MURRAY, Ky. – The Austin Peay track and field team concluded competition at the 2022 Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Championships Friday highlighted by a pair of Govs defending their titles to go along with eight podium finishes and four event titles.   

Junior Kenisha Phillips successfully defended her outdoor titles in the 200 and 400-meter dash while senior Denia Hill-Tate claimed her second straight OVC Outdoor title in the high jump. As a team, the Govs tallied eight podium finishes with four event titles. The Govs finished fifth with 98 points as host school Murray State won the OVC Championship followed by Southeast Missouri, Belmont, and Eastern Illinois.           

For the second year in a row junior Kenisha Phillips was dominant on the track at the OVC Outdoor Championships, defending her outdoor titles in both the 200 and 400-meter dash. In her first event, Phillips won the 400-meter dash for the second year in a row with a school-record time of 52.44. Phillips crushed the school record of 52.65 held by Breigh Jones at the NCAA East Prelims in 2014.

Phillips followed up that performance by defending her title in the 200-meter dash with a school-record time of 23.34. For the second year in a row, the Georgetown, Guyana won the event and broke the school record, breaking her own school record of last season by just 0.01 seconds. Phillips now holds the top 11 times in school history in the 200-meter dash.

For her performance on the track, Phillips was named the OVC Female Track Athlete of the Year.

Carrying on with the theme of back-to-back outdoor titles, Denia Hill-Tate defended her OVC Outdoor title in the high jump. Hill-Tate won the event for the second year in a row with a mark of 1.70 meters, matching her season-high. Hill-Tate won the event by over 0.05 meters over Tennessee Tech's Kendall Medders.

The first podium finish of the day for the Govs happened in the field in the triple jump. Senior Camaryn McClelland finished second in the event with a season-best mark of 12.11 meters. McClelland earned her silver medal mark on the second attempt and was just 0.03 meters off her career-best mark. McClelland finished 0.39 meters behind event winner Elaina Housworth of Tennessee State.

Austin Peay's first podium finish on the track came in the 100-meter hurdles as Lennex Walker finished third in the event with a time of 13.88. It was a season-best time for Walker and the tenth fastest time in the event in school history. Right behind Walker was Kamille Dunbar in fifth place with a time of 14.28.

In what was the fourth podium spot of the day for the Govs on the track, Mikaela Smith finished second in the 800-meter dash with a time of 2:11.49. Smith led for all of the first lap and over half of the second lap before a furious final 200-meters placed Smith in second by just 0.47 seconds.

In the field, Kori McDaniel claimed a spot on the podium in the shot put with a mark of 13.71 meters. McDaniel got the podium mark on the third of her six attempts. Fellow shot putter Jacklyn Verseman finished fourth in the event with a mark of 12.96 meters.

Rounding out the day on the track was the Govs 4x400-meter relay team earning the event title with a time of 3:40.62. APSU bested rival Murray State by nearly three seconds in the event as both teams were deadlocked entering the final leg of the relay. In the anchor spot, Phillips pulled away from the competition the final 200 meters to claim the event victory for Austin Peay.

The Govs now shift their focus to the NCAA East Prelims, May 25-28. To qualify for the NCAA East Prelims, the top 48 student-athletes in each event will qualify with a chance to advance to the NCAA National Championships, June 8-11.

FIELD

• Triple Jump
  • Senior Jessica Kelley finished 12th with a mark of 10.51 meters

SPRINTS

• 100-meter
  • Kyra Wilder finished sixth in the event with a time of 12.06
    • Wilder was just 0.05 off her career-best mark
• 400-meter
  • Sydney Hartoin finished seventh in the event with a time of 58.04
• 800-meter
  • Lauren Lewis-Hayes tallied a seventh-place finish in the event with a time of 2:15.61

DISTANCE

• 1500-Meter
  • Sara Martin finishes 11th in the event with a time of 4:59.92

RELAYS

• 4x100-meter relay
  • The Govs finish fourth in the event with a season-best time of 46.53
    • APSU finished behind event winner Murray State, Eastern Illinois, and Southeast Missouri

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