Purdue track & field junior Cierra Williams has been recognized as the Big Ten Women’s Outdoor Track Athlete of the Week, the conference announced Wednesday.
Williams earned the accolade after an impressive weekend at the Drake Relays from April 28-29, where she won two championships and was the runner-up once, according to a news release.
A two-time NCAA qualifier and two-time Big Ten medalist, Williams earned her first career Big Ten weekly award. She is the fourth Boilermaker to be honored in 2022-23, along with fifth-year Johnny Vanos and junior K’Ja Talley on Dec. 14 and freshman Bryanna Craig on Feb. 1.
Outdoors, Williams is Purdue’s first awardee of the season, women’s or men’s, and she collected the team’s first women’s outdoor track accolade since 2019.
At the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, Williams won the 400-meter and 4x200 and was second in the 4x400. Her first career race at Drake Stadium was the 400m on April 28, where she won in 53.57, the fastest time in the Big Ten last week. Less than two hours later was the 4x200, where Williams helped the Boilermakers win the 4x200 in 1:34.46. That’s the fourth-fastest time in the event in the world this year and the best mark in the NCAA last week by nearly 1.50 seconds.
From Indianapolis, Williams completed the weekend with a runner-up finish in the 4x400 relay in 3:38.47 on April 29.
Up next, the postseason begins for Williams and Purdue at the Big Ten Outdoor Track & Field Championships from May 12 to 14 in Bloomington, Indiana.
