JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- In her first event as an Eagle, junior high jumper Nathalie Schumacher claimed first in the women's high jump with a mark of 1.68m during day one of competition at the ETSU Invitational.
Setting the tenth best mark in all of Division II up until this point in the indoor season, the German high jumper lived up to her high expectations when she named to the South Atlantic Conference athletes to watch list in the preseason. Her mark Friday is above the NCAA Provisional Qualifier height to beat of 1.67, booking her trip to the national championships later this year.
"For her to get a national qualifying mark in her first jump, not doing anything but training for a year at Carson-Newman, was very nice," coach David Needs said.
Teammate Hannah Beth Moorhouse (Morristown, Tenn.) was not far behind, finishing in a tie for second place with a height of 1.60m.
��National Qualifier Alert ��
— Carson-Newman Track / XC (@CN_Track) January 10, 2020
Nathalie Schumacher qualifies for nationals in the high jump in her first meet as an Eagle with a leap of 1.68 meters. #TalonsUp pic.twitter.com/G56pLcemA6
Another provisional qualifier came by way of junior sprinter Devon Moore (Baxley, Ga.) who screamed down his lane in the preliminaries of the 60-meter sprint with a time of 6.74 seconds.
C-N will make up 25 percent of the 60-meters finals as Moore's teammate on the gridiron and off the blocks, Toot Johnson (Rincon, Ga.), also qualified for Saturday. Johnson's preliminary time of 6.97 seconds beat the cutoff by just three-tenths to secure a lane in tomorrow's finale.
"For him (Moore) to run that fast in his first meet (of the season), is amazing, and then for Toot to make the finals also," Needs said. "With a heavy Division I field, to have two of the eight guys be Carson-Newman guys in the finals of the 60 is really nice."
On the women's sprint squad, a trio of ladies in Faith Nelms (St. Petersburg, Fla.), Abby Hegarty and Morgan Bailey (Mt. Juliet, Tenn) ran personal-best times. A freshman, Nelms' 7.99 mark placed her into the top-15 runners at the event. Hegarty's 8.14 time placed her among the top-25 athletes in the event, while Bailey's 8.36 time was in the top-30, respectively.
Senior jumper James Wilson (Fontana, Calif.) leaped into fourth place with a distance of 14.13m in the triple jump. The jump was nearly identical to his mark of 14.15m in last month's Bast-Cregger Invitational to open the 2019-20 indoor track and field season.
Finishing the opening day was distance runner Conal McCambridge (United Kingdom) who finished in fourth place in the 5000 meters with a time of 15:58.21. McCambridge was less than a second away from a podium finish in his first indoor event as an Eagle, coming off a successful cross country season in the fall.
Across the board day one of the ETSU Invitational saw no signs of a holiday slump, with marked improvement between a multitude of cross-sport athletes from the fall as well as new and returning track and field athletes. Instead of taking a step backward, Needs and the coaching staff saw his squad continue to take steps forward.
"As a coach you get really excited about people like that (who improve)," Needs said. "There they are, out there competing and doing the best that they've ever done. You're excited because you know that they're on the ascent."
Saturday will feature the men's high jump, an area which C-N finds itself extremely deep in, as well as the finals of the 60-meter dash and women's 3000 meters. The women's distance race will begin the rundown of a laundry list of events, as cross country national champion participant Rachel Strayer will race for the first time in the indoor season as an Eagle.
Live timing can be found by clicking here and will begin at approximately 8:35 a.m. Event scheduling is available both at the link above and on the results tab.
Saturday's final event will feature the 4x400 meter relay at 5:30 p.m.
