This edition of Charger Sports Spotlight features Hope Cuomo, a junior forensic science major with a concentration in biology and a minor in criminal justice. She is from Long Island, NY and is a multi for the University of New Haven’s women’s track team, participating in the heptathlon and pentathlon. Cuomo hopes to work in crime scene investigations upon graduation.

A heptathlon 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

Cuomo became involved with 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, except the 200-meter dash and javelin.

Cuomo said that she likes some events more than others:her favorite event is the high jump; her least favorite is the 800-meter run. Having to compete in all these events is difficult, but the greater challenge is making enough time to practice and train for each event.
Regarding the challenge, she said, “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’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.”

She said 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 achieved a career record high jump with a height of 1.55 meters. Her goal for this season is to reach 1.6 meters.

COVID-19 has taught Cuomo what she really wanted to do with track which helped her plan out her goals and how she would achieve them.

This season the women’s track team will hold meets where the athletes are split into two teams, being called “blue” and “gold,” where they compete to get the most points. These are set up to monitor progress because of limited meets due to COVID-19. Meets are currently scheduled against other schools, however, they can change due to COVID-19 protocols.

Cuomo said that she would love to return to the fun times she had with her teammates at meets and continue to compete.