LEBANON, Tenn.—Cumberland track and field is primed to improve on a 14th place finish for both the men and women at the Indoor Championships in March. The Phoenix have 22 athletes set to compete across 18 events.
The Phoenix come in as two of the Top 10 teams in the country as the men are ranked No. 7 in the latest USTFCCCA National Ranking and the women are sitting at No. 6 in the polls.
Opening day of the National Champions will be tomorrow with the Phoenix women set to compete across five events, three finals and two prelims. The first event for Cumberland will be the 4x100m Relay team of Praise Idamadudu, Doris Mensah, Alana Mack, and Blessing Samuel will run the prelims at 2:00 p.m. The group enters as the 5-seed. The first finals event will be Sophiat Omizi in the hammer throw. Omizi is making her second appearance at the National Championships as the 18-seed with a best mark of 51.68m.
Idamadudu will take on the 200m prelims at 4:20 p.m. as she enters as the No. 1 seed.
Alana Mack will have her first finals event of the Championship Wednesday starting at 5:00 p.m in the long jump. Mack is the 21-seed in the long jump. The final event for the women on Wednesday will be at 7:20 p.m. with Mercy Kibiwott taking on. The 10000m. Mercy is the No. 19 seed in the race with a time 37:26.32.
The men will take on three prelims on Wednesday. The 4x100m Relay team of Priest Kier, Derrick Redmond, Jaylen Poole, and Akpan Nsikak will run at 2:30 p.m. They are the 36-seed in the event.
After the relays, Jason Bowers will run in the 1500m prelims at 3:10 p.m. Bowers is the No. 1 seed with the best time in the event this season at 3:43.73. At 5:50 p.m., Bowers will team up with Joel Forbes, Luke Freeman, and Tahmar Upshaw for the prelims of the 4x800m relays.
Thursday will be a big day for both squads, the first event will be Mensah in the 100m Hurdles. Mensah is the 20-seed with a best time of 14.27.
The first finals event of Thursday for Cumberland will be Goodness Iredia taking on the long jump. Goodness is the favorite to win the title entering as the No. 1 seed.
The women’s shot put finals will be going on at the same time with Daveina Watson looking for consecutive All-American honors in the event. Watson enters as the No. 6 seed.
At 2:50 p.m., Forbes will be on the track in the 800m prelims as the No. 9 seed. Just after that at 3:40 p.m., the men’s 100m dash prelims will be going on with Nsikak bidding for a spot in the finals.
Idamadudu is on the track for the 400m prelims at 4:00 p.m. She won the event at last year’s national championships for the first national title in the women’s program history.
Mack will take on her second finals event at 5:30 p.m. with the women’s triple jump. Mack is the No. 4 seed in the event seeking her first All-American honors.
The men’s 4x800m Relay finals will be at 6:30 p.m. if the group qualifies for the event.
The Women’s 4x400m Relay team of Ifunya Muoghalu, Mensah, Leesa Mutwanda, and Idamadudu will take part in the prelims for the final event of the night 8:45 p.m.
Only finals events will be going on Friday starting at 1:00 p.m. If all goes well during the prelims, Cumberland can be competing in 10 finals events on the day. The only event on Friday without the qualifying round is the men’s triple jump at 1:30 p.m. Goodness is the favorite in the event and he will be joined by two-time All-American Jaylen Poole as the 9-seed.
Three days of action will be available to be watched at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/naia/.
Live stats can be found at https://crossroadstiming.com/ and tickets to the Championships are available at https://iwuwildcats.com/sports/2020/10/18/TICKETS.aspx.
