CMU's Hankey Inspires With Performance At NCAA East Preliminary

Thursday, May 26

Bloomington, Ind.

4:20 p.m.

Central Michigan University

NCAA East Preliminary

Photo by: Keara Chaperon '22

CMU's Hankey Inspires With Performance At NCAA East Preliminary

5/26/2022 5:21:00 PM | Track & Field

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A great experience and something on which to build for Central Michigan track & field athlete Olivia Hankey.

Hankey, a redshirt junior from Waterford, finished 37^th in a field of 48 on Thursday in the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA East Preliminary at Indiana's Robert C. Haugh Track & Field Complex.

Hankey finished in 1:00.37. The top 24 advanced to the second round. The top 12 earn a berth in the NCAA Championships in Oregon June 8-11.

"The event is so new to her," said Jenny Swieton, CMU's director of track & field/cross country, who accompanied Hankey to the meet. "Before today, she had done it only three times so making it here was not only a big deal, but also something unexpected for her.

"She was really excited, and she competed. She was ranked 48^th (entering the race) and finished 37^th and that was big. She finished ahead of a lot of people who came in ranked ahead of her."

Hankey qualified for the NCAA prelim after finishing second in a career-best 59.69 seconds at the Mid-American Conference Championships two weeks ago. She was also second in the MAC meet in the heptathlon and in the 4x400-meter relay. She earned Second Team All-MAC honors in all three events.

"Olivia's 100 percent a team player and most of the time she's really motivated by what she can do to help the team and I think that helps her dig a little deeper at the MAC meet and do some big things," Swieton said. "I think that was emotionally and physically pretty draining. I think she learned how to come off of that, handle that, and carry it forward and re-focus on something individual. I think that's the biggest thing that she learned."

That Hankey qualified for the NCAA Prelim is undoubtedly a feather in her cap, Swieton said, and it also will serve as motivation to both her and her Chippewa teammates.

"We're super proud of the season she had and the year that she had," Swieton said. "I think one of the most exciting parts about it is that (qualifying) doesn't seem so unattainable – not because she's not a super great athlete – but because her teammates have watched her work her butt off to get here and shoot for something like this.

"And maybe some of them didn't realize that they could shoot for too. I think it's huge for our team."