Completed Event: Track and Field versus NCAA Indoor National Championship on March 13, 2026 , , (M) 11th
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University of Oklahoma Athletics
Cunliffe Earns Big 12 Honor, NCAA Trip
March 04, 2015 | Track and Field
NORMAN – For Hannah Cunliffe, the first Wednesday in March of 2015 will be one she will long remember. She had learned late Tuesday that she had qualified for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in the 60-meter dash. On Wednesday, she was named the 2015 Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Female Co-Freshman of the Year. With the announcement, she became the first Sooner woman to earn Big 12 freshman of the year honors in indoor track and field.
“We knew she was really serious about what she was doing,” Jim VanHootegem, head coach, said. ”What she has done since she arrived on campus in January is really remarkable when you think about it. She was in a new place, dealing with a new set of academics expectations and a new team. And then she goes out and does what she has done in the last few weeks with her multiple PRs and was in position to contend for a Big title.”
The 2015 indoor season has been one of firsts for the true freshman from Federal Way, Wash. After starting school at OU in January, Cunliffe opened her Sooner competitive career at the Razorback Invitational the weekend of Jan. 30-31. In her first race, her time, 7.48, was .02 away from the 10th spot on the all-time OU career list. In her semifinal race at the meet, she posted a 7.41, good for a tie for seventh place. In the final, her time of 7.37, was good for sixth place in the talent-loaded race and a sixth-place ranking on the all-time OU career list.
She runs very well in the very big races. She really loves to race. She smiles after her race because she is having fun. We want to her to just keep having fun.
Jim VanHootegem, head coach
Her next competition was two weeks later and she made her mark at the Don Key Invitational in Albuquerque. She ran a 7.30 to advance to the final from a 46-women preliminary. In the final, she recorded a 7.28 and moved to fifth overall on the Sooner career list.
That set her up for the Big 12 Championships. In addition to ranking third in the Big 12 heading into the championships, she also ranked in a tie for 13th on the national indoor list. She won her preliminary heat with a 7.39, then led for the majority of the final before finishing second with a sea-level 7.28.
The total for Cunliffe for the season – seven races, six times that would have ranked on OU's career top 10 list.
“Hannah has a very good sense of who she is and what she can do,” VanHootegem continued. “She runs very well in the very big races. She really loves to race. She smiles after her race because she is having fun. We want to her to just keep having fun.
“We are so proud of her for all that she has done and look forward to what happens going forward. She chose to come to OU and she has done well at OU. She has shown people across the country that Oklahoma is good place to get an education, train and compete. That's the message we want to take into homes as we visit with prospects.”
The 7.28 from Big 12 earned her a tie for 11th on the national ranking, good for a trip to the NCAA Indoor. That invitation puts her in rare company for the Sooners. The last true freshman female to qualify for the NCAA Indoor in an individual event was Jessica Eldridge in 2004. Going back to 1999, Cunliffe is the first true freshman to qualify for the 60-meter dash.
The 60-meter dash has been a successful event for OU women at NCAA. The Sooners have produced All-Americans five times in the 60. Scottesha Miller and Candyce McGrone earned All-America honors in the 60 in 2011, the last time for OU to have an entry in the race. Miller also had earned All-America honors in 2010. Laverne Jones, who competed for the Virgin Islands in the 2004, 2008 and in the 2012 Olympic Games, earned All-America honors in 2003 and 2004. Felecia Moore earned All-America honors in the indoor 60 in 1982. Yolanda Goff qualified for the 60 in in 2006 and 2007.
She will run in the 60-meter dash on Friday, March 13, at 7:25 p.m. The final in the 60 is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 14. The top two runners from each of the two semifinals plus the next four fastest times will advance to Saturday's final.
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