Tech tracksters back to Birmingham for Green & Gold Invitational Saturday
For the second time in a couple of weeks, the Tennessee Tech track & field team will head to Birmingham for a meet hosted by UAB. Tech ran in the Blazer Indoor Invitational on Jan. Jan. 9-10, and this weekend will be in the Green & Gold Invitational, with all events scheduled for Saturday.
Click here to view the meet schedule (PDF)
Click here to view webpage of venue
Click here for live stats
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – For the second time in a couple of weeks, the Tennessee Tech track & field team will head to Birmingham for a meet hosted by UAB. Tech ran in the Blazer Indoor Invitational on Jan. Jan. 9-10, and this weekend will be in the Green & Gold Invitational, with all events scheduled for Saturday.
A group of 15 student-athletes will accompany head coach Wayne Angel and his staff to the meet, which will be held in the Birmingham Crossplex, with running events slated to begin at 8 a.m. and field events starting at 9 a.m.
"Training is going well and our kids are improving," Angel said. "Now they need to step it up a little more. By the first week of February, we might start seeing some drastic changes in terms of our performances.
"Our kids are working hard, and they are racing. They are competing. That's the biggest thing I'm seeing right now, is that they are competing," he said.
Several Golden Eagles are coming off notable efforts last weekend at the Commodore Invitational at Vanderbilt, including a near-record in the 400-meter dash by Brooklyn Kimball. She posted a time of 59.76 seconds, just a shade off the school record of 59.34 seconds set in 2010 by Allison Price.
The 4x400 relay foursome of Kimball, Atlanta Westbrook, Tiara Hymon and Madison Stremler also flirted with a school record, running the distance in 4:04.18, which is just off the 2010 record time of 402.89 set by Price, Emily Weinzetl, Danielle Catlett and Leayn Carter.
Stremler had a career-best time of 2:22.85 in the 800-meter run, and Angel said the freshman from Franklin, Tenn., is another who could write her name into the record book before long.
Other performances that have been in the neighborhood of school records include Tina Driscoll in the 60-meter hurdles, Hymon in the 60-meter dash, and Kimball in the 200-meter dash.
In the distance events, Angel has been encouraged by the strides made by freshman Anna Cooper, who posted a time of 11:27.61 in the 3,000-meter run.
Freshman Lera McNamara gets the first assignment of the day Satuday, competing in the 5,000-meter run to kick off the meet at 8 a.m. The final event of the day, the 4x400 relay, will include two Golden Eagle relay squads. One Tech foursome will include Kimball, Westbrook, Hymon and Stremler in their bid for a school record, while the second unit will feature Chelsea Mills, Brittany McGee, Kayla Turange and Driscoll.
Freshman Sonel Bezuidenhout, a newcomer to the squad this semester from Pretoria, South Africa, will make her Golden Eagle debut in the 3,000-meter Invitational late in the afternoon.
The meet will also mark the collegiate debut of sophomore Beth Lowe, who sat out the 2014 track season. She will compete alongside teammate Makayla Kington in the shot put, and join her sister, Ashley, in the weight throw.
Results of the meet will be posted on TTUsports.com after the event is completed.
