VIDEO: David Needs Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.—The Carson-Newman track and field team is set to begin the 2016-17 indoor campaign with a trip to Winston Salem, N.C. for the JDL Kickoff Classic that will consist for entirety of Saturday, Dec. 3.
Traditionally, JDL meets feature a good deal of programs from all across the NCAA landscape, as well as NAIA, with athletes trying to qualify for the national level. This meet will be no different as over 35 schools have preregistered for the meet, including 11 from the Division I level.
"We are very excited to get back out there. We have been practicing all fall, so to be able to get the chance to compete one time before the Christmas holiday will be great," C-N coach David Needs said. "This meet will give the guys who have been working all semester for the 15 or 16 weeks a chance to compete before the break. For the freshman, it will be a chance to get the jitters out. For the upperclassmen, it will be a chance to reevaluate what they need to work on over the break."
Of the 35 programs that will be present at the meet Saturday, six of them claim the South Atlantic Conference as home.
"Saturday will be a great opportunity to compete against a number of great athletes. There is going to be a lot of great competition there from a number of schools," Needs said. "This will be a chance of our kids to see where they are early on in the season."
Carson-Newman will begin its season Saturday morning with hopes of gaining strides towards what the squad was able to accomplish a season ago. The Eagles are coming off the most successful indoor camping in program history as the 2015-16 club sent three individuals to the 2016 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships with two of which medaling.
As a result of the successful campaign, the Carson-Newman men's team received its highest-preseason ranking ever (28th) while the women came in at 47th in the nation by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Monday afternoon.
"The preseason rankings are great because it says you have some talented people," Needs said. "As a coach, if we are happy where we are, then we are not where we need to be as a program. We need to be higher than that, but when our athletes get back out there, I'm hoping we can get better. Hopefully these rankings are just a glimmer of what we can be."
Needs plans to travel just over half of his team to the season-opening meet in Winston Salem, N.C. with the mindset of getting the track-only athletes some work in before the winter break.
"We are taking mainly the men and women who have been working with us all semester long," Needs said. "Some of our athletes compete in other sports, which is great, so we want to give their bodies a little chance to recover."
Saturday's events will begin at 9:30 a.m. with the first field trial being the women's shot put. Just over 30 minutes later at 10:05 a.m., the running events will begin with the women's 60 meter hurdles.
The Eagles have a number of athletes who are seeded in the top-10 for their respected events going into the meet.
For the women, Tori Gaul (Salisbury, N.C.) will look to defend her Southeast Region crown ahead of all the other women pole vaulters as the junior will head into the event ranked the highest in her class. Tiana Mills (Chattanooga, Tenn.), who made the trek to the 2016 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships in May of 2016, will also head into Saturday with a top-10 ranking as the senior was listed as the sixth-best triple jumper.
Tanner Stepp (Jefferson City, Tenn.) will look to continue his trek through the Carson-Newman record book as the junior was slated second-overall in the men's high jump for Saturday's competition. The second-place ranking came just behind a Division I jumpers.
The Eagles have two long jumpers on the men's side who will head into competition at the JDL Kickoff Classic with top-five rankings. T.J. Davis (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and Timontrez Eady (Duval County, Fla.), who both provisionally qualified for the 2016 indoor championships in last season's opener at the Appalachian Open, were slated fourth and fifth, respectively.
A final high-ranking on the men's side comes from pole vaulter Marshall Shank (Granite Quarry, N.C.). The sophomore will head into Saturday's competition as the fifth-highest ranked vaulter on the men's side. Shank holds the current Carson-Newman men's indoor pole vaulting record of 4.55 meters.
A complete recap following Saturday's events can be found on cneagles.com. Keep up to date with the Eagles at the JDL Kickoff Classic by following the squad's twitter account at @CN_Track for live updates throughout the day.
-CN-
