COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- With a chance to compete against some of the nation's premier athletes, the Tennessee Tech women's track & field team will be in Knoxville this week for the Sea-Ray Invitational at the University of Tennessee. Coach Tony Cox's team will use the event as a chance to improve their times and distances one final time before the Ohio Valley Conference Championships, May 6-7.

The four-day event began Wednesday, but Tech's participation won't start until the hammer throw on Thursday night. All of the other events that will include Golden Eagle entries are scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Events begin Friday at 12:15 p.m. and are slated to close Friday with a final event at 8:30 p.m. On Saturday, action gets underway at 8:45 a.m., with the final event scheduled for 5:45 p.m.

All of the events will take place at the Tom Black Track on the University of Tenessee campus.

Tech heads into the event following a solid third-place showing last Saturday at the Boston-Moon Classic at Tennessee State that featured one school record and 17 personal best marks.

With the level of competition expected at Tennessee, Cox said the team's primary focus will be on self-improvement.

"We'll use this experience to get ourselves better," Cox said. "We'll be facing a little higher level of competition than we've generally seen at our previous three meets, and it will give our athletes a chance to continue their development."