By: by Emily Diekelmann
CLEMSON, S.C. - Entering the midway point of their season, the women’s track and field team heads to Clemson for the JRF Combined Events Invitational, Friday Jan 28. Featuring the pentathlon on the women’s side for the first time this season, the squad will get a chance to see how their performances gauge individually.
Getting back on the track for the first time since the Clemson Invitational Jan 8-9, the team will see some very familiar faces in the groups they will be competing against. Most of the over 20 schools are from the Southeast portion of the country including instate rivals Georgia State and Georgia Tech. With the Atlantic Sun Conference Indoor Championship only a few weeks away, Kennesaw State will get to see a glimpse of fellow conference member USC Upstate this weekend as well.
“We’re looking forward to a good meet. We’ve had a couple weeks to train and pull things together a little, so we’re excited to get out there and do it in competition," head track and field coach Andy Eggerth said. "It’ll also be fun as the combined event athletes get to do their first pentathlon. It’s nice that we’ll have the majority of the team there as many of our distance runners open their season."
Attempting to best her top jump of the season, Jill Arthur will try to leap her way to another first place finish in the triple jump. During the Clemson Invitational Arthur’s first jump would be enough to secure a first place victory as well as Atlantic Sun Athlete of the Week for that week. Her recorded distance of 12.21 meters would beat out the second place competitor by .11 meters.
Adding another element to the meet is the appearance of the pentathlon, which is not seen at many indoor meets. For the women, Naomi Mack and Vynnessa Smith will be tackling the five event competition that consists of 60 meter high hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800 meter run.
“This is an unscored meet so rather than looking at team performance, it’s an opportunity for individuals to improve and show where they’re at,” Eggerth said. “I would expect Naomi Mack to set a big personal record and possibly a school record in the pentathlon.”
The meet begins Friday Jan 28 at Noon with the women’s pentathlon and concludes Saturday with the women’s high jump.
