JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.- Carson-Newman track and field travels to the Montreat College Open and the Lee Invitational for the first split weekend of the outdoor season.
Carson-Newman track and field is splitting up for the weekend. Half of the team will travel to the two-day Montreat College Open in Montreat, N.C., while the rest of the Eagle crew will head to Cleveland, Tenn. for the Lee Invitational Saturday, Mar. 25.
"We look at the best competition and the best surface for our athletes to perform at their very best. For this weekend, we kind of polled the different groups. We were going to take the throwers to Montreat, but they are limited in the field. Lee is less limited in the field, so we decided that was where we'd send them this week, and that's just one example of how we make those decisions," head track and field coach David Needs said.
The Montreat College Open will begin Friday, Mar. 24 at 12:00 p.m. The meet will begin with the shot put and discus events. The pole vault events will begin at 1:00 p.m., and the long jump will take place at 3:00 p.m.
On Saturday, Mar. 25, the Montreat College Open will continue with the javelin throw at 9:30 a.m. Track events will begin at 10:00 a.m., and the high jump and triple jump events start at 11:00 a.m.
The Lee Invitational will take place on only Saturday, Mar. 25. Field events will begin at 10:00 a.m., and track events will follow at 11:30 a.m.
Carson-Newman track and field recently placed third and fifth in the 2023 SAC Outdoor Track and Field Preseason polls. The men ranked third with 98 points, while the women placed fifth with 84 points. To open the season, Carson-Newman men's track and field finished in second place at the Trojan Opener with 95 points, and the women ranked fourth with 83 points.
"You can't be satisfied. If you're satisfied with being average, this isn't the place for you. We are going to keep training hard. We've never had our standard set at just being good. We want to be the best in the country. This weekend, we don't just want to win an event. We want to hit some national marks, like Devon Moore last week with his 10.25 in the 100-meter. The idea is that we are driving our athletes, and they are driving themselves, to be the very best they can on the track and the field," Needs said.
The Eagles will continue the outdoor track and field season this weekend at the Montreat College Open and Lee Invitational Friday, Mar. 24 and Saturday, Mar. 25. Stay up to date on cneagles.com.
