By Layne Weitzel, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Micayla Rennick accomplished more in her senior season of indoor track & field than most will in an entire season – three-time OVC individual champion, school record-holder in multiple events, OVC Female Track Athlete of the Year and Athlete of the Championship.
She admits she didn't see any of it coming.
"Considering how my cross country season went where I was in a boot for weeks, coming out of a boot to race, just not being able to hit the times I wanted, being injured a lot and getting it together finally the week after cross country season ended – it's kind of shocking," she said.
It still shocks her even weeks after Tech took first at the OVC Indoor Championships back in February, the program's very first team win in any indoor or outdoor conference championship.
Rennick had a lot to do with it. After a strong regular season, ending it at the UCS Invitational in North Carolina with a mile time ranked 77th in the world (at the time of this story's writing), the senior capped it off with a trio of first-place finishes in the mile, 800 meters and 3000 meters at the championship. Prior to Rennick, no runner from Tech had ever won the 800m dash or mile run, and Stephanie Place was the most recent Golden Eagle to win the 3000m run back in 2009.
Per a coaches' vote, coupled with her individual results, Rennick grabbed another first for Tech when she was named OVC Athlete of the Championship.
"I believed in my coach, and I knew I was hitting these times in practice, but I didn't realize how far I'd come until conference," she said. "Three years ago, I was in the weight room. (Rennick transferred from American River College in California following the 2015-16 track & field season.) I wasn't running. I was 30 pounds heavier than I am now and just not able to run at all. To see what can happen in three years, to be 77th in the world in the indoor mile – it's like, whoa, that happened quick."
While Rennick now says that the last three years went by fast, any athlete who's endured training sessions in cross country or track & field knows the days can seem really, really long. But that's where the valuable day-to-day work is put in, and no one knows that better than a coach. Tech head coach Wayne Angel has seen first-hand how the standout senior has grown throughout her two seasons in Cookeville.
"Micayla is a very special student-athlete who sets very high goals for herself," said Angel. "Some athletes enjoy being mediocre or good enough. That's not Micayla. She responds to a challenge and a striving for attainment. That's what separates her from other athletes.
"Micayla is a phenomenal competitor as exemplified by her performance at the indoor OVC championships. She is starting to realize that she can be one of the best distance runners in the country. She is hardworking and dedicated, the first one to arrive at practice and the last one to leave. The thing that stood out for me all winter was her commitment to excellence and her consistency in her training.
"She is a Golden Eagle through and through. She has engaged and embraced her teammates. That sort of mentality that she possesses is contagious. She has earned the respect of her teammates and her competitors from the OVC. She is, without a doubt, a future TTU Hall of Famer."
Rennick is still fixated on that recent OVC title, let alone any Hall of Fame implications far off in the future.
"I don't think I've wrapped my mind around it yet because it's such a big thing," Rennick said of the team's title. "I've accomplished a lot in my running career, but this – I've dreamed of it happening, so for it to finally be here, it's like, someone pinch me, I think I'm still dreaming. It puts another level for outdoor, and we're still just as hungry for that win in outdoor as we were for indoor, so we're going to get it again. I know we're going to get it again."
The fact that Tech can say the word "again" is astonishing once you look at the circumstances in which it won its first title. Ten of the 12 track & field programs in the OVC have 20 or more student-athletes on their rosters. Tech's number? Fifteen, which marks the lowest in the conference.
Tech also put itself in a spot after the opening day of the championships, sitting in third with 35 points behind perennial powers Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee State.
But Tech absolutely exploded to close the meet on Saturday, putting up 102 more points to claim the team title, along with eight event titles. All that with just 15 bodies on its roster, while Eastern Kentucky with 34 and host Eastern Illinois with 36 came in second and third respectively.
What led to the explosion of power on the second day of OVCs? Rennick's answer was simple.
"We didn't like being behind," she said. "We didn't. We can't go into tomorrow thinking we're going to win. We're got to go in tomorrow knowing we're going to win and knowing that that win's going to have to be fought for. EKU is good, and EIU has some good girls, so they weren't going to give it to us. We had to take it from them. Fifteen girls against 50 girls – you kind of have to take it. It's still just a dream, and it went so wonderfully."
Tech's championship performance was no fluke. The Golden Eagles consistently ranked high in or atop multiple events in the conference throughout the season, proving that although the team was small in numbers, every individual contributed in a big way to Tech's success.
"We're just so much stronger," said Rennick. "D'Airrien (Jackson) and Na'Asha (Robinson) are on a whole other level. Khemani (Roberts) came and upped the level for the pentathletes. Eshe (Robinson) and Sharnique (Leonce) rose with them. On the distance side, we have Purity (Sanga) coming in and just being a little speed demon for distance, Madison (Stremler) just finally getting some confidence in herself, Anna (Cooper) finally making some moves – (it was just) trusting in Coach Angel's training and not really questioning it anymore. We were all really hesitant with our training because we see the workouts and we're like, oh my gosh, what is this? But this year it was like, we've just got to do it."
Next, Tech turns its attention to the upcoming outdoor season, which will start up toward the end of March at Mississippi State's Al Schmidt Bulldog Relays. The team has a lot to look forward to in outdoors, highlighted by hosting the OVC Outdoor Championships on its home track from May 10-12. While that cuts out travel and gives the team extra hours of valuable sleep, Tech also gets a different, more significant perk – showing the Cookeville community what a championship team looks like in person.
"Hopefully the community will come out and watch us and see what we love to do and see that we're good," Rennick said. "We're representing Tech on a whole new level. Tech hasn't had a team like this before, and it's a team of girls who love what they do and who will pass out after practice because they push themselves so hard because they love it. We want to win not just for Tech, but for the community and everyone who supports us. I'm just hoping we can bring home that win again and just be like, we're here to stay and we're a force now."
Photo by Sandy King, Eastern Illinois
