Pack gets national qualifier in season opener at Mines

GOLDEN, Colo. - The CSU-Pueblo women's indoor track season is already a resounding success based on the results at Saturday's Colorado School of Mines Alumni Extravaganza, the Pack's first event of the season, as CSU-Pueblo got an automatic qualification to nationals in the triple jump by sophomore Shannon Elliott (So., El Paso, Tex.).

Elliott's win in the triple jump with a leap of 12.33 meters, a full 1.25 meters better than the second place leap by Colorado Mines' Kiera Benson, gave the ThunderWolves its first automatic qualification to nationals since the program was restarted in 2008-09.  Elliott was competing in her first intercollegiate meet.  Elliott's jump was also a CSU-Pueblo indoor record, and was a full foot better than the school's outdoor record of 11.68 meters (set by Jacqueline Brown in 1992).

Elliott helped key an incredibly impressive performance overall by the ThunderWolves, who finished fourth out of nine teams in the meet that featured eight RMAC schools.  The ThunderWolves also bested Western State, a longtime lynchpin in RMAC Indoor Track and Field.

Overall, the Pack placed 13 across all events, and won four events - the triple jump by Elliott, the high jump by another newcomer, Summer Hawkinson (Fr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) with 1.55 meter jump, and the shot put by freshman Holli Salazar (Fr., Hayden, Colo.), who tossed a 12.79 meter shot.  Both wins were school records in indoor competition.

The fourth event win by the Pack came in the 4x400 meter relay, which saw Vanessa Emerson (Fr., Aurora, Colo.), Maya Richards (So., Denver, Colo.), Jazmin Evans (So., Parker, Colo.) and Jishirll Lee-Clifton (RJr., Denver, Colo.).

After this hot start to the season, CSU-Pueblo will take the holidays off before continuing its season Jan. 16 at the Air Force Academy Open.