Women's Track & Field

SIMMONS, HADLEY STAND OUT AT HAWKEYE INVITE

SIMMONS, HADLEY STAND OUT AT HAWKEYE INVITE
Posted: Jan 16, 2022

Iowa City, IA – The Indian Hills Women's Track & Field squad made its 2022 debut at the Hawkeye Invitational on Saturday. Competing against primarily four-year universities, the Warriors claimed a number of school records and national qualifying marks.

Our women's group is coming along very well, even without our distance athletes running yet," stated head coach Brent Ewing. "Our distance athletes are set to open up next week at Iowa State. Once we have them competing, I expect this to be our most complete women's team we have had to date."

The Warriors were highlighted by Aliyah Simmons' (Miami, FL/North Miami) performance in the 600-meter dash as the sophomore placed first overall with a time of 1:32.42. Simmons' mark is the top time in the nation and now sits atop the national leaderboard in both the 600-meter and 800-meter events.

"Aliyah continued her dominance," Ewing added. "She has her eyes set on a national title and isn't backing down one bit. The goal was to run 1:33 or faster in the 600-meter this weekend. She executed the race plan perfectly. Aliyah quickly took the lead at the stagger and fended off an opponent who tried to take the lead at 400-meter. It was clear that Aliyah wasn't going to let anyone beat her yesterday."

Freshman Haleigh Hadley (Gilbert, IA/Gilbert) stood out in the women's high jump with a school record performance on Saturday. Hadley hit the national qualifying mark in her fourth attempt before breaking the school record with a 1.65 mark to place second overall on the day.

"Haleigh's high jump performance really stood out to me," Ewing noted. "Haleigh hadn't competed in two years and had only been practicing for a month or so. It says a lot about her to be able to break the school record and qualify for nationals in her first meet out. Haleigh showed that she is a legitimate All-American contender and has the ability to really help our team at the national meet in March."

Freshman Kayla McCray (Miami, FL/North Miami) put together two impressive performances in the 60-meter and 200-meter events. McCray sprinted to her second-fastest 60-meter time at 7.71 before setting a personal best in the 200-meter with a time of 25.38.

Ja'Dashia Catlin (Palm Coast, FL/Matanzas) and Aimaya Drummond (San Antonio, TX/San Antonio Brennan) each claimed victories in their 400-meter heats while Drummond placed sixth overall in the event. "Aimaya's grit was what impressed me the most," added Ewing. "I love to see how people react when they are in a situation where they're being challenged for the lead. Aiamaya didn't back down."

The women's 4x400 relay squad finished fourth overall, but were just 1.37 seconds behind the second-place squad from Iowa. Comprised of the sophomore quartet of Drummond, Simmons, Temira Goods (Des Moines, IA/Des Moines Hoover), and Kahliyah Anderson (Texarkana, TX/Texas), the Warriors came in with a time of 3:50.79, less than one second off the school record. The mark is the top time in the nation.

"I challenged the women to go after the school record in the 4x400m relay," Ewing exclaimed. "Despite missing the record, I was really happy with the way they competed. Aliyah ran a very strong 56.9 second leg. Temira did a great job of keeping us in a good position. I was really curious to see what sophomore All-American Kahliyah Anderson would do. We talked a lot about running a very aggressive 4x400-meter leg this weekend so we could get an idea of what type of shape she was in for an open 400-meter. The race was set up perfectly as Kahliyah does a great job of chasing people down as she got the baton with a girl about 30 meters ahead of her. She closed the gap significantly and was able to run our fastest 4x400-meter split in program history- 54.91. I was really proud to see her lay it all on the line."

The Warriors return to action at the Iowa State Open in Ames, IA on Jan. 22.