Coulthard named MVP of track season, other awards and captains also named
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Junior Keri Coulthard has been named the Most Valuable member of the 2008 Tennessee Tech women's track & field team, while freshmen Amanda Simmons, Ashley Mayhew and Leayn Carter captured the team's other awards, announced this week by head coach Tony Cox.
Cox announces 2008 team honors
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Junior Keri Coulthard has been named the Most
Valuable member of the 2008 Tennessee Tech women's track &
field team, while freshmen Amanda Simmons, Ashley Mayhew and Leayn
Carter captured the team's other awards, announced this week by
head coach Tony Cox.
Simmons was named the Most Improved, Carter won the Most Dedicated
award, and Mayhew received the Impact Award, given to a first-year
member of the squad who has the greatest impact on the team in her
rookie season.
Cox also named team captains for the season. Senior Rachel Hooks
was chosen captain for the track events and senior Ashley Brady was
named captain for the field events.
Coulthard has placed her name in the Tech record books as one of
the best middle distance runners in school history, and recently
was named first-team CoSIDA academic all-district. She holds two
indoor and two outdoor school records, and scored points for Tech
in both the 800m and 1,500m events at the OVC championships this
year.
"Keri had a great year, and she showed a lot of team leadership,"
explained Cox. "She's such a hard worker, and her work ethic rubs
off on the others. She just kept improving throughout the year, and
she came very close to breaking her own school records. If it
wasn't for a hamstring injury before the conference meet, I'm sure
she would have broken records. Still, she was able to get through
that and run well, despite the injury."
Simmons ran the 800m, 1,500m and mile events in her freshman
season, posting the team's third-best time of the year in the
1,500m race.
"The thing that really stood out about Amanda is that she just
kept continuing to improve throughout the year," Cox said. "She ran
a personal best at almost every meet, and just kept cutting her
times."
Carter competed in the long and triple jumps during the indoor
season, and was a standout in the 400m dash and relay events all
year. She had Tech's best time of the year at 400m and was on the
top relay foursomes at both the 4x100 and 4x400 events.
"Leayn was there every day working as hard as she could work," Cox
said. She really showed a lot of leadership by her efforts."
Mayhew produced Tech's best efforts in the shot put, discus and
hammer, and also competed in the javelin.
"Ashley was our top thrower and she just went out and competed in
every meet, and competed successfully," Cox said. "She worked very
hard, improved all season long, and had a huge impact on our team.
