CLEVELAND, Tenn. - After a week off following the Montreat Invitational, the Carson-Newman track & field team looks to build off of their strong showing, returning to Lee for the Flames Invitational.
Competition for the Eagles begins on Friday, Apr. 8 at 2:30 P.M. with throwing events such as the discus and hammer throw, along with the high jump, pole vault and triple jump in the field, with distance events such as the 5000 meter and 1500 meter runs and the 200 meter run on the track. On Saturday, Apr. 9, the final day begins at 10:00 AM with the javelin, long jump and shot put in the field and sprint events such as the 100 meter and 110 meter hurdle runs on the track.
The Flames Invitational is stacked with ranked foes no. 1/2 Grand Valley State, no. 8/9 Queens, no. 20 Alabama-Huntsville, no. 23 Ashland, no. 24 West Alabama, no. 25 Tiffin, and host no. 12/22 Lee. Division-I teams Campbell, Central Arkansas, Chattanooga, Jacksonville State, Lipscomb, Memphis, Mercer, North Alabama, North Florida, Northern Kentucky, and Tennessee Tech will also compete at the event.
The last time the Eagles competed was two weeks ago at the Montreat Invitational. The day begin in earnest for the Eagles, as the 4x100 meter men's relay team of PJ Lotharp, Makanakaishe Charamba, Tshenelo Lemao, and Siphosethu Boya winning the race with a time of 40.90 seconds. That time is an NCAA provisional mark and is currently the eighteenth fastest in all of Division-II. The race was the quartet's first time running together in a competition this season.
Trayzel Juredini-Wyche continues to impress, tossing a new school record mark in the discus with a toss of 53.81 meters. The throw breaks his own record setting mark he set at Montreat during the 2021 outdoor season. The throw is also the sixth longest in all of Divsion-II.
On the women's side, Nathalie Schumacher won her first career SAC Female Outdoor Field Athlete of the Week Award for her performance in Black Mountain.
Schumacher won the award after winning the high jump championship at the 2022 Montreat Invitational this weekend. The junior won the event championship with a clearance of 1.59 meters. She also set a new personal best in the long jump with a distance of 4.78 meters. The Germany native also finished fifth in the javelin with a toss of 31.28 meters.
For the first time in her career, Nathalie Schumacher earns SAC Women's Outdoor Field Athlete of the Week honors@CN_Track
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CN_Eagles) March 29, 2022
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At Montreat, freshman Tytiana Wilson recorded her first career event win, winning the 400 meter run with a new personal best time of 57.98 seconds. Wilson also set a new personal best in the 200 meter run, finishing second with a time of 25.94 seconds.
Competing at the WKU Hilltopper Relays, Rachel Strayer broke the thirteen-year-old school record in the 5,000 meter run. The senior out of Murfreesboro, Tenn. finished third in the event with a time of 17:42.25, beating out runners from Division-I schools Purdue-Fort Wayne, Austin Peay and Marshall. Strayer's time breaks the old record set in 2009 by Aubrey Morris. She beat Morris' time of 18:25.00 by a whopping 42.05 seconds in the race at Western Kentucky. Strayer's time also beats her former outdoor personal best of 18:45.21 by 1:03.04.
This is the second time this season that the Eagles will compete at Lee. The convocation opened the outdoor season at the Lee Invitational on Mar. 19.
In his first career outdoor race, Matthew Blackmon won the event championship in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 14.72 seconds. Blackmon became the first athlete from Carson-Newman to compete in the 110 meter hurdles since Adan Vazquez in 2019 and the first to win a 110 meter hurdle race for Carson-Newman since Darius Childs did so on Apr. 6, 2013 at the Wofford Invitational.
Courtavious Garrett has been successful at Lee in his career, finishing on the podium all three times he has competed at the Ray Conn Complex. Garrett won his first career event championship the last time he competed at Lee, winning the long jump title with a jump of 6.82 meters. Garrett also finished third at the 2021 Lee Invitational and second at the 2021 Lee Last Chance Meet.
Abby Owens won her first event championship of the year in the pole vault with a clearance of 3.45 meters. The Ocala, Fla. native beat our four athletes from Alabam-Huntsville for the championship, her first since the 2021 SAC Outdoor Championships. Between her indoor and outdoor seasons, it is Owens' sixth career championship in the event.
Fans can follow along with live stats on both days of the Flames Invitational here and with updates on twitter at @cn_eagles.
