The women’s track and field team competed in its first meet of the season at the Tennessee State University Invitational on January 31. Despite being its first meet, the team proved to be very talented and possibly something to watch for in the OVC.
Twenty teams took part in the event, but no team scores were tallied.
Senior Stephanie Place took first place in the 5000-meter race, winning by nearly 16 seconds.
Newcomer Emily Weinzetl, running for the first time for Tech, participated in the 400-meter event coming within one second of tying the school record set in 2002 by Carmen Tucker.
Coach Tony Cox expressed how proud he was of not only these two athletes but the whole team.
“It was a great first meet for us and exposed a couple of our new people to the rest of the teams,” Cox said.
In addition to Place and Weinzetl, other Tech participants recorded their personal bests in the meet as well.
Amanda Simmons posted a couple of career bests in both the mile and 800-meter events.
Ashley Evans broke her personal-best time in the mile, and finished 24th in that event.
Ashley Mayhew recorded a couple of top-ten finishes, with a seventh-place finish in the shot put and a 10th-place effort in the weight throw.
The track and field team will be competing again on Feb. 7 at the Sewanee Invitational.
