By Nate Perry, TTU Sports Information
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Lisa Wickham received Co-Female Track Athlete of the Week from the Ohio Valley Conference on Wednesday after breaking her own 60-meter school record at last weekend's Vanderbilt Invitational.
Wickham, who originally set the program mark with a time of 7.41 seconds at last year's OVC Indoor Track and Field Championships, improved on that performance by one-hundredth of a second, clocking a 7.40 for second place at Vanderbilt.
The Trinidad native started by winning her heat with a preliminary-round time of 7.46 seconds, which gave her the third of eight qualifying spots for the finals.
Despite that time, which was the third-fastest of her career, she still had enough in the tank for her 7.40. Her time is one full tenth of a second faster than any other mark in the OVC, and sits at No. 25 on the NCAA Division I Indoor Qualifying List.
Her runner-up finish came amongst a field of 61 athletes, at a meet that featured competition from six Southeastern Conference institutions, along with representatives from the Atlantic Coast Conference, the American Athletic Conference, and Conference USA.
Wickham bested three athletes from Alabama, one from Mississippi State, one from South Alabama and one from Southern Miss in the finals section of the race.
It was the fifth time in her career that Wickham recorded a top-six finish in the 60 meters.
Wickham becomes TTU track and field's third recipient of a weekly award from the OVC this season after Purity Sanga and Raven Smith were honored for their efforts at the Kentucky Jim Green Invitational Jan. 11-12.
For perspective, this is only the third week that the conference office has been distributing honors for the indoor season, and Tech was idle for the first one. Thus, the program has at least one winner from each of its two meets to start the New Year.
