Track Heads to SoCon Championships this Weekend

Saturday, May 1

Cullowhee, N.C.

Chattanooga

Southern Conference Championships - Day One

4/29/2021 8:20:00 PM | General, Cross Country & Track & Field

Schedule of Events ESPN+ Saturday ESPN+ Sunday Live Results Meet Notes

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's outdoor track and field team will head to Cullowhee, N.C., this weekend for the 2021 Southern Conference Championships hosted by Western Carolina.

"We are very excited to race/jump this weekend," Mocs head coach Andy Meyer said. "We have several kids ranked in their respective events in the conference.

"We have had a great two weeks of practice since our last meet and the weather in Cullowhee looks great, cool mornings and mildly warm afternoons with plenty of sunshine."

McKenzie Williamson ranks eighth in the SoCon in the 100 meter with a PR time of 12.23 set at the UAB Spring Invitational earlier this spring. She will be joined in the sprint by Imani Bryant who set her PR two weeks ago at the Georgia Tech Invitational.

The duo, running their first season of outdoor track, will also compete in the 200 meter dash. Each set a personal best time at that distance in the season-opener at UAB.

Nicole Buehrle and Emmy Davis will compete in the 800 meter run for the Mocs. Buehrle has improved her time in each race this season and set a PR at the Georgia Tech Invitational. Davis ran a PR in the 800m at the Georgia Tech Invite as well at 2:17.47.

Buehrle, Ashlynd Broling Miller and Ashtyn Hagood are set to compete in the 1500 meter. Buehrle set her PR 4:32.97 this season at Georgia Tech as did Hagood. This will be Miller's first 1500 meter race this season.

All five of the Mocs set to run the 5000 meter run are ranked in the league's Top 25. Lesley Green set her PR at Georgia Tech two weeks ago and has the Mocs fastest time at 17:52.49, ranking 12^th in the league standings. Russum's PR 18:00.96 is 15^th in the league rankings. In her first outdoor season, she showed marked improvement from her first race to her last and will look to improve that time even more this weekend. Makenzie Jones holds a 17^th ranking in the league with Ashtyn Hagood 19^th and Sophia Neglia 24^th.

Jones, Green and Russum will all compete in the 10,000 meter. It will be Green and Russum's first outdoor championships. Faith Brown will compete in the 3000 meter Steeplechase in her first championship.

Kimbra Dunning will compete in the long jump and triple jump for Chattanooga. She is ranked ninth in the long jump and 11^th in the SoCon in the triple.

"Because the meet was cancelled last year, our sophomores are competing as freshmen this year along with our true freshman," Meyer said. "We have a huge amount of young talent we are taking. Eight of the 12 girls will be competing in this meet for the first time. These young women have had a great season and shown such promise. We are looking forward to what they can do this weekend."

While the majority of the team is very young, four upperclassmen will represent UTC, three in their final season.

"Makenzie Jones will return next year," Meyer said. "We have three girls who graduate and leave behind a great legacy and be sorely missed for us.

"Ashlynd Broling Miller has been a very solid contributor for us and is very steady in her performance. Sophia Neglia has been a wonderful girl for us and is a great follow by example leader. She is so respected by her teammates and the coaches. It will be impossible to replace Soph.

"Finally, Nicole Buerhle has been such a huge performer for us all season. She can do anything and any event, she is such a true athlete and fiery, fierce competitor. Like Sophia and Ashlynd, Nicole is a great leader for us.

"All three of these young ladies are very good runners, but they are truly even better human beings; the lowest GPA among them is a 3.98; they all three would drop any and everything to help another human being and they all have the best attitude no matter what the circumstance. They have set such a high academic, athletic and personal conduct example for our other young ladies. We will miss them greatly."

The meet will begin Saturday morning with the 10,000 meter run at 8:30 a.m. Trials for the 100m, 200m, 800m and 1500 meter will run Friday and the 3000 meter Steeplechase will close out the track events. The long jump will be at 4:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Sunday's events will begin with the 4x100 meter at 1:00 p.m. and conclude with the 4x400 meter relay at 4:40 p.m. Finals for the Saturday prelims will run Sunday afternoon along with the 5000 meter and the triple jump.

The championships will be aired live on ESPN+ and live results will be available at GoMocs.com. Follow the action on the Mocs' social pages, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.