By Nate Perry, TTU Sports Information
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Khemani Roberts and Purity Sanga will bring their talents to the University of North Florida for the first round of collegiate track and field's version of the postseason, the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field East Preliminary. UNF's Hodges Stadium will be the venue for the three-day meet, which will be held Thursday-Saturday, May 23-25.
The Golden Eagle duo marks four straight outdoor seasons that the program has sent at least two athletes to the East Preliminary. Roberts and Sanga are both qualifiers for the second straight year.
Roberts will kick things off for Tech when she lines up for the high jump at 2:30 p.m. CT on Thursday afternoon.
The Ohio Valley Conference Female Field Athlete of the Year, Roberts claimed her first outdoor league championship in the high jump with a 1.75-meter leap (5 feet, 8 3/4 inches), and produced the OVC's top mark this season in clearing 1.77 meters, which matched the Tennessee Tech outdoor record, as well as her career best (5-9 3/4).
That high jump mark makes her the No. 25 seed in the 48-member field, which is the standard size for all events at the East Preliminary. Nicole Greene of North Carolina heads the group, having cleared 1.88 meters; delegates from Alabama, Florida State, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State and LSU are also among the competitors.
Sanga will be in action later that night when she takes her mark in the 10,000 meters at 8 p.m. CT.
The OVC's Co-Track Athlete of the Year only ran the 10,000 once during the 2019 outdoor season, but it was memorable, as she broke the Tech school record by more than 22 seconds with a time of 34-minutes, 13.03-seconds at the N.C. State Raleigh Relays. By year's end, a dominant margin of more than two minutes still stood between Sanga and the No. 2 finisher on the OVC Outdoor Performance List for the 10K.
The Kenyan is seeded 26th for the East Preliminary race, which is led by Syracuse's Paige Stoner and her time of 32:07.36. Florida State, Indiana, Notre Dame and Penn State also have entrants among the top 10 seeds.
Should Roberts or Sanga post marks high enough to move on from the East Preliminary, they will clinch berths in the 2019 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and & Field Championships in Austin, Texas, June 5-8.
Photos by Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
