Cumberlands serves final tune up for C-N prior to SAC Championships
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.—With one week remaining before the start of the 2017 South Atlantic Conference Championships, Carson-Newman track and field coach David Needs will send his squad to the Cumberlands Invitational for competition on both Friday and Saturday in Williamsburg, Ky.
VIDEO: David Needs Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.—With one week remaining before the start of the 2017 South Atlantic Conference Championships, Carson-Newman track and field coach David Needs will send his squad to the Cumberlands Invitational for competition on both Friday and Saturday in Williamsburg, Ky.
"The Cumberlands used to be our big meet because we didn't have a conference meet, so this was something that we used to look forward to," Needs said. "It's a great place with a great track and a great venue. A lot of schools will be there so it's another chance for a kids to get better. We won't push them too hard and just keep them comfortable with what they are doing."
The meet will serve as the final tune up for the league championships as the Eagles were picked to finish fourth (men) and sixth (women) in the preseason polls. This weekend's Cumberlands Invitational welcomes a number of regional programs in the area that include numerous Division II, III and NAIA teams.
The running surface for the events will be taking place on an eight-lane track and fully automated times will be recorded by the Finish Lynx System.
Looking to keep up the good play of late, the Eagles' horizontal jumpers are coming into this weekend with hopes of fine tuning what has already been a successful season. Two weeks ago at the Tennessee Rust Buster, long jumpers Kristofer Potts-Howard (Tullahmoa, Tenn.), T.J. Davis (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and Timontrez Eady (Duvall County, Fla.) all surpassed the seven-meter mark.
Along with a personal-best leap of 7.44 meters in the long jump and 14.56 meters in the triple jump, the Potts-Howard took home SAC Field Athlete of the Week honors on March 29. As of now, the sophomore sits seventh in Division II in the long and 24th in the triple.
Coming in to the weekend, Carson-Newman long jumpers are ranked second in the country as a unit.
"We are hoping that we will continue to improve in the long jump and triple jumps. We have had so many difference athletes who have done different things well for us this year," Needs said. "The way that you know you are improving as a unit is the way your athletes continue to go out and get better each time. These athletes are going out every day and putting the extra work in to get better and better."
Other athletes who will be in competition on the weekend will be C-N's pole vaulters Marshall Shank (Granite Quarry, N.C.) and Tori Gaul (Salisbury, N.C.) at the Liberty Challenge. The former All-Southeast Region performers and SAC Champions in the event have been battling injuries for the duration of the year to date.
"With our pole vaulters, there is always a sense of comfort there," Needs said. "For Mashall and Tori, it has been an injury battle all year. We are hoping that at Liberty, they will compete well because they have done so in years past. Once those two are feeling alright, they will be ready to go and pick off where they were last year."
This weekend's weather forecast is one that is in question at the moment. A cold front has moved into the region on Thursday and looks to stay before climbing back up to normalcy by weekend's end. Mother Nature may also predicts some rain showers throughout both Friday and Saturday at present standing.
"We haven't had the best weather up there in the past. We can't control the weather and we can't control the weather at the conference meet next weekend either," Needs said. "Regardless of the weather, we have to go out there and perform. Next week at conference, times and distances matter, but times and distances that finish first matter more. We need to be prepared and we will be once we figure out exactly what the weather will be like."
A complete recap following each day of events will be readily available at cneagles.com while live updates throughout the weekend can be found on Twitter at @CN_Track.
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