BOONE, N.C. - The App State women's track and field team is headed to Lexington, Va. for the VMI Team Challenge on Saturday. Action starts at 9 a.m. with the women's 5,000 meters and the women's shot put.
Meet Rewind
App State totaled nine first-place finishes and went 1-2-3 in four events at the UNC Asheville Collegiate Opener on Jan. 10. Junior
Jayla Adams led the Mountaineers in the women's 300 meters, clocking a personal best of 38.70, which was 0.20 shy of the program record (38.50). Senior
Damyja Alejandro-Ortiz took second with a time of 39.24 to rise to fifth all-time. Juniors
Nicole Wells and
Kendall Johnson placed third (39.49) and fourth (40.51), respectively.
Freshman
Josie Jackson, sophomore
Savannah Moore and senior
Addison Ollendick-Smith took the top spots in the women's 600 meters and women's 800 meters. Jackson placed first in both events with personal bests of 1:37.26 in the 600 meters and 2:17.06 in the 800 meters. Moore placed second in the 600 meters (1:38.12) and third in the 800 meters (2:20.71), while Ollendick-Smith took second in the 800 meters (2:17.18) and third in the 600 meters (1:40.83). The Mountaineers also saw first-place finishes on the track from freshman
Tessa Massa who stopped the clock at 5:11.23 in the women's mile, and sophomore
Breanna Budzinski, who clocked a time of 10:26.91 in the women's 3,000 meters.
Freshmen
Alana Braxton and
Ashlynn Wimberly landed first in the women's long jump (5.98m (19' 7.5"), PR) and women's triple jump (12.38m (40' 7.5")), respectively. Braxton's leap in the women's long jump moved her to ninth in the App State all-time list. In the women's pole vault, senior
Ava Studney and sophomore
Abigail Goetz landed first and second with clearances of 3.79m (12' 5.25") and 3.49m (11' 5.25"). Sophomore
Emily Edwards also registered a first-place finish in the women's weight throw with a toss of 16.89m (55' 5").
In the Rankings
Fourteen Mountaineers round out the Sun Belt's top-three in nine events this week, leading the league in four categories. Jackson leads the Sun Belt and ranks 11th in the NCAA Southeast Region in the women's 800 meters. Studney continues to lead the conference and ranks eighth in the region, as well as 39th nationally in the women's pole vault. Wimberly is the league's leader in the women's triple jump and ranks sixth in the region and 28th nationally in the event. Joining Wimberly in the women's triple jump rankings is Braxton, who stands nationally 39th in the women's triple jump as well as 43rd in the women's long jump. The 4x400-meter quartet of Wells, Alejandro-Ortiz, Talley, and Adams continue to lead the conference and stands sixth regionally and 40th nationally in the event. Additionally, Adams rounds out the NCAA's top-50 in the women's 200 meters.
On Deck
App State will compete in back-to-back meets at Virginia Tech. The Mountaineers will appear at the Hokie Invitational on Jan. 23-24, before returning to Blacksburg, Va. for the Doc Hale VT Meet on Feb. 6-7.
