By Layne Weitzel, TTU Sports Information
STARKVILLE, Miss. – Tennessee Tech competed in its first outdoor track & field events of 2018 on Friday, opening the Al Schmidt Bulldog Relays at Mississippi State's Mike Sanders Track & Field Complex.
Tech set two new school records in just its first day back and also added some personal records. A handful of Golden Eagles made their collegiate and Tech outdoor debuts.
"I thought that we had a solid first day," said head coach Wayne Angel. "We were able to shake off some of the rust from spring break. I was very pleased with our collective efforts. It appears that we have positive momentum from the OVC championships.
"We had some noteworthy performances today – we had school records in the sprint medley relay and the 5000 meters. Raven Smith had a great day in the triple jump. Her performance was very close to a PR, and Khemani Roberts was second overall in the 400 meters with a PR. She will be a serious threat in the heptathlon outdoors."
The first program record of the day came from Tech's sprint medley relay squad. Cierra Tate, Lisa Wickham, D'Airrien Jackson and Madison Stremler combined to win the relay in 4:05.56.
Senior Micayla Rennick followed at the end of the day with a time of 16:30.27 in the 5000m run, passing Tech's previous record from Stephanie Place in 2008 by nearly 35 seconds. Freshman Purity Sanga, in her first outdoor meet, out-raced a fellow competitor by just 1.2 seconds to finish in the runner-up spot.
"I was very impressed with Micayla's performance in the 5k," said Angel. "She was on a roll. She led the race wire to wire in a school record and meet record. Not far behind was Purity in a personal best as well. It was a nice one-two sweep."
The Al Schmidt Bulldog Relays conclude tomorrow with Tech starting off in the 4x100m relay at noon CT.