JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - Austin Peay State University women's track and field team showed marked improvement from their up-and-down first week of its indoor track and field season. Several Lady Govs set personal-bests at this weekend's Niswonger Invitational, hosted by East Tennessee State, as well as two provisional qualifiers for the NCAA Regionals.
The qualifiers came from pole vaulting, where seniors Molly Bartkiewicz and Carrie Burggraf each hit the magic height of 4.00 meters (13-01.50) to provisionally qualify for the regional's. Burggraf won the event on jumps.
Another notable performance in the field events came from freshman Leigha Tolliver, whose 5.99 meter (19-08.00) jump not only won the event for the Lady Govs but established an Austin Peay freshman record in the long jump. She was almost as good on the track, finishing fifth in the 60-meter hurdles with a 9.03 mark. Senior Amanda McCoy set a personal best in the high jump with a 1.61 meter (5-03.25) jump.
"Tolliver's jump was a good foot and half better than her high school best," said assistant track and field coach Troy Morris. "Last week she was only at 17 feet; her turnaround was huge. And of course, we're very happy with the pole vaulter's achievements."
On the track, a new face helped propel the 4x400-meter relay team. Freshman Diamond Knox replaced classmate Ashley Carson on the third leg of the relay and helped the Lady Govs to shave four seconds off last week's time, finishing 4:00.33 for a 12th-place finish. Junior Chiamaka Obi also established indoor personal records of 57.95 in the 400-meter dash and 25.95 in the 200-meter dash.
"Knox really helped us in the relay," said Morris. "Overall, we had a good meet."
-AP-
