Wheeling, W. Va. - With the winter break wrapped up, the Wheeling University Women's Indoor Track & Field team was back in action on Friday at the Capital Alumni Invitational. After a strong start to the season, the Cardinals continued to build on their early season success, crowning three individual champions to start 2025. Two of those gold medals would come on the track, while the field events brought home a gold of their own, along with two second place finishes to round out the day.
It was the sprinters who would lead the way throughout the day with Shannon Farrow and Deja Ryals each earning gold medals on the day. The success began right away in the 60-Meter Dash preliminaries, with Farrow taking 2nd with a time of 7.97 and Ryals taking 5th at 8.37 seconds to qualify for the finals. 10 events later, the Cardinal duo was back on the line and would end up taking first and second place in the finals. It was Farrow who would take the top spot, running a time of 8.03 seconds, while Ryals knocked .18 seconds off her preliminary time to take second with a time of 8.19 seconds. Ryals would get her gold medal in the final individual event of the day, taking the top spot in the Women's 200-Meter Dash with a time of 27.38. Bre'ya Clopper would be the other Cardinal to compete in the event, and finished fourth with a time of 28.70.
The final Cardinal gold medal would come in the women's pole vault, with Jenna Smith and Keala McCurry battling it out. The duo would both finish with a height of 3.20 meters on the day, however, Smith would clear the height on her first try, earning her the top spot in the event. McCurry would take second with the same height, and finished just .05 meters behind her first height of the season. The other second place finish came in the Women's High Jump, where Tara Perry competed. Perry would take second in the field with a height of 1.55 meters. Mariah Pelkey would be the final field competitor for the Cardinals, competing in the Women's Weight Throw and taking fourth with a distance of 10.17 meters.
The Wheeling University Women's Indoor Track & Field team returns to action on Friday, January 17th, when they compete at the Al Campbell Invitational, hosted by Akron.
