Track and field finishes third at Emory Invitational

Troy’s women’s track and field team earned third place among 12 Division I schools in the Emory Invitational on Sunday, Jan. 24, in Birmingham.

The bronze finish was the Trojans’ first scored meet of the year.

“Although we’ve still got some work to do, it was nice to leave the meet today with a top-three team finish,” said Marc Davis, head coach.

“We’re definitely moving in the right direction. The goals we set earlier in the year are starting to come into focus, and this meet was a good indicator of our progress.”

Nearly half of the Trojans’ score total came from the throwing events, such as the weight throw and shot put.

Freshman Indiya Summerville of Tuscaloosa recorded a career-best throw of 13.56 meters in the shot put. Her performance earned her first shot-put victory on the collegiate level.

Sophomore Jaevyn Wortham set a couple personal bests of her own. She came in third in the shot put with 12.89 meters from the board, and she took second overall in the weight throw with a 17.16-meter throw.

Other Trojans continued the trend of shattering personal records, including junior Allison Taylor of Kansas City, Missouri, who took third place in the weight throw with a 15.73-meter toss. Sophomore Carissa Madson of Novato, California, earned a first-place finish in the pole vault with a clearance of 3.40 meters.

The Trojan 4×400-meter relay team nearly won, but it finished less than a second behind first place.

The second-place team was made up of sophomore Niata Alexander, junior Dallas Worthy and freshmen Ashley McDonald and Tiarra Bailey.

Alexander earned a fifth-place finish with a 25.29-second 200-meter dash. She also finished sixth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 57.57 seconds.

Sophomore Sydney Wright of Columbus, Georgia, crossed the finish line just after Alexander to finish in seventh place.

Senior Lacey Marcus of Alabaster made a sixth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles.

The men’s and women’s teams will travel back to the Crossplex in Birmingham to compete in the Privateer Invitational hosted by the University of New Orleans on Sunday, Jan. 31.