Freshman Irma Garza and her Incarnate Word teammates were in Houston over the weekend to compete in the J. Fred Duckett Rice Twilight track and field meet and Garza was the leading light for UIW.
In a meet dominated by Division I athletes Garza finished fifth in the 1,500-meters. Her time was 4:32.66. What is more important is what that time represented.
It was a new UIW school mark breaking the previous best of 4:43.77 by, Irma Garza. She now has the top three school times in that particular run and four of the best five ever at UIW. Also, that time landed her on the provisional list for the end-of-May NCAA Division II national championships. She currently is the 18th fastest in the nation and she is the quickest freshman in Division II.
Then, that 1,500 run earned her a slot in next summer's USATF Junior Nationals, a meet for the best 20-and-under runners in the nation. This is an Olympic development program.
In terms of record performances, Garza was not alone.
Emma Jewell ran an 11:22.47 in the 3,000-steeplechase to finish second. That is a new UIW record, beating Jewell's own mark of 11:47.50 set one month ago.
Other significant performances by the Cardinals included Stacy Stanush getting her personal best of 2:21.46 in the 800-meters and Zariah Noyola turning in a 1:04.07 in the 400-meter hurdles to lower her personal best.
After a series of meets which will attract individual UIW performers, the next meet for the team is the Lone Star Conference championships May 4 to May 6 in Commerce.
