By Layne Weitzel, TTU Sports Information
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Tech began the indoor portion of its track & field season at the Vanderbilt Indoor Opener for the third-straight year on Saturday.
Overall, the Tech women had 15 top-10 finishes in their 11 events. Four Golden Eagles (Teauna Anderson, Khemani Roberts, Purity Sanga and Ceirra Tate) made their Tech track & field debuts.
Na'Asha Robinson did well in her signature events of the 200m and 400m dashes, winning the 400m and placing second in the 200m. D'Airrien Jackson finished third in the 400m to put two Golden Eagles in the top three spots.
Lisa Wickham collected a career-best time of 7.57 with her second-place finish in the 60m dash – her previous best was 7.58 at the Alex Wilson Invitational on Feb. 18. She also finished 23rd overall in the 200m dash with a time of 25.61, also a career-best (she timed 27.69 in the event at the Illini Classic on Jan. 14).
Eshe Robinson and Raven Smith also had personal bests on Saturday. Smith timed 8.30 in the 60m dash, while her previous best was 8.41 at the Samford Open on Feb. 11, and Robinson shaved over .5 seconds off her best 200m dash time. She crossed the line in 28.81 after finishing in 29.38 on Jan. 7 at the Gene Edmonds Open. She also improved on her shot put distance, marking at 9.52 after her career-best of 9.50m at the Ed Temple Invitational on Jan. 10, 2016.
Tech also had five members of the men's cross country team race in the mile and 3000 meters.