January 28, 2016

C-N athletes set to compete in the Camel City Classic

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.—Carson-Newman track and field coach David Needs has decided to take some of his top-athletes over to Winston-Salem, N.C. this weekend for the Camel City Classic at the JDL Indoor Track & Field Fast Track.

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.—Carson-Newman track and field coach David Needs has decided to take some of his top-athletes over to Winston-Salem, N.C. this weekend for the Camel City Classic at the JDL Indoor Track & Field Fast Track.

The meet will feature the best-of-the-best athletes in each event and will provide a good measuring stick for Needs once his team concludes competition on Saturday.

"The competiveness is really good this weekend at the Camel City Classis. We want to see where some of our best stack up against some other good ones in a very competitive field," coach David Needs said of the upcoming meet. "In a meet like this, it's great because it teaches you how to compete against good competition what it takes to get the job done. We have some good people and we want to see how far they can go."

The select group of Carson-Newman athletes making the voyage have already provisionally qualified for indoor nations for the most part. Four additional team members were added to the travelling squad for the weekend with hopes of breaking through and joining the elite company.

These athletes include Tiana Mills (Chattanooga, Tenn.), Samantha Gudger (Bristol, Tenn.), Marshall Shank (Granite Quarry, N.C.) and Tanner Stepp (Jefferson City, Tenn.).

Gudger has picked up right where she left off following an All-Southeast Region selection a year ago. The sophomore will compete in the high jump this weekend and is slated 14^th out of 36 contestants in the proceedings. Shank has also made the most of his limited action thus into his freshman campaign. The pole vaulter will begin the event ranked third out of 26 athletes.

Mills will be competing in only her second meet of the season after making her season debut two weeks ago at the East Tennessee State University Invitational. The former All-Southeast selection will be competing in both the high and triple jump events this weekend. The junior is seeded 14^th in the long jump and 13^th in the high jump as both events field over 40 participants.

After netting an All-American freshman campaign following a fifth-place showing in the high jump at the indoor nationals a season ago, Stepp will finally make his season debut after given the O.K. from team trainers on a hamstring injury that has kept the sophomore out of the first three meets of the indoor season. Stepp will begin the day seeded sixth out of 36 jumpers.

C-N's six other athletes competing in the Camel City Classic will look to improve on their national rankings as they continue to build towards nationals at the conclusion of the season.

Tori Gaul (Salisbury, N.C.) is seeded third in the women's pole vault and will look to beat out the other 22 athletes in the event. Randall Freeman (Chattanooga, Tenn.) is set to compete in the triple jump and will look to surpass his 13^th- ranked seeding in the 40-athlete event.

Christian Stumpf (Johnson City, Tenn.) is hoping to build on a solid outing in his last competition at ETSU where he provisionally qualified in the men's high jump. The freshman will begin the day ranked 15^th out of 36 competitors.

C-N's highest nationally ranked athlete, Kevin Snead (Richmond, Va.), will have a chance to see where he stands up against with some of the nation's fastest sprinters. The junior will look to improve on his current school record (6.77 seconds) in the men's 60m dash on Friday, beginning the weekend eighth out of 96 sprinters in the event.

Timontrez Eady (Duval County, Fla.), who provisionally qualified for indoor nations in the men's long jump following a leap of 7.15m in the Eagles's first meet of the season at Appalachian State, is seeded 13^th out of 46 jumpers and will try to track down teammate and C-N record holder T.J. Davis (Chattanooga, Tenn.) in the event. Davis is ranked five spots ahead of Eady at eighth in the contest.

Davis will also be taking part in the men's triple jump this weekend and has a 12^th-seeded starting point to work with.

For a complete recap of the Camel City Classic and tabs on Carson-Newman's athletes, log onto cneagles.com following the conclusion of each day's events.

-CN-