The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Track and Field Travels to Vanderbilt
1/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
Live Results | Heat Sheet | Schedule
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The UAB track and field team travels to Nashville, Tenn., this weekend for the Vanderbilt Invitational. Field events begin on Friday at 5 p.m. with the high jump and weight throw, while running events are slated to begin at 7:30 p.m. with the 4x800-meter relay.
"The meet this weekend at Vanderbilt is our next opportunity to get better," said head coach Kurt Thomas. "We saw some good things last weekend coming off of Christmas break, and we are looking forward to improving against some very good competition in Nashville. It's an oversized track, which usually means you can run pretty fast, so that will always help."
Lucy Crookes will race her first 5,000-meter race of the season on Friday night. Crookes won the 3,000-meter at the Birmingham-Southern Icebreaker on Dec. 5 and the Blazer Invite on Jan. 10. Her 9:45.21 at the BSC Icebreaker is a team best this indoor season.
"Getting out of Birmingham for a meet and competing against some good Southeastern Conference and Conference USA teams will give us great competition," Thomas said. "Crookes will get a shot at a fast 5k, so that will be exciting to watch. The multi’s will get lots of events in preparation for their Pentathlon next week."
Ali Meister, Kendra Gipson and Renay Ransaw represent the Green and Gold in the long jump to kick off the Blazers in field events. Ransaw’s leap of 4.97m (16-03 ½) at the Blazer Invite leads UAB this indoor season.
Jessica Shelley, Renay Ransaw and Autumnn Burnett will compete in the 60-meter hurdles to open Saturday’s events. Shelley’s 8.74 at the BSC Icebreaker is the top performance in the event this winter.
After back-to-back runner-up performances in the 3,000-meter run, Rebecca Evans will compete in the mile on Saturday afternoon. Also running the mile is Sarah Livett, who set the freshman indoor mile record a year ago with a 4:59.14.
Joining UAB from C-USA at this weekend’s meet will be Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee.
Live results of this weekend’s invite can be found at cfpitiming.com. Results will be posted following each day of competition at UABsports.com.
For more information on the UAB track & field team, follow the Blazers on Twitter (@UAB_TrackXC). For more on all Blazer sports teams follow the official Twitter account of UAB Athletics (@UABAthletics).
