SALEM, Va. – The Carson-Newman track & field team will head back to Roanoke College for the second time during the indoor season as they get set for the Finn Pincus Invitational with events taking place on Friday and Saturday.
The Eagles began the 2017-18 indoor season with an invite to the Bast-Cregger Invitational on Dec. 1 & 2 where multiple school records were broken.
"We're taking a smaller group this time around so it's really one of those focused meets for us," Coach David Needs explained. "Still working on some things for people who came over from football and might need an extra meet. We're looking for some more of those national qualifying marks and just really enjoy the chance to perfect your craft."
True freshman Tia Davis (Ooltewah, Tenn. broke the 60-meter and 200-meter indoor records in her first ever events at C-N. In the ETSU Invitational two weeks ago, Davis broke both of those records once again.
Kristofer Potts-Howard (Tullahoma, Tenn.) collected a new record in the long jump landing a distance of 7.26 meters on his first attempt.
Tanner Stepp collected a first-place finish in the high jump clearing 2.08 meters which topped a new facility record and provisionally qualified the senior jumper for the indoor national championships.
The men's 4x400m relay set a new school record of 3:28.55. The team of Showler-Davis, Caleb Agee, Jeremiah McCarter and Adan Vazquez came in second place to Methodist.
Kieran Showler-Davis (Winchester, England) was two one-hundredths of a second off of breaking former Carson-Newman sprinter Kevin Snead's facility record in the 60-meter dash. The native of England was the top qualifier in the meet with a time of 6.88 seconds. The time was good enough to earn Showler-Davis a provisional qualifying mark for the indoor national championships.
In the thick of indoor season, athletes will now have to prepare their bodies every week or every other week through the end of February before the outdoor season is in full swing.
"Coach Stepp is a big proponent of this where we operate on a three-week on and one week off cycle and we don't want to peak too early," Needs stated. "If you compete every weekend you only get a certain number of days to train and you'll get to a certain point and plateau. For the freshman to learn what their body can handle is a learning process."
Despite the men's and women's teams sitting outside the top-25 in the latest NCAA polls, Needs believes his athletes have what it takes to push their way up the ranks.
"We're on the edge on the men's side and both teams are top-10 in the region," Needs added. "When we get Tanner Stepp to take that next mark and Kieran Showler-Davis to get healthy, each of those things add to your positioning in the rankings. As we get later in the season, we hope there will be some athletes who can get comfortable with doing two or three events in the same meet and that will help boost both region and national rankings."
The women's team checked in at No. 9 in the regional rankings while the men held the No. 6 position.
Live updates on this weekend's events can be found at www.roanokemaroons.com/links/kaxq6o.
Keep up to date with a recap of the Finn Pincus Invitational at cneagles.com
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