Blue Raiders compete in Kentucky Invitational

Lexington, Ky. - Sarah Nambawa remained undefeated this season in the women's triple jump as the Middle Tennessee track teams traveled to the Kentucky Invitational to take on some of the region's top competition early in the season.

Nambawa won the women's triple jump and posted an NCAA provisional mark with a jump of 43-03.25 on Friday night and followed this performance with a sixth place mark of 18-08.00 in the long jump on Saturday.

Brittany Cox also had a strong weekend in the field events for the Lady Raiders. Cox threw a 57-05.00 in the women's weight throw placing her third overall and 48-01.25 in the shot put placing her fifth overall. MeLyn Thompson also threw well placing her seventh in the shot put. Cox and Thompson's shot put throws were personal bests.

Zamzam Sangau led the female distance runners breaking her own Middle Tennessee indoor 3000-meter record in 9:55.28 placing her ninth. Ashley Comstock finished 17th in women's mile.

Freshman sprinter Roscoe Payne proved why he was one of the top recruits in the country placing ninth in the 60-meter hurdles with a 8.06 time in the finals. Greg Franklin finished 10th in the 60-meter dash and 13th in the 200 meters. Samuel Adade came in 14th in the 200 meters.

Other notable male performers, on the field side, included Stanley Gbagbeke who finished sixth in the long jump with a 23-02.75 mark and DeRay Sloss who finished 12th for the men in the triple jump with a jump of 45-04.25. Festus Chemaoi and William Songock finished eighth and 10th, respectively, in the men's 3000-meter run. Chemaoi ran an 8:22.89 while Songock finished in 8:27.33. These were personal best for both. Julius Kirui and Isaac Biwott ran the men's mile coming in 14th and 17th to round out the Blue Raider competitors.

Coach Hayes commented, "It was a good meet overall. We have some areas that need to be improved but our athletes came back from the break and performed well. Sarah (Nambawa) looked really good on Friday night and we had a handful set personal bests."

Both teams return to competition next weekend at Murphy Center on Saturday January 24 at Noon.

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