By Layne Weitzel, TTU Sports Information
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Tennessee Tech track & field capped its closing day of the Fred Wilt Open at Purdue with an event win, three additional top-3 finishes and four appearances in event finals.
Senior Micayla Rennick grabbed the 3000m win in convincing fashion, crossing the line 59 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Hannah Tobler of Northern Kentucky. Rennick's time of 9:35.38 broke her own indoor program record of 9:50.99, which she set last January at the Gene Edmonds Open.
Rennick is now the fastest female in the Ohio Valley Conference in the 3000m, 800m and mile, having set her 800m (2:14.65) and mile (4:48.99) times at the Commodore Invitational in mid-January.
Na'Scottisha Drummond, Na'Asha Robinson and Tech's 4x400m relay A-team of Robinson, D'Airrien Jackson, Ceirra Tate and pentathlon champion Khemani Roberts also grabbed top-3 finishes in their respective events on Saturday.
Drummond tied for third in the high jump with a height of 1.54m, while Robinson finished third in the 200m dash with a time of 24.58. (After converting her time to 24.21 considering the track size, Robinson's adjusted time is first in the OVC.)
In the 4x400m relay, Robinson, Jackson, Tate and Roberts placed second with a time of 3:49.11.
The 60m dash and 60m hurdles were two events in which the competing track athletes could qualify for finals, and Tech qualified three for the 60m dash final and one for the hurdles final.
Tate, Robinson and Sharnique Leonce made the 60m dash final after each finishing second in their respective heats. The trio placed sixth, seventh and eighth in the final, and Robinson and Leonce cracked the top-10 fastest times in the event in the OVC – Robinson's 7.72 ties for sixth, while Leonce's 7.78 ranks 10th. (Tate's 7.62 time from the Vanderbilt Indoor Opener is still the third-best in the conference.)
Roberts represented Tech in the 60m hurdles final after placing third in her heat with a time of 9.11. She finished eighth in the final with a time of 9.20.
"Our ladies were a class act today," said head coach Wayne Angel. "We competed with a lot of heart and determination. I am very excited for what the future holds for these ladies. Micayla was awesome today. She was the class of the field."