Women's Outdoor Track and Field Excel at Lee Invite

Cleveland, Tenn.- The women's track and field team was back in action in their second meet of the outdoor season on Saturday. The team competed at the Lee University Invitational.  

On the field side, Paige Manney won the High Jump and the Triple Jump. Manney used a mark of 1.73m to win the High Jump, an NAIA "A" Standard. The mark ended up being the No. 2 mark in the NAIA. In the Triple Jump, Manney extended her NAIA No. 1 mark by .40m with a jump of 12.58m, an NAIA "A" Standard. Aniecia Goss finished second in the Triple Jump, hitting an 11.62m jump, an NAIA "B" Standard to qualify her for the national championship meet in the event. Caley Essie gave the team three in the top ten, finishing ninth with a mark of 9.94m. 

McKenna Debity had the best finish in the Shot Put, finishing 14th with a mark of 9.14m. Rae Gore threw 34.17m to finish fourth in the Discus while Debity hit 29.16m in the event to finish 13th. In the Hammer Throw, Gore had the top finish on the team with her mark of 33.49m making her 9th. Chloe Cooper finished 16th with a mark of 28.12m. In the Javelin, Gore finished seventh with a mark of 23.47 while Debity was eighth by throwing 22.99m. Cooper's mark of 14.01m placed her 12th.  

Chaggie Bassar and Goss finished back-to-back in the 100m Dash on the track, with times of 12.49 and 12.58 making them 10th and 11th, respectively. Lauren Garrison was 17th with a time of 12.83. 

TWU had four runners finish back-to-back-to-back-to-back in the 400m Race. Madison Rooker (1:08.24), Victoria Verran (1:08.29), Ashlee Caron (1:10.23) and Jasmine Teran (1:16.25) finished 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th, respectively, in the event. In the 800m Race, Molly Woodby ran a time of 2:33.90 to finish 10th to go along with a 13th place finish by Abigail Hampton in 2:38.14.  

A time of 14.23 in the 100m Hurdles gave Manney the top spot in the event. The time was an NAIA "A" Standard, making Manney the first women's outdoor track athlete to hit an "A" standard in a track event. Manney's time is No. 3 in the NAIA. Garrison ran a time of 16.51 to finish ninth while Essie was 11th with a time of 17.13. 

Ashlynne Brown finished 11th in the 3000m Steeplechase, completing the event in a time of 13:41.22. The final event the team had a top 10 or 20 finisher was the 4x100m Relay. The team of Manney, Bassar, Garrison, and Goss ran a time of 48.05 to finish third. Their time was .05 seconds from an NAIA "B" Standard. 

Up next for the Bulldogs is the Flames Invite on April 7-8 in Cleveland, Tenn.