WHITEFISH, Mont. – After a dominant performance in the first indoor meet of the season, the Frontier Conference announced that Jillian Sanchez has been named the Erck Hotels Frontier Conference Field Athlete of the Week.

Sanchez won the women's weight throw at the Bobcat Challenge, a Division I event, with a throw of 16.63 meters, breaking her own school record and well over the A standard, which officially qualifies her for the NAIA National Indoor Championships. It also marks the first time that an Argo women's field athlete has won a weight throw event in program history.

"It's well-deserved honor," assistant coach Alan Cress said. "The plan was to just relax and get out there with a good throw. You could see that her composure was there. She had two throws that qualified her for Nationals, so the fact that she could hit the big throws still was huge. It just shows that she has the right mindset."

Sanchez has been motivated for this season since she competed at the NAIA National Championships two seasons ago. She finished 19^th that season and vowed immediately afterwards that she would return.

"Since she was at the National Championships two years ago and she said that she'll be back and be better," Cress said. "She's proven that through all the adversity the last two years with Covid-19 and not being able to have a season last year. She meant what she said and she's putting in the work to do it. It shows her commitment of going to that next level."

Now that she's qualified for the Championship, Sanchez will spend the rest of the season finetuning her technique so that she can reach her goal of becoming an All-American.

 "We talked it over and watched film today," Cress said. "She wants more. She wants to make sure that when she goes to Brookings, South Dakota in March that she's in that top eight. She wants to go be an All-American."