April 2, 2019

Trio of Eagles earn SAC Athlete of the Week plaudits Tuesday

ROCK HILL, S.C. - Coming off a stellar weekend in the Montreat College Invitational, Carson-Newman Track & Field occupied three of the four Athlete of the Week honors from the South Atlantic Conference after the league’s announcement on Tuesday morning.

SAC Release: Women's Athletes of the Week

ROCK HILL, S.C. - Coming off a stellar weekend in the Montreat College Invitational, Carson-Newman Track & Field occupied three of the four Athlete of the Week honors from the South Atlantic Conference after the league's announcement on Tuesday morning.

Devon Moore, Kristofer Potts-Howard, and Tia Davis were all honored by the SAC for their performances in Black Mountain, N.C. as the trio contributed to the Eagles victory total of 10 on Saturday, March 30.

"It is a microcosm on the team as a whole over the weekend," Coach Needs said. "It was a massive contribution from the team but obviously those three were some standouts but it was really a team growth. Tia has been super consistent and she's just continuing to get better. With Kris being a senior to have the level of success in multiple events says a lot about his consistency as well.

"Devon having run three races this year and having top national top times as well so it just shows how they're working hard to getting to that point. They're getting better because they have great teammates who are pushing them in practice and the quality of our assistant coaches make a huge difference alongside Kieran being able to mentor those sprinters as well. As a whole, really proud of where we stand as a program and I know this is just a first step in many that they will take this season."

Moore, who has now earned the men's outstanding track athlete honor for the second time in three weeks, took victories in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes for the second time during the outdoor season.

The time of 20.87 seconds from the Baxley, Ga. native in the 200-meter is a new personal record and currently sits as the second-best time in all of Division II. In the same day, Moore ran the nation's third-best time and another career-best with a mark of 10.40 seconds. It is .18 seconds under the NCAA Division II Provisional time.

Davis joined Moore as the only Eagles to win multiple events in each of the team's meets so far this season as she also took top finishes in the 100 and 200-meter dashes on the women's side.

Her 12.21-second run in the 100-meter dash tabbed a new best as an Eagle by .16 seconds. Davis' second victory of the day in the 200m came in with a time of 25.43 seconds.

The athlete of the week accolade is the sophomore's third of her career and first of the outdoor campaign after previously winning indoor honors in two of the first three weeks of the 2017-18 season.

Potts-Howard took home his first victory of the 2019 outdoor season with a 14.88-meter leap in the triple jump. The mark shatters his previous career-best which sat at 14.57 entering the day and propelled the senior into 7th in the nation. He also jumped a season's best in the long jump clearing 7.14 meters for a second-place finish.

"So proud of the weekend that Kris put together," Coach Tyler Stepp said. "He continues to establish himself as a leader on this team through his efforts on the track and commitment to our overall team development. What he did was amazing but the jump did not surprise me. We knew he was capable of a big performance and it's nice to see that materialize.

"He told me he would jump big if I would enter him in the meet and I appreciated him calling his shot. He has the ambition to make it to NCAA's in two events and starting off the outdoor season like this indicates he's going to have a shot to do that."

C-N is slated to for a trip back to Hickory, N.C. where they began their outdoor season for the Lenoir-Rhyne Challenge on April 5-6. Stay up to date with all Track & Field news out of Mossy Creek at cneagles.com

-CN-