VIDEO: David Needs Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.— Following a two-week layoff, the Carson-Newman indoor track and field team will be in action Friday as the Eagles split their squad between both the JDL Camel City Invitational and the East Tennessee State Invitational for competition over the weekend.
"It's been good to have two weeks to train, but it's really good to get the chance to go back out and compete this weekend," coach David Needs said. "We have had some people that have really progressed in the last two weeks, so we are looking for great results right now."
The unusual weekend will pit the team in two different locations as the sprinters will head to the Camel City Invitational while the rest of the squad will take their talents to Johnson City, Tenn. Those who will be making the trek to the JDL event will be Noah Hill (Nashville, Tenn.), Timontrez Eady, (Duval County, Fla.) and Kevin Snead (Richmond, Va.) while both Madison Pickel (Sevierville, Tenn.) and Cassie Smith (Knoxville, Tenn.) will represent the women at the meet.
"Last year at the JDL meet, I believe there were about 15-18 people that were there competing who had won Olympic medals," Needs said. "It is a great chance for our kids to be seen and to be seen nationally in a great light."
Making up the rest of the field at the ETSU Invitational will be the distance runners and field eventers.
After sitting out the first two meets of the season, Snead will be undertaking his debut this weekend following an All-American campaign a year ago in the 60 meter dash. The then junior college transfer ran a program-best 6.77 second time at the UCS Invitational on Feb. 20 last season. Snead was C-N's first-ever automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships and finished the event with a 10th-place showing of 6.81 seconds.
"We are hoping that with the season premiere for Kevin Snead, things will get going this weekend," Needs said. "We are hoping that he can resume to where he was last year with regards to national significance and rankings. He has done some really good things training wise, so we hope that he will continue to build and get even better."
As a team, C-N last competed two weekends ago on Jan. 12-13 at ETSU where four athletes provisionally qualified for the 2017 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
T.J. Davis (Chattanooga, Tenn.) ranks as the 11th-best long jumper in Division II after leaping an indoor-best 7.24 meters at the meet. Tiana Mills (Chattanooga, Tenn.) also provisionally qualified for the Eagles the last time the squad was at ETSU as the senior jumped 11.59 meters in the women's triple jump.
Two of C-N's high jumpers on the men's side also made headlines in the meet as both Tanner Stepp (Jefferson City, Tenn.) and Christian Stumpf (Johnson City, Tenn.) provisionally qualified following a mark of 2.07 meters. The two are tied for 14th-overall for Division II in the event.
"We had some good people who competed well the last time we were at ETSU," Needs said. "T.J Davis jumped an all-time indoor-best the last time we were there and Tiana Mills performed really well in the triple jump, so we are hoping that continues. Christian Stumpf and Tanner Stepp also did well and qualified. We have a lot of good people who we hope will continue to build and do better.
"We are really excited about where we are because we have been training for this point. We are not trying to peak, but we are trying to record some really good marks and I really think that is going to happen this weekend."
-CN-
