GREENWOOD, Ind. – Kentucky Wesleyan junior thrower Crystal Hopkins was named the fifth Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Track & Field Athlete of the Week on Monday.
 
Hopkins re-wrote some of the young throwing records in a big way as the Panthers impressed at the Principia Relays in Illinois on Saturday.
 
It marked KWC’s second event of the indoor season and Hopkins was one of four G-MAC women’s student-athletes to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Div. II Indoor Championships over the weekend.
 
Hopkins, the reigning inaugural G-MAC Indoor Field Athlete of the Year, is defending her conference indoor crown in shot put.
 
At the Principia Relays, Hopkins provisionally qualified in that event and went on to additionally shatter the indoor G-MAC record in the weight throw.
 
Hopkins previously held the initial shot put conference record and bettered Cedarville’s Anna Pomento’s indoor-best weight throw mark.
 
Hopkins’ effort of 13.32 meters in the shot put beat out her attempt of 12.95 meters set at the 2015 G-MAC Indoor Championships at Kenyon College. The NCAA provisional mark in shot put is 13.27 meters.
 
The 14.73-meter heave in the weight throw from Hopkins toppled Pimento’s 13.68 meters set on Feb. 7 last year. She also improved her previous PR in the event by 1.20 meters.
 
Kentucky Wesleyan is scheduled to resume the indoor season this weekend at the Tiger Small College Invitational at DePauw in Indiana.