Women's Cross Country

Whitney Fountain enters her second season as an assistant coach for the Tennessee Tech cross country and track and field programs.

After being hired by head coach Wayne Angel, Fountain made an immediate impact in her first year with the Golden Eagles and played a pivotal role in their indoor/outdoor sweep of the 2018 Ohio Valley Conference track and field championships – the first two titles in school history.

Fountain trained four members of the TTU women’s track and field team in her debut season, and oversaw several broken school records.

Khemani Roberts was Fountain’s most decorated pupil during the 2018 campaigns, as she broke seven program records and was a conference champion in three different events.

Under Fountain’s tutelage, Roberts broke the TTU pentathlon record by over 350 points and cruised to her first league title with a score of 3,834 at the OVC Championships.

She then ran one leg on the 4x400m relay team that claimed conference crowns and set new Tech records at both the indoor and outdoor OVC Championships.

The relay team – comprised of Roberts, D’Airrien Jackson, Na’Asha Robinson and Ciera Tate – smoked the old TTU indoor record of 3:46.60 with a mark of 3:42.96, and set a new OVC meet record at the outdoor championships with a time of 3:37.74, which easily eclipsed the previous best in the Tech record book (3:41.15).

Fountain was also instrumental in Roberts breaking school records for both the indoor and outdoor high jump.

Roberts leapt 1.79 meters (5-feet, 10 ¹/₂-inches) for a new indoor record and set an outdoor program mark of 1.77 meters (5-9 ³/₄), as she bested old standards that had stood since 2011. Roberts would go on to take third place in the event at both the indoor and outdoor conference championships.

Fountain also guided Roberts to stardom in the heptathlon and the outdoor long jump, as she coached the Trinidad and Tobago native to a record-setting 5,353 heptathlon points at the 2018 Virginia Challenge, and a 5.81-meter leap (19- ³/₄) that surpassed the TTU outdoor long jump record set in 2006.

Roberts also saw improvements in her 200-meter, 800-meter and 60-meter hurdles marks while working with Fountain, recording new personal bests in each during the 2018 season.

Jumpers Raven Smith and Na’Scottisha Drummond and multi-event athlete Eshe’ Robinson also saw huge dividends from Fountain’s expertise.

After setting the TTU record for the outdoor triple jump at 12.18 meters (39-11 ¹/₂) prior to Fountain’s arrival, Smith saw explosive improvement in 2018 and reset the program mark with a 12.39-meter attempt (40-7 ³/₄) at the OVC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which was good enough for the bronze medal.

Smith also took a personal best in the long jump at the outdoor OVC’s, jumping 5.64 meters (18-6), which would have bested the previous TTU mark had it not been for Roberts’s performance.

Drummond’s outdoor long jump attempt of 5.53 meters (18-1 ³/₄) at the OVC Championships also beat the 12-year old mark in the Tech record book, which gave Fountain one record-holder and two would-be record-holders for the event.

Robinson saw landmark improvements in six events, adding nearly 300 points to her personal best in the heptathlon, more than two and a half meters to her top mark in the javelin, five inches to her outdoor long jump PR, and two inches to her high jump standard.

Robinson also got better on the track with Fountain as her mentor, as she cut almost a full second off her career best in the 200 meters, and roughly a half-second off her best mark in the 100-meter hurdles.

Fountain arrived at Tech following a stint on the coaching staff at Clemson University, her alma mater.

Prior to coaching, she was a highly decorated athlete for the Tigers’ track and field team, as she was a two-time All-American and a six-time All-ACC honoree, highlighted by league titles in both the heptathlon and the pentathlon.

In high school, she was the New York state record holder in the heptathlon, pentathlon and the indoor 200-meter dash.