The Cardinal Gibbons women’s indoor track and field team brought home the 4A state championship. 

On Feb. 15, with a commanding 62 points throughout all the events, the Crusaders nearly doubled the second-place Cuthbertson High School score as they dominated in the championship. 

Sophomore Tessa Kranick finished as the 4A co-champion for the pole vaulting event. She cleared the 11-foot mark and tallied nine points towards’ the Crusaders’ overall score. 

The Crusaders also won the 4-by-800-meter relay race. Junior Maggie Whitham started the race off, followed by senior Addy Mitchell. Freshman Kaitlyn Estep ran the third leg for the relay team, and senior Hannah Rae Shaffer was the anchor. This group of outstanding runners finished in 9:18.27 and scored 10 points towards the final score. 

However, Shaffer wasn’t done with her impressive day. She finished second place in the 1600-meter with a very respectable time of 4:51.87, just three-tenths of a second slower than first place. She also won the 3200-meter race by over five seconds, with a time of 10:36.07. These two races combined gave the Crusaders 18 points. 

Shaffer wasn’t the only runner from the relay team to win a singles race, as Estep won the 1,000-meter race, and Whitham finished sixth. Estep scored 10 points for Gibbons, and Whitham scored two, resulting in a total of 12 points from the event. 

Lucia West, another senior, also competed in the 3,200-meter race. She finished in fifth place and scored another four points for Gibbons. 

The final event the team placed in was the 4-by-400 meter relay. Callie Swanson, a junior, opened the race off for the Crusaders, followed by sophomore Emery Campion. Estep ran third in the race, and Shaffer to anchor another race. The relay finished second, with a time of 4:00.38, and scored eight points. 

After an awe-inspiring indoor season, the team is looking forward to a great outdoor season this spring.