Track & Field Travels to the Spec Towns Invitational
4/12/2012 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field, Cross Country
April 12, 2012
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -
The University of Alabama track and field returns to action this weekend with two days of competition at the Spec Towns Relays in Athens, Ga., April 13-14.
The Crimson Tide returns to the oval after a week off, its first break of the outdoor season after three straight meets to open the season. The coaches and athletes used the week off from competition to continue to fine tune their training with less than a month remaining until the Southeastern Conference Championships.
"All of the training is starting to come together as we enter this part of schedule," UA head coach Dan Waters said. "We talk about the process of improving and it is starting create results and progress as we put the pieces of this puzzle together. We're looking forward to another great competitive atmosphere this weekend."
The smaller meet will feature teams from South Carolina, TCU, Michigan and Minnesota in addition to the Tide and homestanding Georgia. Events get underway on Friday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. CDT with five field events on Friday. The remainder of the meet will continue on Saturday at 9 a.m. CDT with a rolling schedule until noon. The bulk of the running events will take place on the track from noon to 3:30 p.m. CDT and Waters anticipates the smaller, more compact meet schedule and field will pay dividends for his squad.
"The excitement of that short schedule and having good fans in the stands creates an energy around this event that hopefully that will draw out good performances from our team," Waters said. "That's the same type of atmosphere you encounter at the SEC and NCAA Championships and that energy always creates good performances. I think we'll see the very same thing at the Georgia meet."
In the Tide's last competition on March 31, it finished with 22 top-10 finishes at the Ole Miss Invitational in Oxford, Miss. Amethyst Holmes led the Tide by continuing her outstanding season by tacking another four feet onto her personal best in the women's hammer throw with a toss of 190-8, the fourth best throw in school history, to finish sixth in the event. Shani Chandler also added to her growing list of accolades in the 400-meter hurdles with her third win in as many meets this season in 59.04.
The sprints saw continued growth with three Crimson Tide runners recording three personal bests as Dwayne Extol finished third in the men's 200 meters in 20.99 while Joel Lynch recorded a time of 47.89 to finish sixth in the men's 400 meters. For the women's sprinters, Camilla Armstead was third in the 200 meters with a 23.89 finish.
After this weekend's competition, the team will travel to Auburn, Ala. for the Auburn War Eagle Invitational on April 20-21.
