Central Michigan University Athletics
At The Forefront
5/8/2019 3:09:00 PM | MTF, Track & Field
Beauvais, Cuneo have been key ingredients in resurgent track & field team
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – To be good in athletics, talent is a necessity.
Drive and motivation are also critical.
The Central Michigan women's track & field team goes into the Mid-American Conference Outdoor Championships as one of the favorites, an unlikely position not long ago. The Chippewas have earned that position, rising to the top and claiming the title in February at the MAC Indoor Championships.
It marked the first time CMU has accomplished that feat since 2004.
"We went into the indoor championships thinking, 'Hey, yeah, maybe we can win this,'" senior Samantha Cuneo says. "And we strutted out of there with a championship.
"And now we kind of walk into these outdoor championships with a little bit of swagger. It really doesn't mean anything until we walk out of there with the same strut that we walked out of at indoors. It can happen for us. We have an awesome team, we have so much talent here, and I really believe that we can rake in some points that people don't expect from us."
Cuneo and junior Gabriella Beauvais have been at the core of the ascendant program, which aims to match what it did in February beginning on Thursday at Ball State's University Track.
The pair of long sprinters have both claimed MAC individual and relay titles, and another team title would further solidify their respective legacies at the forefront of a program that aims to win its first outdoor league title since '04.
Both specialize in the 400-meter dash, an all-out sprint one time around the outdoor track that perhaps epitomizes the sport: Hours of intense training with incremental improvements culminating, one hopes, in your best day at the meet that matters most, the MAC Championships.
"You just know that everything you've put in the entire season, the entire year, has paid off and you just keep going forward to more goals, more successes," says Beauvais, a junior.
In February at the MAC Indoor Championships, Beauvais was first and Cuneo second in 400, and both ran a leg on CMU's third-place 4x400 relay squad, joining Simonae Dismuke and Jayden Williams.
Beauvais won the 400 last spring at the MAC Outdoor Championships and at the MAC Indoors that year, she was second in the 400 and fifth in the 200. She and Cuneo joined Dismuke and Kyla Walton in winning the 4x400 relay in the 2018 Indoors.
In 2017, Cuneo won the 400 indoor title and as a freshman in 2016, finished second in the outdoors 400.
In short, both have walked away from the MAC with plenty of hardware in their respective careers. Both credit the other for a good part of their success.
"Sam and I, honestly, I think we're the perfect duo," Beauvais says, "because when I've been down, she's been up; and when she's been down, I've been up. I think that's been a great motivator for both of us the last four years.
"We're also friends off the track and we're always talking, always sharing things so I think that friendship, that unity, is really helpful for our improvement on the track."
Training together and pushing each other daily, away from the spotlight of the big meets, has been a critical element. The pair, along with so many of their teammates, have laid the foundation during bone-chilling early morning workouts in the Jack Skoog Indoor Track, in the weight room, and on the outdoor track.
"You're working to constantly beat (her) and be better and be your best self," Cuneo says. "She's an outward reminder of the work that I want to do. It's never, 'I need to beat Gabby; I need to beat this time.' It's always, 'How can I make myself the best runner I can be?' And Gabby fully supports that."
Cuneo says that teaming with Beauvais and the likes of Dismuke, Williams and Walton brings a great deal of pride and satisfaction.
"Winning a relay championship, I would take (that) over any individual title simply because everyone does their exact piece to execute what you have to and that bond is unbreakable," she says. "When you finish and you've won … and you can huddle up with the group who helped you get there. It's just a sense of joy and the fact that you can share and you can all relate."
That carries over from the relay to the entire squad, she said.
"Our team (indoor) championship, to walk away with the team medal and you can sit on the bus and you can sing 'We Are The Champions,' to live that dream of like, 'We did this together' it's better than any individual title," she says. "You practice with these people every day. They're like family and to create that bond with them is so important and you work so hard; it's the classic blood, sweat and tears with these people that you see every single day and to walk home with something that you've worked for. What else can you ask for?"
Drive and motivation are also critical.
The Central Michigan women's track & field team goes into the Mid-American Conference Outdoor Championships as one of the favorites, an unlikely position not long ago. The Chippewas have earned that position, rising to the top and claiming the title in February at the MAC Indoor Championships.
It marked the first time CMU has accomplished that feat since 2004.
"We went into the indoor championships thinking, 'Hey, yeah, maybe we can win this,'" senior Samantha Cuneo says. "And we strutted out of there with a championship.
"And now we kind of walk into these outdoor championships with a little bit of swagger. It really doesn't mean anything until we walk out of there with the same strut that we walked out of at indoors. It can happen for us. We have an awesome team, we have so much talent here, and I really believe that we can rake in some points that people don't expect from us."
Cuneo and junior Gabriella Beauvais have been at the core of the ascendant program, which aims to match what it did in February beginning on Thursday at Ball State's University Track.
The pair of long sprinters have both claimed MAC individual and relay titles, and another team title would further solidify their respective legacies at the forefront of a program that aims to win its first outdoor league title since '04.
Both specialize in the 400-meter dash, an all-out sprint one time around the outdoor track that perhaps epitomizes the sport: Hours of intense training with incremental improvements culminating, one hopes, in your best day at the meet that matters most, the MAC Championships.
"You just know that everything you've put in the entire season, the entire year, has paid off and you just keep going forward to more goals, more successes," says Beauvais, a junior.
In February at the MAC Indoor Championships, Beauvais was first and Cuneo second in 400, and both ran a leg on CMU's third-place 4x400 relay squad, joining Simonae Dismuke and Jayden Williams.
Beauvais won the 400 last spring at the MAC Outdoor Championships and at the MAC Indoors that year, she was second in the 400 and fifth in the 200. She and Cuneo joined Dismuke and Kyla Walton in winning the 4x400 relay in the 2018 Indoors.
In 2017, Cuneo won the 400 indoor title and as a freshman in 2016, finished second in the outdoors 400.
In short, both have walked away from the MAC with plenty of hardware in their respective careers. Both credit the other for a good part of their success.
"Sam and I, honestly, I think we're the perfect duo," Beauvais says, "because when I've been down, she's been up; and when she's been down, I've been up. I think that's been a great motivator for both of us the last four years.
"We're also friends off the track and we're always talking, always sharing things so I think that friendship, that unity, is really helpful for our improvement on the track."
Training together and pushing each other daily, away from the spotlight of the big meets, has been a critical element. The pair, along with so many of their teammates, have laid the foundation during bone-chilling early morning workouts in the Jack Skoog Indoor Track, in the weight room, and on the outdoor track.
"You're working to constantly beat (her) and be better and be your best self," Cuneo says. "She's an outward reminder of the work that I want to do. It's never, 'I need to beat Gabby; I need to beat this time.' It's always, 'How can I make myself the best runner I can be?' And Gabby fully supports that."
Cuneo says that teaming with Beauvais and the likes of Dismuke, Williams and Walton brings a great deal of pride and satisfaction.
"Winning a relay championship, I would take (that) over any individual title simply because everyone does their exact piece to execute what you have to and that bond is unbreakable," she says. "When you finish and you've won … and you can huddle up with the group who helped you get there. It's just a sense of joy and the fact that you can share and you can all relate."
That carries over from the relay to the entire squad, she said.
"Our team (indoor) championship, to walk away with the team medal and you can sit on the bus and you can sing 'We Are The Champions,' to live that dream of like, 'We did this together' it's better than any individual title," she says. "You practice with these people every day. They're like family and to create that bond with them is so important and you work so hard; it's the classic blood, sweat and tears with these people that you see every single day and to walk home with something that you've worked for. What else can you ask for?"
Players Mentioned
Jumps/Sprints
/ Track & Field
Long Sprints
/ Track & Field
Long Sprints
/ Track & Field
Hurdles
/ Track & Field
Javelin
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