JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Feb. 12, 2021) – The first day of a busy weekend for ETSU track and field concluded on Friday, the Bucs splitting the team up to compete in both the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational along with the Music City Challenge.

Hosted by Liberty, the majority of events for the Bucs came at the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational, a meet held in honor of a former Liberty freshman sprinter who tragically passed away following a car crash two days after his collegiate debut.

Nicole Johnson highlighted the day with her second-place finish in the 60m, half a tenth of a second behind first place. Lindsay Cooper takes her third quickest time in the 60m hurdles into the finals tomorrow morning.

Only two races on the first day of the Music City Challenge featured Buccaneers. All three mile participants set personal records in the event.

Podium Finishes

Second – Nicole Johnson (60m)

Personal Bests

Women – Genevieve Schwarz (Mile, 4:53.61)

Men - Isaiah Mills (400m, 50.18s), Evan Guzman (Mile, 4:13.17), Gavin Cooper (Mile, 4:17.18)

Track Highlights (Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational)

• Qualifying with a time of 8.75s in the women’s 60m hurdles, Lindsay Cooper looked to continue her strong freshman campaign. The rookie looks to take her time to a podium finish in the Saturday finals.
• Isaiah Mills entered the 400m and grabbed the third fastest time of freshmen, securing a 10^th place, 50.18s time.
• Johnaida Eliscar secured a fifth place finish in the women’s 400m on Friday evening, just over a second out of the top three.
• After a blistering pace of 7.56s in the qualifiers of the women’s 60m dash, Nicole Johnson matched that mark in the finals on her way to a second-place finish, just .05s behind the top spot.

Track Highlights (Music City Challenge)

• Setting a new personal record in the mile, Genevieve Schwarz finished with a time of 4:53.61 for 17^th.
• Evan Guzman’s time of 4:13.17 in the mile was the fourth fastest among freshman, good for a 23^rd place finish. His time was almost five seconds quicker than his previous best. Gavin Cooper also beat his previous quickest time with a 4:17.18 finish.

Field Highlights (Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational)

• Marcus Evans finished just outside of the placement spots, leaping for 6.40m in the long jump to finish ninth.
• Mekayla Brown led a trio of Bucs in the women’s long jump with a 5.58m effort, finishing in the top-10.

Thoughts From Coach Watts:

On the short distance runners - "At the Darius Dixon meet Nicole johnson put together two strong races, finishing second in the 60m dash. Kennedie Carithers and Lanaya Martin are working their way back into shape and are making progress. We can't rush their training but I expect some good things from them down the road. Lindsay Cooper was the 4th fastest qualifier for tomorrow's hurdle final and Kennedi Johnson has shown good consistency to this point in the season."

On long jump performances - "Our horizontal jumpers are struggling a bit but I have confidence they'll get things figured out in time for the conference championship."

On Schwarz's performance - "Genevieve ran a personal best (at the Music City Challenge) with about a 12 second season-best. That should move her up the conference list."

On the men's performance at the DDMI - "We had two guys compete at each of the meets and came away with three personal-bests. Isaiah Mills ran a solid 400 and with a little more improvement is capable of being a conference finalist. Although Marcus did not improve his mark for the season he still ranks in the top 8 in our conference."

On the men at the MCC - "In Nashville Evan Guzman and Gavin Cooper had big jumps in their Mile run personal bests to finish off the the day for the Bucs."

On the final day of competition - "I look forward to seeing what tomorrow brings as we finish up our last meet before the Southern Conference Championship in two weeks."

For a full list of results of both meets, used the attached link on the right side of the page.

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