Thomas, Habersham Post Personal Bests to Lead CSU Women's Track and Tiger Paw Invitational

CLEMSON, S.C. – Despite a late arrival on Friday afternoon, Charleston Southern’s women’s track and field athletes posted a number of personal bests at the Tiger Paw Invitational.

The winter storm that swept across the state put CSU in Clemson just a half hour before the start of the meet, not allowing Jessica Thomas and Gabrielle Houston much warm up time before their 60m dash event. Thomas did not let it faze her as she ran a personal best of 7.58, qualifying for the finals with the eighth-best time of the day. Houston finished 13th overall with a time of 7.77 seconds. Thomas duplicated the time in the finals, moving up to sixth place.

“This was a much better week for us,” said Coach Tosha Ansley. “It was tough on the team to get here so late but I was proud of how they responded despite the adverse conditions.”

Tia Habersham also had a personal best, tossing the weight 15.07m for eighth overall. She came right back on Saturday with a 10.98m mark in the shot put, 21st overall, while Breeann Guerra got a mark of 10.53, the best of her young CSU career.

Patria Norman ran well in the 60m hurdles, running 8.91 seconds to qualify in the seventh spot for the finals. She ran 8.92 in the finals to claim seventh overall.

Adrienne Cuff started her meet with the mile run, clocking in at 5:32.30 for 29th overall. Susanna McKee finished 13th in the 500m dash, running 1:25.87. Cuff returned to the track for the 3,000m run, finishing in 11:05.83, which put her 24th overall.

Getting out 5.30m on her first attempt in the long jump, Casey fouled on her second two attempts, but still finished 11th overall in the event. Tamisha Foster finished 28th with a distance of 4.84m. Deona Jones struggled to get a good mark and finished with a tally of 3.72m.

Casey also competed in the high jump, clearing 1.55m to finish 12th, It was the best jump of the season for a Buccaneer.

Amerikorie Odey was the lone competitor in the 400m dash, running 59.96 in the event for a 14th place finish.

Not happy with her time in the 800m dash at Appalachian State, McKee posted a much-improved time of 2:36.53 on Saturday, 12 seconds faster than her first attempt of the year.

Houston finished second in the 200m dash, running 24.80, just off the pace set by Clemson’s Kristine Scott. Not far behind was Thomas, who continued her solid weekend with a season-best 25.43, seventh-place finish.

The first 4x400m relay event of the year, Channell Futrell, Norman, Odey and Thomas combined to run 3:54.59, just three seconds off the school record and good enough for fifth.

Charleston Southern is back at Clemson for the Tiger Tune Up next Saturday.

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