By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Another slew of strong results helped propel the Tennessee Tech indoor track & field team to a top-five finish at the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships Thursday. The Golden Eagles locked down a fourth-place performance, the team's best showing at the league's indoor championship since winning the event back in 2019.
After securing a pair of berths into the finals portions of two sprint events, Amara Nwajagu got the scoring going for the purple and gold on Thursday. The sophomore clocked in a time of 56.70 in the 400-meter dash, placing fourth overall to rack up five huge points right off the bat.
Junior Trenia Stephens followed it up with three more points to the Golden Eagle effort, picking up a sixth-place performance in the 60-meter dash. The Griffin, Ga. native sprinted to a time of 7.75 in the event.
Nwajagu returned to the track to gather another pack of points in the 200-meter dash, delivering a seventh-place performance in a short turnaround. Producing a time of 25.17, the Fayetteville, Ga. native picked up two points for the purple and gold.
Competing in the pentathlon was a pair of Tech veterans, each locking down top-five showings in the event to keep adding to the Golden Eagle total. Cayla Johnson placed fourth in the event with 3,269 points for five team points for the purple and gold.
The junior placed first in the shotput portion of the event, third in the high jump, and fourth in the long jump. Anya Akili finished just behind her teammate, scoring four points for the Golden Eagles with a fifth-place showing in the pentathlon. She turned in a second-place performance in the long jump, a third-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles, and placed fourth in the 800-meter dash for 3,242 points in the event.
On the distance side of things, Helen Pacurariu-Nagy tracked down four points for the Tech squad while competing in the 3,000-meter run. The junior completed the race fifth with a time of 10:01.48.
A trio of Golden Eagles placing in the triple jump provided much-needed production on the leaderboard for the purple and gold, led by rookie Jalyn Rice. The freshman leaped a distance of 11.46 meters (37'7") to finish fourth for five points.
Senior leader Jalena Curbeam provided a fifth-place showing and four points behind a jump of 11.38 meters (37'4"). Rounding out the effort in the triple jump was freshman Sidnee Stanton, finishing just behind Curbeam with a leap of 11.36 meters (37'3") for a sixth-place ranking and three points.
In need of a big showing in the final event of the day to leapfrog Eastern Illinois for fourth place, the Golden Eagles turned to the 4x400-meter relay team of Stephens, Paris Bowles, Malika Coutain, and Nwajagu. The group locked in and narrowly missed winning the race, picking up a runner-up showing by one-hundredth of a second with a time of 3:49.01.
The performance provided Tech a massive eight points, allowing the Golden Eagles to edge the Panthers by two points in the final standings.
"This is the highest finish as a team for a number of years at the indoor championships," head coach Peter Dalton said. "Our student-athletes are phenomenal and deserve all the credit. We're excited to take this momentum into the outdoor campaign."
Up Next
The Golden Eagles will have a month to prepare for the outdoor track & field campaign, kicking off the season at the Raleigh Relays Mar. 23-25 in Raleigh, N.C.
Photo by TTU Track & Field
