APSU Sports: Austin Peay Women’s Track and Field
Johnson City, TN – Austin Peay State University women’s indoor track and field team finished with three school records at this weekend’s Niswonger Invitational, hosted by East Tennessee.
Perhaps the most impressive record set came in the Distance Medley Relay. Austin Peay’s team led by Janelle Avery with Taelor Slaughter running the second leg, Chantelle Grey on the third leg and Xiamar Richards as the anchor unseated the previous record (12:31.79; set in 2001) with a 12:27.66 time good enough for third place.
“We talked before the meet about how this was a turning point for us,” head coach Doug Molnar said. “We knew going in that we need to post some good times and get some things done. We had more than 20 personal bests today and that shows the mentality of this team.”
Austin Peay’s third school record came in the shot put in what is becoming a weekly improvement by Tanesha Campbell. This week, she improved to 14.36m and finished second.
Among the personal bests set during the weekend included Cenitra Hudson who finished seventh in the 60-meter dash finals at 7.91, Hudson was even better in the 200-meter dash, finishing second at 25.59, followed by Candace Johnson in third at 25.72 – both times representing personal bests.
Johnson finished eighth in the 400-meter dash while Lauren Lyles finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles and had a personal best in the long jump at 5.49m, good enough for seventh.. The Lady Govs 1600-meter relay team finished fourth.
“I can’t remember a time where we had so many players running in finals like we did this weekend,” Molnar said. “We had three school records today – two on the track and one in the field. We rose to the challenge today and that says a lot for a young team like this one.”
