Neary 25 years ago, Minnesota State ranked its top men’s and women’s athletes, honoring the best of the best.
At that time, women’s basketball players Lisa (Walters) Sukalski was deemed the top women’s athlete in Minnesota State history.
Since then, Shari (Vogt) Dickerman was a splendid goaltender for the Mavericks and is now the head coach of the program. Coley Ries Welter was the top pitcher and player in Division II in 2017, leading the Mavericks to the national championship in softball. Joey Batt just led Minnesota State to a national championship in basketball, leaving her name near the top of many of the program’s top-10 list.
But no one who has ever worn the purple uniform is more decorated than track and field star Denisha Cartwright.
“I feel like I’ve done everything I could do,” Cartwright said. “I’ve given 100 percent to everything, the training and the competitions.”
Last week, Cartwright finished her Minnesota State career by winning two events and earning All-America honors in four events at the NCAA II Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Emporia, Kansas.
The brings her career totals to five national championships and 16 All-America awards in outdoor track. She also won three national championships and 14 All-America honors in indoor track.
In the process, she has rewritten the team’s record book. She owns the fastest times in three indoor events and seven outdoor events.
She has the fastest times in Division II history in the 60-meter hurdles and 100 hurdles and ranks third in both the 100 dash and 200 dash and sixth in the 60 dash, which would make her one of the best short sprinters ever. When she wanted to try the 400 dash at an outdoor meet in 2023, she broke the team record by two seconds.
“Usually in track and field, your career is like a rollercoaster, with ups and downs,” Minnesota State coach Mike Turgeon said. “But Denisha’s career has been more linear. She started as a sprinter, but she’s just so dynamic that she keeps getting better.”
Cartwright won her third straight national championship in the 100-meter hurdles, posting a time of 12.37 seconds — nearly one second faster than the runner-up and just .01 off the fastest time of any NCAA runner, regardless of class, this season. When adjusted for track and weather conditions, it was the fastest time in the world this season.
Considering that she just took up the hurdles only five years ago, her rise to the top has been astounding. She was a track star and volleyball player in high school at Nassau, Bahamas, and she chose Central State in Ohio for her college.
“I just wanted to mess around with the hurdles because it looked like fun,” Cartwright said. “I was just a sprinter, but my mom told the coach that I could do the hurdles, too.”
After two seasons in Ohio, Cartwright was looking for a change, and assistant coach Chris Parno saw Cartwright’s name in the transfer portal. Once Cartwright learned about the program, she was sold. She has taken all the coaching she can and even has been able to self-assess her technique.
“We were down at the Drake Relays (in April), and we had a 2 1/2 hour weather delay,” Turgeon said. “She had already ran five races, and we still had the 4x400 relay finals coming up. But she came up to me and said that her trail leg (in the hurdles) needed to go faster so she grabbed a hurdle and started working on it.”
Cartwright also won a national championship in the 200 dash in 22.91, and she was runner-up in the 100 dash in 11.4. She ran on the 4x100 relay, but a mistake on a handoff pushed the Mavericks to eighth place.
“I love to run a lot of events,” Cartwright said. “I love the 200, I love the 100. Every day in practice, we do those reps. But hurdles is something I really love the best.”
After getting some rest, she’ll train in Mankato before leaving for the Bahamas and the Olympic Trials in late June. She’s ranked No. 2 in the hurdles, with three qualifying for the Olympics. She may also run a leg on the 4x100 relay.
Then she’d like to embark on a professional track career.
“At first, I didn’t think I could make it to the Olympics,” Cartwright said. “Last summer, I told Coach Parno that I thought I could make it. My times have been getting better, and it would be amazing to get there.”
Please follow Chad Courrier on X @ChadCourrier.
