By: by Emily Diekelmann
Live Results
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- The Kennesaw State women’s track and field teams is sending four of their athletes to Tallahassee this weekend to compete in the Florida State Twilight meet, Friday and Saturday. With only this weekend and one more meet remaining, the quartet will use this weekend to help them qualify for the NCAA Preliminaries at the end of May.
Competing against teams from Florida, North Florida, Samford and host Florida State, the squad will have the interesting concept of only performing their events during the late afternoon and evening hours which give the meet its name. For head track and field coach Andy Eggerth, this is important for the athletes so they can make it to the track postseason.
“The Florida State Twilight is typically a fairly small meet, but always has some top end competition,” Eggerth said. “We’re bringing a small crew of athletes that already have or are trying to qualify for the NCAA Preliminaries. Our goal is to get some more qualifiers and have to good competitive opportunity for those already qualified.”
Sophomore Suzee Mills, who competed last year in the USATF Junior Nationals competition in hammer throw and discus, looks to qualify for NCAA Prelims for the first time in all four of her events. A few weeks ago at the Atlantic Sun Outdoor Conference Championship, Mills earned two All-Conference awards for her performance in the javelin and discus with a first and third place, respectively.
Joining Mills in the hammer throw will be teammate Chiquita Hawthorne. During A-Sun Outdoor Conference, Hawthorne threw a top distance 48.70 meters in hammer, good enough for fourth place.
In her final season as an Owl, senior Jakia Ragland gets one final shot at making Nationals in the high jump. At both 2010 and 2011 A-Sun Outdoor Championships, Ragland finished in the top five in high jump with her best finish coming in 2010, earning an All-Conference award.
Rounding out the list of competitors on the women’s side, Michelle Quimby will compete alongside Ragland in the high jump but also get a shot at pole vault as well. Quimby earned herself All-Conference honors a few weeks ago with a second place finish in pole vault.
Competition begins Friday with the women’s javelin at 5 p.m. and concludes Saturday night with the women’s 4x400 relay at 9 p.m.
