COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- There will be plenty of optimism riding along on the bus to Nashville this weekend as the Tennessee Tech women's track & field team gets set to compete in the 2010 Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Championships at Tennessee State's Gentry Center on Friday and Saturday.

Tech athletes have broken three school records so far this spring and threatened several more, and coach Tony Cox is hoping those high-level performance s continue on the OVC stage.

“We have several young ladies who are capable of having an impact at the OVC meet this year,” Cox said. “They’ve been working very hard and are focused on this meet. I’m really looking forward to watching them compete.”

The leader during the first two indoor meets has been Meagan Lyons, who has set the school record in the 55-meter hurdles and has the team’s best effort in the high jump.

Allison Price, like Lyons a former starter on the TTU women’s basketball team, has also had a major impact on the squad this spring. While she has narrowly missed setting any school records, Price has posted Tech’s best times in the 55m, 100m and 200m races and is a key member of the 4x400 relay team that is also pushing the school standard.

A pair of juniors have also rewritten the record book this spring. Leayn Carter set the school record in the long jump last week and Ashley Mayhew established a new mark in the weight throw. Carter will also challenge in the triple jump (shown in photo) while Mayhew can score in the shot put.

Tech has a one-two punch going in the pole vault. In the first meet of the year, senior Rachel Forbes broke the school record and last weekend freshman Katie Lowery broke that mark by six inches. Either of them could score points in Nashville.

Another of Tech’s best hopes this weekend is senior distance runner Tiffany Palmer, a first-team all-OVC finisher in the cross country meet last fall and a second-place winner at the OVC Outdoor Championships last year in the 10,000-meter run. Palmer has posted Tech’s best times n the mile and 5,000-meter run.

Another senior distance runner, Ashley Evans, will also provide Tech with the potential for points. She owns Tech’s top time this year at 3,000 meters.

The meet begins at 2 p.m. Friday with trials in long jump and shot put, and the finals in the high jump. Later on Friday, several additional events will be contested including five running events, the high hurdles and the distance medley relay.

On Saturday, the weight throw begins at 10 a.m. and the triple jump and pole vault start at 11 a.m. The mile run is the first running event, beginning at 1 p.m., and the mile relay is the final event of the day scheduled to start at 3:15 p.m.

Live results will be posted on OVCsports.com. a complete recap of Tech’s participation in the meet will be posted on TTUsports.com.