Indoor Track and Field season opens this weekend for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The Mocs will travel to Johnson City, Tenn., for the ETSU Track and Field Invitational. The event will be held at the ETSU/MSHA Athletics Center on the David E. Walker Track at Gentry Field beginning Friday and running through Saturday.
Previously known as the Niswonger Invitational, the meet will welcome teams from 30-plus regional schools for competition during the two days. Action will begin on Friday morning with the women’s 60 meter hurdle prelims and weight throw finals at 10 a.m.
Throws, jumps, and sprints events will continue throughout the afternoon with the men’s and women’s 5000 meter runs wrapping things up for the day around 7:30 p.m.
Competition will pick back up on Saturday with a day full of both track events and field events. Action will commence with the men’s and women’s 5000 meter runs around 8 a.m. and will continue throughout the morning with various distance events. Field events will begin at noon with the men’s long jump and pole vault finals, and will end at 4 p.m. with the women’s long jump finals. Running competition will start back up at 1:25 p.m. and will progress through the afternoon and early evening. As usual, action at the meet will close with the running of the men’s and women’s 4x400 meter relay around 7 p.m.
Senior Amanda Cotter (Bristol, Conn.), a cross country all-conference performer, will lead a young women’s squad onto the track along with classmates Rebecca Greenwall (Bogart, Ga.) and Keeley Stewart (Winchester, Tenn.). Cotter returns to the track after redshirting last year. The trio will be expected to lead the distance races along with freshman Emily Drouin who made an impact on the cross country team last fall.
Freshman Maddison Melchionna sat out the indoor season last year, but ran the 800 and 1500 meter races last season as well as the 4x400 meter relay in the outdoor season. In the outdoor opener last year, she took first in the 800 meter at the South Florida Invitational and won the 1500 meter at the Catamount Classic in Cullowhee, N.C.
Sophomore Jessica York competed last winter in the 800 meter and Mile run as well as the Distance Medley Relay. She helped the Mocs to four top five finishes in each meet including a fifth place finish at the Southern Conference Championships.
Jasmine Snell and Kiaana Howard return to the track in the sprint, middle distance and relay events. Howard was a member of the DMR team and ran the 400 and 800 meter races last winter while Snell ran the 200m, 400m and the 4x400 meter relays.
Rounding out the team will be newcomers Mercedes Bright and Makala Diggs along with veterans Hannah Chamblin, Anna Kate Chance, Joanna Elmore, Helenka Kis, Katie Ray and Madalyn Rogers. All-American Teghan Henderson will sit out the race this weekend.
With the graduation of Lucas Cotter and Mark Cole, the men will be led by veterans John Gilpin (Nashville, Tenn.), Patrick O’Brien, Goeff Nelson, Trevor Janssen, Marquis Carter and Tosin Ayotunde.
The men had strong showings in the DMR featuring Ayotunde, Carter, Janssen, Matthew Marshall and DeQuantez Standifer in various meets. O’Brien was featured in the 800 meter as well as the DMR and 4x400 meter relays while Marshall competed in the 800m and Mile run.
Carter, a middle distance specialist, will ran the 800 meter races last year and just missed all-conference honors as a member of the DMR and 4x400m at the league championships. Iman Isang is the Mocs’ hurdle specialist as well as sprinter and scored for Chattanooga in the 60 meter hurdles at the league championships.
Live results will be available throughout the meet at TandFLive.com. Recaps of the Mocs’ performances can be found at the end of each day by logging onto GoMocs.com.