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APSU Lady Govs Track and Field’s Breigh Jones, Relays brightspot at East Tennessee State Invitational

Austin Peay Sports Information

Austin Peay State University Lady Govs - APSUJohnson City, TN – After showing a bit of rust on the first day of the ETSU Invitational, Austin Peay State University women’s track and field team showed improvement Saturday, the final day of the event held at David E. Walker Track at Gentry Field inside the MHSA Athletic Center.

Austin Peay Women's Track and Field showed improvement at East Tennessee State Invitational. (APSU Sports Information)
Austin Peay Women’s Track and Field showed improvement at East Tennessee State Invitational. (APSU Sports Information)

After qualifying for the 400m final on Friday, all junior Breigh Jones did Saturday was smash the school record in the event. In a final alongside defending world indoor 400m champion Jernail Hayes, Jones was stride-for-stride alongside her for most of the race and became the first Austin Peay runner to crack 55 seconds in the indoor 400m with a 54.97 mark.

“Breigh led for the first 300 meters or so and really made her work,” said head coach Doug Molnar. “She executed the race plan really well. She and Coach (Valerie) Brown watched the prelims from the night before and came up with a great way to attack this thing.”

Jones and her 4x400m relay teammates – junior Kymmalett Ross, senior Jessica Gray and sophomore Terri Morris – cracked 3:50 for the first of what is sure to be many times in 2015, placing fourth out of 26 with a 3:49.58 run.

Gray also saw action in the first distance medley relay attempt of the indoor campaign, running a strong lead-off leg to set up junior Michaela McGhee and sophomores Molly Jordan and Unjula Lester on the way to a third-place showing with a 12:45.78 finish.

“I thought both our relay teams did well,” Molnar said. “We’ll take fourth in the 4×4 in a big meet like this. And I think our DMR group is definitely going to get a lot better as we go along.”

Freshman Rebecca Wheeler posted a solid eighth-place finish in the 3000m run, narrowly missing a personal-best with an 11:15.58 mark. Lester, who spent the fall racing alongside Wheeler in cross country, placed ninth in the open mile run thanks to a 5:389.53 run.

“Our distance group did a nice job,” Molnar said. “The times weren’t terrific, but we got some good efforts out of that group. Across the board, yesterday was a little rough; today was better, but we’ve still got some rust to knock off.”

Austin Peay continues indoor season in Bloomington, IN, next weekend for the two-day Gladstein Invitational, beginning January 23rd.

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