Wickham wins OVC Track Athlete of the Week, extends Golden Eagles’ streak to five
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – For the second time this season, Lisa Wickham has been recognized as the Ohio Valley Conference Co-Female Track Athlete of the Week, as she continued her outstanding indoor season at last week’s Samford Bulldog Open. Wickham’s honor marks the fifth week in a row – Tech’s entire indoor campaign – that a Golden Eagle has won or shared an Athlete of the Week honor from the conference.
By Nate Perry, TTU Sports Information
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – For the second time this season, Lisa Wickham has been recognized as the Ohio Valley Conference Co-Female Track Athlete of the Week, as she continued her outstanding indoor season at last week's Samford Bulldog Open.
Wickham's honor marks the fifth week in a row – Tech's entire indoor campaign – that a Golden Eagle has won or shared an Athlete of the Week honor from the conference.
Wickham claimed her second consecutive victory and third straight top-two result in the 60-meter dash on Saturday night, clocking the fastest times in the preliminary, semifinal and final rounds of the event. After a mark of 7.61 seconds in the prelims and a 7.52 in the semis, Wickham won with a 7.48 that gave her first place out of 58 runners. Her margin of victory was also impressive, as she came in almost a full tenth of a second ahead of the runner-up (.08).
Her winning time from the Bulldog, along with her 7.40 and 7.46 marks from the Vanderbilt Invitational, make Wickham the owner of the top three 60-meter times in the OVC this season.
It was the eighth time in the senior's career that she took a top-six result in the 60.
The Trinidad native finished second out of 67 in the 200 meters on Friday night, running a personal-best time of 24.41 seconds that is the fastest of any Golden Eagle this year, and is second-best in the OVC.
Her 200-meter times have improved with each meet so far in 2018-19, and she has now recorded top-six finishes at each of her last two competitions.
Wickham joined D'Airrien Jackson, Khemani Roberts and Ceirra Tate in making up Tech's 4x400-meter relay team, and helped record the conference's second-fastest mark this season, 3-minutes, 49.86-seconds.
It's also the fastest time for the Tech program this year, as it bested the Golden Eagles' 3:55.33 from the Indiana Relays by almost five and a half seconds.
While Tech's streak of league honors has grown to five, the program's overall total for the season is up to seven, as Purity Sanga, Raven Smith and Wickham have each won twice, and Roberts has claimed one honor.
As a co-recipient, Wickham shared this week's title with Murray State's Tamdra Lawrence.
