December 28, 2021

Track & Field releases 2022 indoor and outdoor schedule

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - Carson-Newman Director of Track & Field and Cross Country David Needs has announced both the indoor and outdoor track & field schedules on Tuesday, Dec. 28.

The Carson-Newman indoor track & field slate is scheduled for ten guaranteed events, the most in program history. The team will compete in four different states in the regular season, competing at three events in North Carolina, two events in Alabama, three events in Virginia and two events in Tennessee. If the Eagles have an athlete qualify for the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships, the team will compete in Kansas.

"When we first started indoor a few years ago, we didn't have a whole lot of options of places to go," says Needs. "Now as more schools add indoor track teams, the more opportunities we have to compete and get better."

The season opens Jan. 14-15 in Johnson City, Tenn. at the ETSU Invitational, the first of two meets for the Eagles at the Buc Dome. Carson-Newman will return to the Dome on Feb. 4-5 for the Buccaneer Invitational.

The Eagles competed at the Buccaneer Invitational last season. Joseph Oreva broke the school record in the indoor long jump with a national-best jump of 7.84 meters. Nathalie Schumacher won the high jump at the event, her first of two event championships in the 2021 indoor season. On day two, Devon Moore set qualifying times in the 60 meter and 200 meter runs while Amanda Lowe broke her own school record in the 60 meter run with a time of 7.88 seconds.

"ETSU is a 293 meter flat track," says Needs. "It's a great place to run. ETSU puts on a great meet. The Dome is spacious so you can spread out. It's also a close meet for us so we don't have to go to a hotel. They bring in division one and division two schools and historical we do well there."

Carson-Newman will compete at their first of two meets in the regular season at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, N.C. The squad will compete at the JDL Multi & Track Meet on Jan. 17-18 and the Flat is Fast Invitational on Jan. 23. The Eagles were supposed to comepete at the JDL Fast Track five times in 2021 before the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled all events at the facility.

"JDL's motto is 'flat is fast,'" says Needs. "So you get a flat conversion that helps out the runners. It's also a challenge for our jumpers. Craig does a great job of reaching out to schools at all divisions to make sure they are comfortable."

The Eagles will split up the weekend of Jan. 20-22 with some members of the squad traveling to the Birmingham Crossplex for the Samford Multis on Jan. 20 and the Samford Invite on Jan. 21. The Eagles last had athletes compete at the Birmingham Crossplex at the 2021 NCAA Division II Indoor Championships where Oreva finished fourth in the long jump while Moore finished fourth in both the 60 meter and 200 meter runs.

"One of the things we try to do is simulate what the conference or national meet looks like," says Needs. "These meets help team members learn how to take care of their bodies during the year so they're not surprised when they reach conference or the nationals."

Carson-Newman will travel to the Commonwealth of Virginia to compete in at least three events this season. The Eagles will compete at the Keydet Invitational on Jan. 21-22, the VMI Winter Relays on Jan. 28-29 and the VMI Winter Classic on Feb. 11-12.

The Eagles will also compete at a pair of events at Roanoke College in Salem, Va. The Eagles will compete at the Finn Pincus Invitational on Jan. 21-22 and return to the Cregger Center for the Roanoke Challenge on Feb. 12. Carson-Newman last competed at Roanoke in 2019 with Moore breaking the school record in the 60-meter run with a time of 6.69 seconds while Schumacher won the women's high jump title.

"One track is a 200 meter flat and one is a hydraulic," says Needs. "So we may send some to one track and then some to another because it fits their style better. We want to look at meets for a split squad on the best surface for the best competition to get the best results."

For the first time since 2019, the Eagles will compete at the SAC Indoor Championships at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, N.C. on Feb. 26-27. The championships were cancelled last season as the conference could not find a venue with JDL closing during the 2021 season.

The last meet Carson-Newman competed in during the 2020 season was the SAC Indoor Championship where both the men's and women's squads finished fourth. Christian Shouse was named Freshman of the Year and Male Field Athlete of the Year after finishing first in the men's pole vault, high jump and long jump. Moore won the 60-meter and 200-meter championships, while Abby Owens won the women's pole vault championship.

The 2022 NCAA Division II Indoor Championships will be held Mar. 11-12 in Pittsburg, K.S. The Eagles had three athletes compete at the 2019 Indoor Championships in the same arena in Kansas, with Luke Greer, Jahvad McDermott and Moore all earning All-American honors.

Carson-Newman will begin the outdoor track & field season just one week after the indoor championships at the Lee Invitational on Mar. 19 in Cleveland, Tenn. At the 2021 Lee Invitational, Moore won the 100-meter run with a time of 10.38 seconds, giving him the third-fastest time in the country. The Eagles set 17 personal bests at the meet.

The outdoor season continues with a trip to Black Mountain, N.C. for the Montreat Invitational on Mar. 25-26. Last season, the men's team finished the meet as event champions, earning 108 total points. The Eagles beat out Division I programs UNC-Asheville, Western Carolina and Wofford and fellow SAC programs Anderson, Lenoir-Rhyne, Lincoln Memorial and Catawba. On the women's side, Schumacher won the high jump championship with a jump of 1.70 meters, a national provisional mark.

A small collection of the convocation will head west on Mar. 24-26 to Austin for the Texas Relays. It's the first time the Eagles have competed at the event and the first time Carson-Newman has competed in the Lone Star state since the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Kingville, Texas.

The major meets continue for the Eagles with the flock flying down to Florida for the Florida Relays on Apr. 1-2 in Gainesville. It's the first time Carson-Newman has competed in the sunshine state since the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Bradenton, Fla.

"The key for us is to get into these meets first," says Needs. "We're hoping that our resumes speak so loud that it's an obvious choice to put Carson-Newman in. Our goal is to get kids ready for a national championship and also to show on a national level what Carson-Newman is all about."

Carson-Newman returns to the Tarheel state for the first of two meets at Lenoir-Rhyne University with the LR Bears Invitational on Apr. 8-9. The Eagles return to the Moretz Sports Complex on Apr. 23 for the LR Outdoor Open. The Eagles last competed in Hickory for the 2021 SAC Outdoor Championships. In their last regular season meet in Hickory, the Eagles recorded nine event wins at the LR Bears Open with Sterling Melancon winning the 100 meter run and Susan Nelson winning the women's long jump.

"Lee, Montreat and Lenoir-Rhyne, are great because they get the best competition of both D-I and D-II competition from East Tennessee and North Carolina," says Needs. "It's great for us because we don't have to go that far to find great competition and get our teams better. It also gives us a chance to win some meet championships, such as the men's track team did at Montreat last season."

The Eagles will compete at Anderson University for the first time in program history on Apr. 15-16 at the Anderson Invitational. The Electric City is also the site for the 2022 SAC Outdoor Championships.

"Any time you go to a new track, you want to be able to get the lay of the land and know where everything is first," says Needs. "It is great to have this meet first so that way, before the conference meet, you're ready to go."

The regular season wraps up on Apr. 29-30 with a trip to Nashville for the Music City Challenge at Vanderbilt University. It is the first time that the Eagles have competed in a meet at Vanderbilt.

The 2022 SAC Outdoor Championships will be held at Anderson University in Anderson, S.C. on May 5-6. The Carson-Newman men finished third at the 2021 SAC Outdoor Championships while the women's team finished ninth. It is the first time that Anderson has hosted the SAC Outdoor Championships.

Carson-Newman will have three last chance meets before the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The Eagles will choose between competing at the Tennessee Challenge in Knoxville, Tenn. or the Montreat Final in Black Mountain, N.C. on May 7.

Three throwers broke school records at the 2021 Montreat Final, including Trayzel Juredini-Wyche setting a new record in the discus with a toss of 48.73 meters. The Eagles last competed at the Tennessee Challenge on May 5, 2019. Current Eagles jump coach Kris Potts-Howard finished third in the long jump at the event.

The Eagles' last chance will be at the 2022 Lee Last Chance Meet in Cleveland, Tenn. on May 14. Last time the Eagles competed at the Lee Last Chance Meet, Moore set the second-fastest time in the 60-meter run with a time of 10.30 seconds while also setting an NCAA provisional mark in the 4x100 meter relay. The women's 4x100 meter relay also broke the school record in the event with a time of 47.32 seconds.

The 2022 NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships will be at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich. on May 26-28. At the same venue last season, Moore finished second in the 200-meter run and third in the 60-metter run, while Melancon earned All-American honors in the 60-meter runs.