Heading to Pittsburgh on March 23, John Carroll University’s women’s track and field team had not won an outdoor meet in 23 years. A few hours later, the Blue and Gold claimed gold with a first place finish at the CMU invite hosted by Carnegie Mellon; their first time at the  top since 1996.

“It shows the development of our women’s program. We have not had strength in the last couple of years,” head coach Kyle Basista told The Carroll News. “The hard work from the indoor season came together and was well on display in the outdoor. It was kind of unexpected to have such a good start from the get-go.”

A 242 point total is what it took for the Blue Streaks to beat four other schools, holding off Carnegie Mellon, who finished in second place with 206 points.

John Carroll imposed their will in the jumping, running and throwing events, winning 11 events. Most impressive of those event wins was the 200-meter dash, where JCU swept the first nine finishers. Two freshmen, Lucia Cannata and Sara Johnson, finished first and second respectively, with junior Ashura Powell finishing third.

“We have depth and balance in a couple different events. We are really young and we have some good talent and it is shining,” Basista said.

The Blue and Gold were perhaps most dominant in the team relays, winning both events. The quartet of sophomore Izzie Penna, Cannata, Johnson and Powell placed first in the the 4×100 meter relay.Freshman Mary Claire Smeltzer and Autumn Hale and juniors Kendall Miller and Rachel Schubert won the 4×400 meter relay.

In the jumping events, JCU’s Johnson won the long jump and DeLuca finished first in the triple jump, leaping their way to the top.

The Blue and Gold swept the field in the throwing events, winning the shot put, discus throw, hammer throw and javelin throw.

“I think the throwing events had a really big weekend. We had school records in the shot put, the hammer throw, and the discus,” Basista said. “In the javelin, Nicole Pilewski almost broke her school record.”

In the shot put, JCU had the top three finishers, with freshman Hannah Sedlak leading the way and fellow freshmen Emoni Davis and Olivia Hurtt placing second and third respectively.

Next on the slate for JCU will be a meet at Otterbein for the April Fools Invite on March 30.

“Hopefully we can continue,” said Basista.“Hopefully this is a good starting point for us and we can continue to build upon this for the rest of the season.”