COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Tech women's track & field team gets back to work this weekend, opening the outdoor season Friday and Saturday at the Black & Gold Invitational hosted by Vanderbilt University. A total of 19 teams and close to 700 athletes will compete in the event, which begins Friday evening at 5 p.m. with the hammer throw, shot put and triple jump.

Most of Tech's action will take place Saturday, with field events beginning at 9 a.m. and the track portion of the meet starting at 11 a.m. Coach Tony Cox will take 23 women and five men to the meet, the first of seven events on the outdoor slate for the Golden Eagles.

Fourteen of the 23 women are scheduled to compete in multiple events, with sophomore Rebecca Cline planning to run in three events -- the 800m, 1,500m and 3,00m races.

While 21 of the 23 participated during the indoor season, it will mark the first competition of the year for Golden Eagle juniors Haley Wennerstrom and Katie Lowery. In fact, the Vanderbilt meet will mark the first action for Lowery in the pole vault in more than a year. The Andersonville, Tenn., product is the school record holder in the pole vault, both indoor and outdoor, but did not compete in the outdoor season last year nor the indoor season this year. She has cleared the 10-foot mark in both seasons. Wennerstrom's last meet was during the 2011 OVC Outdoor Championships.

In addition to Lowery, seven others who will be in action this weekend have also had an impact on the Tech record books during their careers, led by Kelli Keck who owns the school record in the triple jump which she established last spring. The other six have their times or distances listed among the school's all-time Top Five marks during outdoor competition.

That group includes senior Emily Weinzetl with the fifth-best time at 400m; senior Traci Jones with the third-best 800m time; sophomore Brittany Cotto with the fifth-best time in the 400-meter hurdles; junior Lacy Yslas with the third-best toss in the discus; junior Madison Borden with the fourth-best effort in both the shot put and discus; and Wennerstom with the fifth-best throw in the hammer.

For a list of the schedule of events, click here; for a look at the heat sheets, click here.

Complete results will be available on TTUsports.com when they become available each night.