Moc Runners at Samford Invitational

Thursday, February 12, 2015

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s and women’s indoor track teams will travel to Birmingham, Ala., Friday for the Samford Invitational. The Mocs will use this as an opportunity to run on the track that will be used for the Southern Conference Championships later this month.

“Last week we took care of business,” Gautier said of the Mocs’ performance at the MTSU Invitational. “Now we’ll use this as a fine tuning for conference.”

Senior Rebecca Greenwall (Bogart, Ga.) along with junior transfer Makala Diggs (Box Elder, S.D.), sophomores Katie Ray (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Madalyn Garland (Evensville, Tenn.) and freshman Anna Kate Chance (Columbia, Tenn.) will run the women’s Mile.

“Rebecca is have a very good season despite not being able to train due to her class schedule,” Gautier said.

“She is showing tremendous leadership.”

The women’s 800 meter run will have six Mocs in the various heats. Sophomore Maddison Melchionna (Afton, Tenn.) won her first-ever indoor 800m last weekend at the MTSU Invitational and will try to make it two in a row.

Senior Amanda Cotter (Bristol, Conn.) will be running the same heat with Melchionna while junior Kiaana Howard (Nashville, Tenn.) and sophomores Jessica York (Normandy, Tenn.) and Hannah Chamblin (Memphis, Tenn.) will be in the third heat. Junior Helenka Kis (Columbia, Tenn.) and Joanna Elmore (Clarksville, Tenn.) will be in the women’s fourth heat of the 800m.

Sophomore Jasmine Snell (Nashville, Tenn.) will run the 200 meter for the women while senior Keeley Stewart (Winchester, Tenn.) and freshman Emily Drouin (Verona, Ontario) will compete in the women’s 3000 meter.

“The women are healthy and ready to run,” Gautier said.

The men are a bit more banged up, but several will be lining up in preparation for the upcoming league championships.

“It’s been a tough week for the guys,” Gautier said. “We have a few who are out for the year with injuries. As a group we may struggle, but individually we’ll hope to have some strong performances.”

Senior John Gilpin (Nashville, Tenn.) and sophomore Paul Stuart (Brentwood, Tenn.) will run the men’s 3000 meter.

“John and Paul are healthy and ready to go,” Gautier said of his distance runners.

Junior Marquis Carter (Memphis, Tenn.) is set to run the men’s 800 meter along with juniors Trevor Janssen (Jordan Station, Ontario) and Austin Casassa (Nashville, Tenn.).

In the shorter distance races, junior DeQuantez Sandifer (Nashville, Tenn.) will run the men’s 400 meter dash while freshman Jacob Noorbergen (Ooltewah, Tenn.) and juniors Tosin Ayotunde (Ooltewah, Tenn.) and Austin Ethridge (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) will run the men’s 200 meter dash.

Event begin at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time at the Crossplex in Birmingham, Ala. It will also be the site of the upcoming Southern Conference Championships February 27-28. Results will be available at GoMocs.com.

SCHEDULED TO COMPETE (subject to change)

Mile

Rebecca Greenwall 1

Anna Kate Chance 2

Madalyn Garland 3

Katie Ray 3

Makala Diggs 3

400m

Jasmine Snell 8

800m

Maddison Melchionna 2

Amanda Cotter 2