Women?s Track and Field Competing at Vanderbilt and Auburn
4/20/2006 12:00:00 AM
The Alabama women’s track and field team is splitting up this weekend sending 11 athletes to compete at the Vanderbilt Invitational on Friday and Saturday while six other athletes compete at the Auburn Invitational on Saturday.
The Tide will be sending their distance runners as well as throwers Beth Mallory and Lorna Finn to Nashville, Tenn. to compete at Vanderbilt.
“Vanderbilt has a good distance program so that should provide us with some good competition,” Alabama head coach Sandy Fowler said. “I thought it might be a little cooler since they are running Friday night as well. It’s also a good opportunity for Beth Mallory and Lorna Finn to get some fine tuning.”
Piper Broderick, Jen Gray, Julia Hicks, Lauren Lambert and Elizabeth Wancowicz will open the competition for Alabama on Friday night at 7:00 in the 1,500-meter run. Megan Carnes and Katie Davis will follow with the 3,000m run.
On Saturday, Mallory and Finn will compete in the women’s hammer throw and the shot put. Mallory will also compete in the discus. Gray, Wancowicz, Megan Betts and Whitney Taylor will round out the competition for the Tide in Nashville with the foursome competing in both the 800m and the 400m.
Kendall Clifford, Jessica McNeal, Majik Reed, Rachel Wilson, Kayla Natale and Lynda Cooper will compete at the Auburn Invitational.
“The athletes going to Auburn will be getting some fine tuning and give them another opportunity to compete before the conference meet,” Fowler said. “It should help with their confidence and for some of them it could be the last meet going into the SEC Championships.”
Clifford will lead the way for Alabama, competing in the long jump, javelin, 200m and 100m hurdles. Wilson will be looking to lower her qualifying time in the 100m hurdles as well as add one in the 400m hurdles. Cooper is set to compete in the pole vault, 100m and 200m. Natale needs to gain just six inches to qualify regionally in the pole vault and will compete in the 100m as well. McNeal will run in the 100m and 200m and Reed is scheduled to compete in the 400m.
The rest of the Tide’s athletes, such as Tahesia Harrigan and Miruna Mataoanu, are resting this week in preparation for the Drake Relays next weekend.
“Most of those who competed at indoor nationals have been going straight through until now,” Fowler said. “We wanted them to have a weekend to focus on other things like their class work. They will get a well deserved weekend off.”
