Golden Eagles to put in final preparations for OVC Championships at the Tennessee Challenge on May 6

Posted: May 04, 2017

By Holly Weber, TTU Sports Information

COOKEVILLE, Tenn.—The Tennessee Tech track and field team will return to action on May 6 at the Tennessee Challenge. There, the Golden Eagles will be one of 16 teams competing. They will face teams of Appalachian State, Carson-Newman, Clayton State, Columbus State, Emory, Jacksonville State, Lee (Tenn.), Piedmont, Shorter, Southern Wesleyan, Tennessee, Tennessee Wesleyan, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, and West Georgia.

"This is our last tune up before the conference meet," head coach Wayne Angel said. "We are trying to get some good times to get decent heats for the conference meet and also trying to get tuned up because some of our athletes have had limited competition. The number one goal this week is not only to compete well, but to also come out of the meet healthy because next week is more important. We have a lot of work to do next week so it's really important that we make our efforts count on Saturday."

The Tennessee women's outdoor track team is currently ranked 23rd in the nation and eighth in the South Region, which will prove to be tough competition to prepare the Golden Eagles for the upcoming OVC Outdoor Championships.

Meet Schedule

A complete schedule of events can be found here.

Live Results

Live results will be available as the heats finish here.

Competitions to Watch

The 4x100 meter relay team of Crystal Liebenberg, Sharnique Leonce, D'Airrien Jackson, and Na'Asha Robison will look to continue their success on the track after their first place finish at the APSU Invitational with a time of 46.36, which also established a new school record.

Individually, N. Robinson and Jackson will also be competing in the 400-meter dash and are expected to do well in their heat. Sharnique Leonce will be representing the Golden Eagles in the 100-meter hurdles and has the second best time heading into the competition.

Last Time Out

The Golden Eagles have not competed in a meet since April 15, with the exception of Sharnique Leonce who represented the Purple and Gold at the Virginia Challenge on April 21-22. There, Leonce competed in the Heptathlon and placed 10th out of 15 competitors totaling 4,789 points in the event. In each leg of the race she finished first in the 100m hurdles: 13.75 (first/18); fifth in the high jump: 1.70m (tied 5th/18); 16th in the shot put: 9.25m (16th/17); first in the 200m: 23.93 (1st/16); 12th in the long jump: 5.41m (12th/16); 11th in the javelin: 26.07m (11th/15); and 15th in the 800m: 2:58.75 (15th/15).

At the Austin Peay Invitaional on April 14-15, The Golden Eagle squad opened up day one on a high note with Antonia Susnjar placing second in the javelin with a 39.35-meter throw, which topped her former Tech shool record that she set exactly one year ago at the 2016 APSU Invitational.

Then on Saturday, Na'Asha Robinson beat out all other runners in the 400-meter with a time of 53.35. She clocked in three seconds faster than the next runner from Austin Peay, while topping all other runners from schools of Tennessee State, Kentucky Wesleyan, Morehead State, Cumberland (Tenn.), and Kentucky State. Jaydean Joseph placed third in the race with a 57.04 mark.

D'Airrien Jackson also saw success in the meet as she claimed a first-place finish in the 800-meter in a field of 52 runners with a time of 2:09.36. She beat out runners from Murray State, Western Kentucky, Belmont, Morehead State, UT Martin, Lipscomb, Cumberland (Tenn.), and Tennessee State, while clocking in six seconds faster than the next participant. The 4x100-meter relay team of Liebenberg, Jackson, Leonce, and Robinson placed first with a time of 46.36, which created a new Tech school record and beat out all other teams from Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee State, Austin Peay, UT Martin, and Kentucky Wesleyan.

Photo by Thomas Corhern