By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

DENISHA Cartwright knew sooner or later that she would qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Over the weekend, she booked her ticket to Paris, France for the games, scheduled for July 27 to August 11, in the women’s 100 metre hurdles as she helped Minnesota State Mavericks women’s track and field claim the NSIC Outdoor Championship at Mark Schuck Outdoor Track & Field Complex.

On their home field at the MSU campus for the NCAA Division II three-day championship, senior Cartwright was stellar for the Mavericks with three individual titles, including her Olympic clincher in the women’s 100m hurdles, joining world indoor record holder Devynne Charlton and Charisma Taylor. Her winning time of 12.60 seconds also broke the NSIC record, facility record and MSU programme record and set the NCAA Division II All-Time Record.

Cartwright’s time was the second fastest in collegiate outdoor track this season (all divisions) and the 15th quickest time in women’s 100m hurdles in collegiate history, equalling Priscilla Lopes (2006, Nebraska) and Cindy Sember (2015, Michigan).

“Coach (Chris) Parno (associate head men’s and women’s track and field coach/recruiting coordinator - sprints and hurdles) and I really felt that in the right atmosphere in the finals, she could do something special,” said Mavericks men’s and women’s track & field head coach Mike Turgeon.

“For her to go out and run the 15th fastest time in the world, hit the Olympic A Standard and now she’ll be in the Olympic games, breaking the Division II record by a 10th, just what a stellar performance.”

Turgeon said Cartwright is “so driven, so dialed into everything coach Parno teaches.”

Turgeon noted that their training staff has done “a tremendous job keeping her healthy through everything that hurdlers go through.”

Cartwright, a 24-year-old former volleyball player, said she was speechless and she couldn’t believe it, although she knew she was on course to achieve it.

“I expected it, but I was just waiting for the right time,” Cartwright said. “I just went out there and ran and executed my race. I knew I had it in me.

“I knew it was going to be a fast time because my season started off fast and my times kept dropping. So it was just a matter of time that I did it.”

On becoming the third Bahamian to qualify for the hurdles, Cartwright said she’s looking forward to going to Paris and “experiencing something that I have never experienced before.”

While she achieved the feat in the hurdles, one of the three events that she competed in, Cartwright won the 200m final in 23.07 for a season’s best and facility record time to place her second in Division II this spring.

And in the 100m dash, Cartwright picked up another win with a facility record time of 11.30. “I was satisfied with my performances. I just went out there and blasted the 200m,” she said. “Even after running so fast, my legs were still a little heavy, but I was proud of everything that I did.”

With her goal accomplished, Cartwright said she’s now looking forward to completing her collegiate eligibility in her final meet at the NCAA Division II championships from May 23-25 in Emporia, Kansas.

“I feel amazing. I really can’t complain,” she stressed. “I just have to rest up and be fresh when I go back to practice for nationals.”

Once she’s done with college, Cartwright know she has to come home and solidify her spot on the Olympic team by competing in the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ Nationals against Charlton and Taylor, as well as the rest of the field, including Olympian Pedrya Seymour, who is making her comeback this year.

“It feels great that I can actually go out there and compete with the other women at home,” Cartwright said. “At Nationals, I will be there to see what I have to do to get ready for the Olympics.

“As a senior, it’s a great feeling to qualify for the Olympics. I’m just blessed and I am looking forward to being able to compete at my best the rest of the season.”

In addition to the hurdles and the sprint events, Cartwright has also held her own competing on the Mavericks women’s 4 x 100m relay team. She noted that her coaches also wanted her to try her skills in the 400m hurdles, but she opted out of it.

“I just want to thank God for being there each step of the way and for my coaches, who had faith in me,” Cartwright said. “My parents (Denise and Leslie ‘Russia’ Cartwright) have always been there for me, along with my family and friends.”

Cartwright had her debut at the senior level for the Bahamas when she competed at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom in 2022. Now she’s eager to participate in her initial Olympics in Paris.

The former student of Temple Christian Academy, who completed her high school before she enrolled at Central State University and then transferred to Minnesota State University where she graduated on May 4 with her degree in applied health science/pre health administration.