It’s a story line a lot of us could get used to. For the second weekend in a row the Lions duo of Keira Christie-Galloway and Erinn Stenman-Fahey shone in the cardinal and gold of their Iowa State Cyclones. Both ladies set new lifetime bests under the Arizona sun at the Sun Angel Track Classic in Tempe.
After being entered into the competition at Arizona State University, Christie-Galloway showed no signs of being fazed by being included in the slow section and running out of lane one. The sophomore transfer blazed to a new lifetime best of 13.25 seconds to win the competition outright and bested her heat by more than a second and a half. The 19 year old is quickly inching closer to Ashley Maddex’s number two all-time mark of 13.16 seconds. Christie-Galloway now sits in a tie for 21st overall in the NCAA.
After a personal best over 1500m a week ago, Stenman-Fahey dropped back down to 800m and picked up another personal Saturday night. The fourth year senior finished seventh overall in the premier section with a time of 2 minutes 5.42 seconds. The time is a nearly four tenths of a second improvement of her personal best set last spring at the Big 12 Conference Championship and puts her in a three tie for sixth on the club’s all-time list with current Lion Charlotte Gardner and alum Rachel Aubry.
The success in the sun was not just on the track as Divya Biswal captured gold in the women’s triple jump. The 26 year old Biswal leapt to a seasonal best 13.02m on her sixth and final attempt to secure the victory. With the mark, Biswal currently occupies the top stop in the early season Canadian rankings.
Two hours south in Tucson, Arizona, Telvin Tavernier finished seventh in the decathlon at the Jim Click Multis. His score of 6679 was just 40 points short of his personal best score set last year at the Canadian Championships, but did include a personal best of 6.97m in the long jump. Kevin Nault did manage to get on the PB train, adding nearly 50 points to his previous best, with a score of 6172 points.
Elsewhere on the west coast, Shona McCulloch made her debut in the 3000m steeplechase at the Washington-Washington State Duel meet in Seattle. The sophomore finished third overall in a time of 10 minutes 59.48 seconds and moves to fifth in club history with the performance.
Down in Colorado, Lauren Gale opened up her outdoor season for the Colorado State Rams with a second place finish over 200m in a time of 24.48 seconds at the Colordao Invitational in Boulder. She then ran the second leg for the Rams 4x100m relay team which set a school record of 44.66 seconds.
On the east coast, it was a trio of victories over 800m for the Lions. At the Saints Ice Breaker in Canton, New York Svetlana Martynova and Sebastian Saville swept the two lap races, each winning comfortably in 2:13.58 and 1:52.22 respectively. Further south in Virginia, Jeremie Venne set a new lifetime best to win the Colonial Relays in a time of 1:51.56.
