By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – It was a light day of action for the Tennessee Tech outdoor track & field team on the opening day of the Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships, but the Golden Eagles made its moments count by finishing the day sixth despite competing in just three events.
Putting the purple and gold in a great position for some points down the road was Cayla Johnson, making a statement in the first four legs of the heptathlon to kick off the day. The junior led the field with 3,011 points overall after placing first in the shot put, second in the high jump, and fourth in both the 100-meter hurdles and 200-meter dash.
The Upper Marlboro, Md. native set a personal record with a time of 14.92 in the 100-meter hurdles and followed it up with another career-best performance in the high jump by clearing 1.62 meters (5'3.75"). She kept the day rolling in her favor with yet another PR in the shot put with a mark of 12.01 meters (39'4.75") and nearly made it 4-for-4 on personal best, just missing her previous career showing in the 200-meter dash by one-tenth of a second.
Competing in the 200-meter dash preliminaries, sophomore Amara Nwajagu delivered the second-fastest time of her young career with a mark of 24.91 seconds. Rookie Malika Coutain turned in a new PR in her OVC Outdoor Championships debut, sprinting to a new best of 25.46 seconds.
Providing the scoring on the day for the Golden Eagles was none other than Cookeville native Maddie Long, smashing her previous career-best time in the 10,000-meter run to rack up four big points for the Tech squad. The sophomore shattered her last PR by more than two minutes and 20 seconds, clocking in at 38:20.60. Competing in her first OVC Outdoor Championships, Ava Costello completed the 10K for the first time in the purple and gold, finishing 11th with a time of 40:11.54.
Day 2 of the OVC Championships is set to kick off Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. CT with multi-events. Field events will begin at 2:30 p.m. and running events at 5:30 p.m.
Photos by TTU Track & Field
