After opening the season in December at Sewanee, the Chattanooga women’s track team will return to action Friday at the Samford January Invitational at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
“This is going to be an early test of our current fitness,” Chattanooga head coach Andy Meyer said. “We will be running against some very outstanding runners very early in our season as conference foe Samford and several SEC schools will be there.
“It certainly will be a challenge, but it is good for our kids to have to compete hard as it helps build our character for later in the season.”
The running portion of Friday’s schedule will begin with the 60 meter dash. Sage Davis and McKenzie Williamson will compete in the sprint event as well as the 200 meter Dash slated to start at 4:00 p.m.
Madelyn Thompson will join the pair in the longer sprint and run the third heat of the 60 meter Hurdles. Sydney Cansler and Katie Coker will run the 400 meter Dash and the 800 meter Run will have veterans Abby Bateman, Emily Poole and Jada Hale along with freshman Lesley Green.
Four Chattanooga runners will compete in two of the four heats in the Mile Run. Green, Nicole Buehrle, and Ashlynd Broling will be in the third heat while Hannah Caldwell will run in the fourth.
Green and Poole will be joined in the 3000 meter distance by Sophia Neglia and Mattie Parker and the Mocs will have two teams in the 1600 meter relay to close out the meet.
“Some of the girls will be running events that they are more comfortable at and some will be running events to help strengthen areas of weakness and improve foot speed and fitness threshold,” Meyer said. “We will have a very good idea of where we are and where we need to be after this difficult meet.”
The Mocs will start at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time with the 60 meter Dash and conclude at approximately 5:10 p.m. with the relays. Results will be available online at GoMocs.com at the conclusion of the meet. Links for live results are available on the schedule page for track and field and GoMocs.com.