Women's Track & Field 2024 Season Preview

FROSTBURG, Md. – Frostburg State Athletics will be taking a preview of each team competing in the spring season, covering nine total sports.  Over the next two days, each team will be broken down into their matchups, key players, and overall outlook for their season and program.  To wrap up spring sport previews is Women's Track & Field.
 
Overall
Frostburg State Women's Track & Field begins their outdoor season having participated in seven meets, prior to competing in the MEC Indoor Championships.  FSU placed fourth out of nine teams in the MEC Championships, scoring 87.5 team points for their highest-ever total at the meet.
 
Head Coach Shane Brookshire starts his fifth season with the team.  Brookshire welcomes back his full coaching staff from last season, in Ballard Suiter, John Kerns, Daryl Bushnell, and Gabbi Maher. 
 
Last Season
FSU competed in seven regular season meets before the MEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the 2023 season.  The Bobcats went on to place 4^th out of nine teams in the Tim Weaver Invitational and 2^nd out 22 teams in both the Messiah Multis and Messiah Invite, while taking first out of five teams in Frostburg's first-ever Bob Lewis Classic, held on the Bobcats home track.  In the three day conference championships, FSU finished fifth overall out of nine teams, the team's highest-ever finish since joining Division II.
 
In the 2023 MEC Outdoor Championships held at FSU, the 4x100 meter relay team of Gabrielle Heard, Tristen Clark, Malaika Habib, and Valerie Boards took second with a finish of 48.39, while Baby Jimerson and Jasmine Scott joined Habib and Heard in the 4x400, coming in second with a 4:01.41 time.  In the individual events, Scott placed second in the 400 meters with a time of 58.15, while Boards earned fifth in the 200 meters with a 26.67 time and took third in the 100 meters with a 12.30 finish. 
 
Looking back at the 2023 outdoor season, many Bobcats broke and set program records in multiple events during the season.  Boards is now tied for the fourth fastest time in FSU history in the 100 meters with a 12.24 time, as Scott sits at third all-time in the 400 meters with a time of 56.92.  Hannah Muir holds the fifth best time in Frostburg history in the 5,000 meters with a 18:24.99 finish, as Kemi Balogun showed the seventh best all-time long jump with a distance of 5.51m, also breaking the record for the best all-time triple jump with a 12.34m finish.  Khady Ndiaye snuck into the ninth spot in the top-10 best triple jumps in Bobcat history, jumping a 10.75m, while Eva Morrison broke the Frostburg record in pole vault with a 3.50m height.  Addy Cottrill sits second all-time in the discus with a throw of 40.27m, while also holding the sixth-best finish in the hammer throw with a 39.20m finish.  To conclude the accolades for FSU last season, Erin Haviland claimed fourth best in program history in the heptathlon going for 3,297 points, as in the 3,000 meter steeplechase Muir also sits third all-time with a time of 12:15.39.
 
The Returners
Brookshire is happy to bring back 19 returners from last year's squad, as multiple returners already made their mark this season, competing in the MEC Indoor Championships to round out their indoor season.  In the conference championships, Boards captured a first place finish in the 200 meters (25.02), while coming in second in the 60 meters (7.84).  Boards and Scott led Frostburg's 4x400 relay team to a first place finish with a finish of 3:58.05, while Scott placed first in the 400 meters with a time of 57.07.  In the field events, Morrison took third in the pole vault clearing 3.23m, while Morgan Mathews went for 2.63m.  Ndiaye jumped 11.25m to take fourth overall in the triple jump, while Cottrill placed fifth in the shot put with a throw of 11.58m.  Scott and Amy Tarcza helped lead the Bobcats' distance medley relay team to a fifth place finish with a 13:10.22 time, while Alana Dyce-Giraud took fourth and fifth in the 3,000 meters (10:46.50) and 5,000 meters (18:44.45). 
 
Multiple returners broke and set new records in Frostburg history in the indoor season as well, with Boards setting the fastest indoor time in the 200 meters with a 25.02 finish in the conference championships.  Scott sits in seventh all-time in the 200 with a 26.08 finish earlier in the season, while also going for the best overall finish in program history in the 400 meters with her time of 57.07 in the MEC Championships.  Dyce-Giraud holds the second best time in FSU history in the 1,000 meters with a 3:15.53 time, while Tarcza holds the eighth best time (3:27.01) and returner Liz Stanley sits with the 10^th best time (3:38.53).  Dyce-Giraud ran the fourth best time in program history in the mile with a 5:22.67 time this past indoor season, while also running the fourth best time in the 3,000 meters with a 10:46.50 finish and the fifth best time in the 5,000 meters with a 18:44.45 finish.  Ndiaye (11.25m) and Morrison (10.75m) took the third and eighth best finish in Bobcat history in the triple jump, with Ndiaye setting the record in the conference championships, as Morrison (3.40m) and Mathews' (2.63m) finishes in the pole vault in the MEC championships put them at first and seventh all-time.  Scott and Boards' finish in the 4x400 meter relay of 3:58.05 in the conference championships sits at the second best finish in program history, while Scott, Boards, and Habib's finish of 4:02.68 earlier in the season holds the fifth best time.  In the distance medley relay, Dyce-Giraud and her team ran a 13:02.51 during the season for the best-ever finish in Bobcat history, while Scott and Tarcza's team's finish of 13:10.22 in the MEC Championships is the second best finish all-time. 
 
The Newcomers
Brookshire welcomes in a freshman class of 11 to add to his squad, along with one transfer, as a handful of freshmen have already made their mark at Frostburg during the indoor season.  At the MEC Championships, freshmen Isabella Mastria and Lilly Williams were a part of the first place 4x400 relay team with Boards and Scott, as Mastria came in second in the 400 meters with a 57.34 finish and fourth in the long jump with a 5.29m finish.  Freshmen Paige Etnoyer and Emily Wishart joined Scott and Tarcza in the distance medley relay team that placed fifth in the conference championships with a 13:10.22 time. 
 
Along with succeeding in the MEC Indoor Championships, multiple freshmen also set records in FSU indoor history as well.  Mastria set the sixth fastest time in program history in the 60 meters earlier this indoor season with a 7.87 time, while also setting the sixth best time in the 200 meters with a 25.96 finish and coming in second all-time in the 400 meters with a 57.34 finish in the conference championships.  Wishart currently holds the fifth best time in Bobcat history in the 1,000 meters with a run of 3:21.60, as Etnoyer (5:28.41) sits eighth all-time in the mile and Wishart (5:28.87) sits 10th.  Mastria also set the second best ever finish in Frostburg history in the long jump with a distance of 5.47m, while her and Williams were a part of the 4x400 meter relay that holds the second best all-time finish with a 3:58.05 time in the MEC Championships, with Mastria was also being a part of the 4x400 meter relay team that sits with the fifth best time in program history of 4:02.68.  Wishart, Mastria, and Etnoyer joined Dyce-Giraud in the distance medley relay that's holds the best all-time finish of 13:02.51, while Etnoyer and Wishart were a part of the distance medley relay that set the second best ever time with a 13:10.22 finish in the MEC Championships.  To conclude the freshman success in the indoor season, Hannah Schauman, Reagan Phillips, and Cierra Cooper all set personal records throughout the season. 
 
Kick off to Season
The Bobcats will compete in six regular season meets, starting their outdoor season at the Stan Romanoski Open located in Morgantown, WV on Friday, March 22 and Saturday, March 23.  Frostburg will host the second-ever Bob Lewis Classic on Friday, April 5 for their lone home meet of the regular season, as FSU looks to host the MEC Outdoor Championships once again, this year Sunday, April 28-Tuesday, April 30. 
 
For more information, please visit frostburgsports.com.