APSU Lady Govs Track and Field soar to third place finish in 2015 OVC Outdoor Championships

Austin Peay Sports Information

Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University battled to the end of a rainy second day of competition at Saturday’s 2015 Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, bulling its way into a third-place team finish at its home facility.

Austin Peay tallied 100 team points on Saturday to make it back-to-back top-three finishes in outdoor competition.

The tone was set early by the 4x100m relay team, which defeated the eventual champion Tigers with a season-best 45.66 mark and gave senior Erika Adams and juniors Breigh Jones, Lamontra Robinson and Kymmalett Ross Austin Peay’s first gold medals of Saturday’s competition.

Jones and Adams were not done however. Facing less-than-spectacular conditions on the soggy day at Governors Stadium, Jones posted her second sub-12 second time of the weekend, hitting 11.96 on her way to gold in the 100m dash. Ross added to APSU’s tally with a fifth-place, 12.24 run.

Two hurdlers brought home bronze medals for Austin Peay in the finals. Sophomore Myiah Johnson nearly broke the school record for the second time in as many days with a 13.79 mark, while senior Natalie Olberding capped her APSU track career with a 1:02.13 run.

Austin Peay narrowly missed having two jumpers on the podium on back-to-back days. Sophomore Kaylnn Pitts took silver in the triple jump thanks to a 12.80m (42-0.0) leap, while classmate Chancis Jones just missed the podium after finishing fourth with a 12.10m (39-8.50) mark.

Sophomore Amia Butler was busy on Saturday. The Nashville native closed her heptathlon in fourth place (4,484 points), picking up most of her points after tying eventual champion Clairwin Dameus for the top spot in the heptathlon long jump. She also picked up valuable points for Austin Peay with a sixth-place, 14.34 run in the 100m hurdles.

Senior Jessica Gray closed her Austin Peay career with a bang, taking runner-up honors in the 800m run with a 2:12.30 run.

That brings us at the close to Jones. A scribe could fill a book with Jones’ Saturday exploits, but for a concise recap, she helped Austin Peay win the aforementioned 4x100m relay gold, then followed that by defending her gold medal in the 400m dash with a season-best 53.70 mark that should solidify her spot in the NCAA East Preliminaries.

Sophomore Terri Morris picked up three big points for Austin Peay with a sixth-place, 56.74 mark.

For an encore, the mighty Memphian took eventual champion Amber Hughes down to the wire in the 200m dash, earning silver with a 24.15 run (Robinson was sixth thanks to a 24.94 run), and ran the anchor leg for Austin Peay’s 4x400m relay team comprising of Gray, Morris and junior Michaela McGhee, which took silver behind a season-best 3:46.11 mark.

That closes the book on Austin Peay for the 2015 season as a squad. It remains to be seen which individual athletes will advance to represent Austin Peay the NCAA East Preliminary Round, scheduled for May 28th-30th, in Jacksonville, FL.