qualifying time of 3:56.65.

Kaprice Faraci was a double qualifier as she hit qualifying marks in both the hammer throw (10th - 42.91m) and javelin throw (seventh - 37.61m). Victoria Malaki just missed qualifying in the hammer throw as she threw a mark of 42.14m. The qualifying standard is 42.88m.

Maliyah Ross scored 4,052 points in the heptathlon at the Mesa Multi Invite and currently placed her within the top 16 nationally in the event.

Ryan Heiliger narrowly missed the qualifying standard of 4:58.16 in the 1500m as she ran a PB time of 4:58.78. Mia Sirimarco was also close to the qualifying standard of 1:06.20 in the 400m hurdles as she ran 1:06.85.

The 4x100m relay (Katherine Lemish, Ondobo, Hamilton, and Zana Ryan) was just 0.14 of a second shy of qualifying as they ran a time of 48.25 seconds.