Charger Sports Spotlight: Hope Cuomo By;Tyler Garnet

This edition of Charger Sports Spotlight features Hope Cuomo, a junior who is a

forensic science major with a concentration in biology and a minor in criminal justice.

Cuomo originally wanted to be a pathologist and do medical examining but now she

would like to do something with crime scene investigations. She is from Long Island, NY

and is a multi for the University of New Haven’s women’s track team. A multi takes part

in the heptathlon or pentathlon depending on the time of the year.

For those like me who didn’t know what a heptathlon is, it is a track and field event in

which each competitor takes place in the same seven events.Those events include high

jump, long jump, shot put, hurdles, 800-meter run, 200-meter dash, and javelin. When it

comes to the heptathlon there are usually three events in the first day and the next four

events the next day or vice versa.

Cuomo started track in middle school by competing in high jump and hurdles. She

learned about the pentathlon when she was a junior in high school and convinced her

coach to let her do it the following year. The pentathlon has the same events as the

heptathlon minus the 200m run and javelin. So the pentathlon is hurdles, high-jump,

shot put, long jump, and the 800-meter run.

Having to compete in all these events is hard but the greater challenge is making

enough time to practice and train for each event. “There are different techniques for all

the events so it is important to try and separate it and learn how to do that specific

event.” Cuomo likes some events more than others. Her favorite event is high jump with

her least favorite being the 800 meter run.

Cuomo's favorite part of being on the team is “competing and having everyone come

together. Before the meets we would all huddle up and hype each other up

.” Her

favorite memory so far from the school was when she was at conference

championships last year. “It was the last meet of last year so everyone was doing their

best to end the season strong and there was so much support to hype everyone up.”

Last year Cuomo was able to achieve her best season and career high jump with a

height of 1.55 meters. Her goal for this season is to get 1.6 meters. Covid-19 has taught

Cuomo what she really wanted to do with track and help her think about all the goals

and how she would achieve them. It also made her realize that she still wanted to

continue to compete in track.

This season the women’s track team will split up and hold “blue and gold” meets against

each other to see where each member is at after not having any meets last year

because of Covid-19. There are also competitive meets and invitationals set up against

other schools but that will all depend on Covid testing. Cuomo would love to get back to

the fun times she had with her teammates at meets and continue to compete.