Golden Eagle track team makes solid impression at APSU, South Alabama
Competing on two fronts yielded some sensational results for the Golden Eagle track & field team, with four first place performances, two school records, nine personal-best efforts and an historical first for the program.
Complete results from Austin Peay (PDF)
Complete results from South Alabama (PDF)
By Rob Schabert, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -- It was quite a good weekend for the Tennessee Tech track & field team.
Competing on two fronts yielded some sensational results for the Golden Eagles, with four first place performances, three school records, nine personal-best efforts and an historical first for the program.
While coach Wayne Angel and most of the team took on the field at the Austin Peay Invitational, freshman Sharnique Leonce was in Mobile, Ala., to participate in the heptathlon at the South Alabama Invitational. Leonce became a pioneer for the track team as the first woman to compete in the event, where she finished a solid fourth among the 14 competitors.
Meanwhile, in Clarksville, Tech notched school records in the javelin, triple jump and 800m, and ran to first place finishes in the 400m, 800m, 3,000-meter steeplechase, and 4x400 relay.
Angel used the APSU event to mix up many of his event entries, looking to lock in his lineup for the Ohio Valley Conference Championships, May 13-14. Several Golden Eagles competed in events for the first time in their time at Tech, while others used the weekend to continue their steady progress.
Freshman Raven Smith (photo above) broke the school record in the triple jump, clearing 39 feet, 1.5 inches to place seventh in the field. She beat the previous TTU record of 38 feet, 1.25 inches set by Atlanta Westbrook one year ago.
Another school standard to fall came in the javelin, where junior Antonia Susnjar topped her own school mark with a toss of 128 feet, nine inches to place second.
Freshmen D'Airrien Jackson had perhaps the most impressive showing of the day, smashing the school record in the 800m run. She placed first in 2:08.81, besting the record of 2:10.86 set earlier this year by teammate Sarah Brandt.
In addition to Jackson, Golden Eagle runners were the first across the finish line in three other events. Freshman Na'Asha Robinson, who has been leaving a trail of destruction in her wake this year, continued to dominate.
Robinson breezed to a first place finish in the 400-meter dash in 54.14 seconds.
A third individual win came in the 3,000-meter steeplechase where junior Purity Murray topped the field in the time of 11:40.37.
Tech's final victory capped off the day when the relay foursome of Robinson, Crystal Liebenberg, Jackson, and Jaydean Joseph swept to the ribbon in 3:45.41, just one second off the school-record pace.
Additional personal-best marks in events previously run came in six different events, with Morgan O'Neal topping the list by posting PR times in both the 100m and 200m dashes. She clocked a 12.54 seconds in the 100m to finish seventh, and was 12th in the 200m in 26.04 seconds.
Brittany McGee also had a personal-best at 100m, finishing 17th in 12.97 seconds. Joseph added a PR at 400m, finishing seventh in 57.75 seconds. At 800m, Molly Griffin earned a PR in 2:29.17 to finish 22nd.
Two personal-best times came in the 1,500-meter run. Freshman Jenna Storms placed 17th in 5:03.23, while sophomore Anna Cooper was 21st in 5:11.23.
The other PR came in the long jump, where Smith went 16 feet, nine inches to place 22nd.
Another highlight came in the 4x100m relay, with the Tech team of Tiara Hymon, Jackson, Robinson and O'Neal placing second in 47.23 seconds.
In Mobile, Leonce took fourth place in the heptathlon with 4,661 points. She earned consistently high finishes in all seven events, including first in the 200-meter dash and second in the 800-meter run. She placed fifth overall in the 100-meter hurdles, long jump and javelin. Her lowest finish was eighth in the high jump, putting her in the top half of the field in six of the seven events.
Tech's next action comes on the west coast, when Angel takes a lineup of 14 Golden Eagles to the Brutus Hamilton Open, hosted by the University of California in Berkeley.
