Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Ohio Valley Conference
Racers Set for OVC Indoor Championship
2/19/2019 2:04:00 PM | Women's Track and Field
The Murray State women's track and field team heads to Birmingham, Alabama this week for the Ohio Valley Indoor Championship. It is a two-day event, scheduled to begin Wednesday at 10 a.m with field events followed by running events at 4:15 p.m. Both days will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Now in his second year as head coach of the Racers, Adam Kiesler is excited to get down to Alabama and try to improve upon a fourth-place finish in 2018.
"We look forward to heading down to Birmingham this week to compete for an Indoor Championship," said Kiesler. "This group is the deepest group we have had here at MSU in a long time and we look forward to representing this school and our community. The upperclassmen have helped put this program on top of the conference and I would love nothing more than for this group to leave here with a championship. These kids are excited, but more importantly ready to complete our team goal.
The Racers will be a force to be reckoned with as they have multiple athletes that have posted top-ten results in the OVC this season.
Tamdra Lawrence currently holds the top time in the OVC this season in the 200m at 24.17 seconds as well as the second-best time in the 60m at 7.50 seconds. Antoinetta Avant (7.70) and Rachel Hagans (7.73) joins Lawrence in the top-10 of the 60m with the fifth and seventh fastest times this season.
Norma Abdur-Rafia also holds top-five times in two events this season as she ran the fifth-fastest time in the 200m (24.64) and the third-fastest time in the 400m (56.48). Hilary McAdam has the 10th best time in the 400m (57.63) in addition to the top time in the 800m at 2:12.44.
Jabreuna Brimlett is looking to win her first indoor gold medal in the 60 hurdles after winning the outdoor 100 hurdles last season. She will also be competing in the long jump and the triple jump, as both her marks are top-ten in the OVC this season.
Ashlyn Oren, Aubrey Main, and Jessikha Ribeiro had the Racers in the jumps and mutli events as they each have top-ten OVC scores in multiple events. Oren, the OVC Freshman of the Year, is tied for second with Main in the high jump at 1.70m while also putting up the ninth-best long jump (5.53m) and third-best pentathlon score with 3237 points.
In addition to her second-best high jump, Main also has the second-best pentathlon score (3475 points) in the OVC and fourth-best in school history. Ribeiro is also in the top-ten in the pentathlon with 3138 points, set at the Don DeNoon Invitational at SIU.
Brooke Misukonis has led a resurgence in the pole vault for the Racers as she is one of four Racers who have put up top-ten vaults in school history. Misukonis has the fourth-best vault in the OVC this season at 3.70m followed by Emily Heil in sixth (3.55m), Gabby Kennedy in seventh (3.46m), and Jessie Kinder in ninth (3.35m)
In the throwing events, Destiny Carey has the tenth-best shot put distance in the OVC at 12.89m while Jewel Wagner is ninth in the weight throw (16.24m).
Last year host Tennessee Tech won the women's championship for the first time in school history, while Eastern Kentucky won the men's title for the first time since 2008.
