Saunders, Nesmith Claim NEC Women's Track & Field Honors
Blue Devils duo named Field Athlete of the Week and Rookie of the Week.
Senior Ronea Saunders and freshman Sierra Nesmith claimed a pair of Northeast Conference women's track and field weekly awards it was announced on Tuesday. Saunders picked up NEC Women's Field Athlete of the Week and Nesmith was named NEC Women's Rookie of the Week.
Saunders improved upon her season-best in the high jump for the second week in a row. Competing at the UMass Minuteman Invitational, Saunders struck gold by clearing 1.71m (5' 7.25"). The performance made Saunders the second NEC high jumper to secure automatic qualification into the ECAC Championships field. Saunders currently ranks second in the Northeast Conference behind only LIU Brooklyn's Kyaira Wright-Harmon (1.73m) in the event and is one of 35 athletes from the ECAC region to have cleared at least 1.71m this spring.
Nesmith secured a pair of silver medals while competing at the UMass Minuteman Invitational last weekend. She produced a season-best time in the 400 meter hurdles, crossing the finish line in 1:03.63. That mark, which is just 0.59 second off the ECAC Championship qualifying mark, moves Nesmith into fourth-place overall on the NEC leaderboard. Nesmith, who was the runner-up in the triple jump at the NEC Indoor Championships back in February, triple-jumped her way to a second-place finish at UMass with a mark of 10.81 meters.
The CCSU women's outdoor track and field team will return to action next with the Larry Ellis Invitational hosted by Princeton University at Weaver Stadium in Princeton, NJ, on April 22-23.
