JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman track & field team begin the 2022 indoor season at the ETSU Invitational on Jan.14-15 in Johnson City, Tennessee.
The two day event begins on Friday, Jan. 14 with throwing events, men's pole vault and the triple jump, along with prelims for the 60 meter hurdles, 60 meter run and distance events on the track. On Saturday, Jan. 15, the day will consist of the long jump, high jump, women's pole vault and shot put, with mid-distance and finals of the sprint events on the track. All events will be held inside of the Buc Dome on the campus of East Tennessee State University. A full meet schedule can be found at cneagles.com
This is the seventh straight season that the Eagles have competed in at least one indoor event at ETSU. The Eagles began competing in indoor track & field in 2011.
The Eagles last competed at the Buc Dome at the Buccaneer Invitational during the 2021 indoor season. Joseph Oreva broke the school record in the indoor long jump with a national-best jump of 7.84 meters. Nathalie Schumacher won the high jump at the event, her first of two event championships in the 2021 indoor season. On day two, Devon Moore set qualifying times in the 60 meter and 200 meter runs while Abby Owens won her first of four pole vault event championships across the indoor and outdoor seasons.
"ETSU is a 293 meter flat track," says Director of Track & Field and Cross Country David Needs. "ETSU puts on a great meet. It's a great place to run because the surface is older but that leads to faster times. It's also a close meet for us so we don't have to go to a hotel and our athletes' families can come and watch them compete."
The Eagle roster is the largest it has been with Needs as head coach, boasting over 76 athletes. Of those 76, 19 athletes will compete in their first event ever in a Carson-Newman uniform. The Eagles had 12 athletes compete for the first time in their career at last season's Buccaneer Invitational, including Sterling Melancon, who finished his freshman year as an outdoor second-team All-American and finished in the top-10 in 26 of the 28 races he participated in. Melancon was named the 2021 SAC Freshman of the Year for his efforts.
"We're really deep in some spots this year," says Needs. "We have a lot of experienced groups. Those kids that got thrown into the fire last year are grizzled veterans this year after competing in a long season. ETSU is a great place for both veterans and newcomers to compete in to see good competition and get started on the right foot."
The Carson-Newman sprinters have already competed in one event this season, racing at the 2021 Birmingham Southern Indoor Icebreaker on Dec. 3. Siphosethu Boya competed in his first race for the Orange and Blue, finishing second overall and in his heat in the 400-meter run with a time of 49.74 seconds. That mark is just 0.31 seconds behind the school record held by Caleb Agee that was set in 2018. The mark also has Boya inside the top-80 in all of Division-II and 0.22 seconds away from an NCAA provisional mark. Boya also finished eighth in the 60 meter run.
Melancon finished 10th at the BSC Icebreaker in the 60 meter run and fifth overall in the 200 meter run with a time of 22.33 seconds. Tshenelo Lemao competed in his first race as an Eagle in the 60 meter run, finishing 11th. KJ Laribo finished 18th in the 400 meter run in his first event of the season with a time of 52.72 seconds.
"We finished 11th in the nation in men's outdoor track last season and a lot of that was thanks to our sprinters," says Needs. "So this offseason we looked at who we could get that would help us as a team because we want to win a national championship. So we brought in some former All-Americans and junior olympians on both the men's and women's side. They bring an element of practice to this team. The way they practice is inspiring and bring a positive atmosphere and push each other."
The ETSU invitational field is stacked with Division-I and Division-II competition. Host ETSU is joined by Appalachian State, Western Carolina, USC Upstate, UNC-Asheville and Wofford at the Division-I level. SAC schools Tusculum and Lincoln Memorial will compete at the event, while future SAC foe Emory & Henry make their Division-II track debut. Other Division-II schools include Converse, King and Lees-McRae, while Alice Lloyd, Cumberland and Milligan will compete from the NAIA ranks.
Live results for the event can be found on cneagles.com or at timinginc.com. Fans can also follow along with live updates for both days of the meet from Johnson City via Twitter at @cn_eagles.
