By: by Emily Diekelmann
ATLANTA, Ga. - The Kennesaw State women’s track and field team starts off their outdoor season at the Georgia Intercollegiate Invitational hosted by Georgia Tech, Friday and Saturday. Fresh off their third place finish at the Atlantic Sun Indoor Conference Championships, the squad looks for their first A-Sun outdoor title as they begin the second half of their season.
Competing in combination with the Georgia High School Coaches Invitational, the weekend will feature both college and high school athletes from all over the state. For head track and field coach Andy Eggerth, the team has been ready for this weekend ever since indoor competition ended.
“We’re looking forward to opening our outdoor season this weekend,”Eggerth said. “As soon as the indoor season ended we got back to work. The kids are feeling heavy and sore, but they’ve already developed so much this year, that I expect them to open with some great performances. It’s also fun to get to compete in those ‘new’ events that we don’t get to do indoor and see how that training is shaping up.”
Having already seen several school and personal records broken this season, the women’s squad is primed to break more against teams from Augusta State, Clayton State, Columbus State, Fort Valley State, Georgia, Georgia State, Georgia Tech and Shorter University.
Senior Mackenzie Howe, who is already an All-Conference member for indoor and owner of two first place finishes at conference, has a shot at breaking her own record in the 5,000 meters this weekend. Already this season, Howe broke both the 3,000 and 5,000 school records and finished handedly in first at indoor conference. Currently Howe is the proud owner of five distance school records for indoor and outdoor.
During the indoor season, four other Owls made their way into the Kennesaw State records books. Victoria Jackson nabbed it in the 60 meter dash with a 7.71 second time. In the 200 meters, Cynthia Davis grabbed her second school record with a 24.87 dash. Joining Jackson and Davis on the track, Morgan Williams achieved the 800 meter record in 2:20.11.
With the only record broken on the field side this season, Michelle Quimby leaped to personal and school best height of 3.55 meters. Her final height was good enough for second place and being named to the All-Conference team.
The meet begins Friday morning with the women’s hammer throw and finishes the day with the 5,000 meter women’s race. Only the relays will compete on Saturday to accommodate the high school athletes.
