Senior sprinter Caitlyn Cheney keeps getting faster. Good thing, because she’s racing against time.
Cheney, a kinesiology major looking to enter nursing school, lost most of two years of high school track, and sprint development, to the pandemic. She’s making up for lost time by laying waste to Western’s record books before her NCAA eligibility runs out at the end of this school year.
She’s not the only Western teammate running historically fast. At the University of Washington Preview at Dempsey Indoor in Seattle Friday, Jan. 17, and the Mile City event the next day, seven Western marks fell.
Cheney played a big part. She ran a 7.64-second race in the 60-meter heat to break a Western record she set in December. In the final, she lowered that mark to 7.57, breaking her own record again and finishing sixth.
Then she set a new school record of 24.90, bettering teammate and Aussie speedster Bec Bennett’s December mark, in the 200-meter race. Finally, in the 4X400-meter relay anchored by Bennett, Cheney was part of another school record – her fourth in a matter of hours.
“Dempsey redid their track,” Cheney said. “I was like, `Wow. This could be a really good day.’”
Cheney is from Ellensburg, an unusual small-town hotbed of running talent populating college track and cross country squads. She “has no idea” where her speed comes from. Her mom, Tawnee, a schoolteacher, and dad, Ryan, a manager for Pape Machinery, did not run in college.
Cheney picked Western over hometown Central Washington, with indoor track facilities and high school All-American teammate E’lexis Hollis, because she wanted to go NCAA Division II somewhere different. She contacted coaches and visited campus during COVID-19. “It’s pretty cool,” she remembers thinking, enjoying the view of nearby Bellingham Bay. “Weirdly, it was just me and one other girl on the [sprint] team.”
Cheney, part of the distance medley relay team that qualified for outdoor nationals last year, has her sights set on making nationals in an individual event too. Competitors with the top 18 times go. In the 60-meters, Cheney says she’s No. 23.
“So I have a little bit of work to do,” she said.
That’s something Cheney is good at. Western sprint coach Dena Birade says she squeezes the most from her abilities. Cheney can’t remember missing a practice in her Western career — not even for illness or injury.
Western’s cross country and track-and-field programs are on an unprecedented run. They have already set a conference record with seven straight conference champion sweeps, winning every men’s and women’s team title in cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field since fall 2023. Some think this team might wind up the best in school history.
“It’s a phenomenal team,” Birade said.
Cheney pointed to the team’s athletes who have national-caliber times, throws and jumps. “My freshman year, I don’t think we even had 25 athletes, but now we have so many and there’s so many on national lists right now,” she said. “Our team’s really special.”
Cheney is determined to get the most out of her time left before her collegiate career ends with the spring outdoor season. Birade said Cheney’s strongest event is actually the 100-meter dash.
“It’s just hard because I’m just getting good. It’ll be really hard to just walk away from it,” Bennett said, though she might compete in open meets. “I feel like it’d be different if every year I was running the same times.”
Since her freshman year, Cheney has cut her 200-meter time by a remarkable four seconds.
“I think I still have a lot left in the tank,” she said.
Softball opens season on the road
High expectations meet Western’s softball team as it opens the season Friday, Jan. 31 after reaching the NCAA Division II World Series and finishing runner-up last year. The Vikings are ranked preseason No. 2 to champion University of Texas Tyler in the national coaches poll rankings following Western’s best-ever 52-12 season, which saw them advance to the title series for the first time in program history.
Here’s the fun part: 17 of 23 players are returning, including all three pitchers who shared starting duties — and all but 1/3-inning of pitching time. Also returning is seventh-year coach Sheryl Gilmore and senior catcher Emma Andrewjeski-Ramirez, who set single-season program records in home runs (18) and runs batted in (59).
First home game isn’t until March 1 against Simon Fraser, following swings in California, Hawaii and Richland.
BEST BET
7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30 – Women’s basketball vs. Saint Martin’s, Bellingham. Former Lynden Christian star Libby Stump is expected to make her home debut after a knee injury kept her out this season following her transfer from the University of Montana.
Tickets. See wwuvikings.com/Tickets or in person one hour prior to game time.
Parking. Free for sports. For basketball, lot 19G for general audience; 9G for season ticket holders. See the map at wwu.edu/parking.
Can’t make it? Stream it
All home games and most road contests are streamed via a live and free YouTube webcast. Find links online at cascadiadaily.com.
If you have a smart TV, search for “WWU Athletics” on YouTube.
We want to hear from you
Got a WWU sports-related news tip or interesting item for this notebook, or a good story idea? We’re all ears. Send to newstips@cascadiadaily.com, subject line: WWU sports notebook
Meri-Jo Borzilleri is a freelance journalist and former 20-year sports reporter.
