Track & Field Travels to the Big Apple for Dr. Sander Invitational

TULANE GREEN WAVE
Meet:	Dr. Sander Invitational
When:	Friday, Jan. 26 \| Schedule
Where:	New York, N.Y. \| New Balance Track & Field Center at the Armory
Live Results:	Roll Wave!
Twitter:	@GreenWaveXCTF \| #RollWave
Facebook:	@GreenWaveXCTF \| #RollWave
Meet Central:	Heat Sheets \| Live Webcast Info

NEW ORLEANS -- Fresh off a successful weekend in Nashville, Tenn., Tulane track & field's indoor team hits the road again, heading to New York City to compete in the Dr. Sander Invitational Friday at The Armory. The meet opens Friday morning, with events starting at 10 a.m.

ABOUT THE MEET
The Green Wave will complete in a stacked field, featuring the likes of Duke, Rutgers, Syracuse, UCLA, UConn and Villanova. Tulane athletes will compete in 14 total track and field events, including the women's 3000m run, women's 60m hurdles, women's 60m dash women's 800m run, women's 1000m run, women's and men's one mile run, women's 200m dash, women's and men's 400m dash, women's distance medley relay (DMR), women's 4x400 relay, women's long jump and women's pole vault.

"As we're working through the indoor season, our expectations for strong performances increase every week," Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Eric Peterson said. "We're looking for a lot of improvement across the board here, and we're hoping that we get some really strong results from our athletes."

Tulane returns to the friendly confines of The Armory, where the program has had great success in past season. Last year at The Armory Invitational, then-freshman Sarah Cella earned an eighth-place finish in the 800m with her personal best time of 2:12.61. Then-sophomore Jessica Duckett also put together a strong performance for the Green Wave, helping the team to a sixth-place finish in the 4x400 meter relay (3:52.60).

"Historically, our team has competed well at this venue," Peterson said. "The Armory is an iconic indoor venue and ever since we, as an athletic department, joined The American, we've been coming back here on annual basis because we've had really good results. It provides an incredibly strong competitive environment for our athletes."

LAST TIME OUT
Junior Rebekah Markel set a new personal record in the women's pole vault in day two of the competition, capping off the Green Wave's weekend at the Vanderbilt Invitational. Markel reset her personal best by notching a mark of 4.07m (13-04.25) to place sixth. The junior had posted a mark of 4.05m (13-03.50) at the LSU Purple Tiger Invitational, which had topped her previous personal best of 4.00m (13-01.50), which she set earlier this season at the BSC Panther Icebreaker in Birmingham, Ala.

"Rebekah is knocking on the door of emerging into a nationally-ranked pole vaulter," Peterson said. "It typically takes a mark of 4.25m, sometimes in the low-4.20s, to qualify for the national championships. With the way the bar progression is going to go tomorrow, it will get to 4.15 and then 4.25, so if she has a successful meet and continues to improve, she'll have an opportunity to get even closer to that qualification level. Everything in the way she's training and competing indicates that she's moving in that direction."

Junior Emmanuel Rotich ran the men's indoor 3000m run for the first time in his career and delivered a race-winning time of 8:03.17. The mark is his overall personal best, topping his outdoor 3000m run of 8:21.03, which he had set at the Tulane Early Bird Twilight Track and Field Invitational in 2017.

Junior Mckenzie Melius, sophomore Sarah Cella, junior Jessica Duckett and redshirt junior Emma Newton teamed up for a third-place finish in the 4000m distance medley relay with a time of 12:00.87 in Day One of the competition. On the men's side, sophomore Raymond Kibet made his indoor season debut in day one and finished 25th in the 200m run with an indoor personal best time of 22.33.

Follow Tulane track & field on Twitter and Facebook for updates and news. Follow Tulane Athletics on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and @TulaneAthletics on Snapchat.

Track & Field Travels to the Big Apple for Dr. Sander Invitational

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Sarah Cella

Jessica Duckett

Footer

Tulane University Athletics