NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Belmont Women's Track and Field team is splitting its squad for the second week of the season this weekend. Most of the Bruins will take a trip up to Murray, Ky., for the Margaret Simmons Invitational, with a select few distance runners heading to Raleigh, N.C., for the highly competitive Raleigh Relays.
The Raleigh Relays will start Thursday and continue through Saturday. Highlighting the Bruin competitors on the women's side is sophomore Lily Hallum (Mason, Ohio) will be competing in the 1,500m on Friday and the 800m Saturday.
Hallum will race against student athletes from Alabama, Ball State, Boston College, Bowing Green State, Butler, Charlotte, Clemson, Davidson, Duke, East Tennessee State, Eastern Michigan, Elon, Furman, George Mason, George Washington, Georgia, Georgetown, Grand Valley State, Howard, Lee (Tenn.), Loyola (Ill.), Missouri, NC State, North Carolina, Northeastern, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Providence, Queens (N.C.), Rhode Island, Richmond, Syracuse, Temple, Toledo, UMass Lowell, Wake Forest, Washington, West Virginia, Villanova, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Youngstown State as well as familiar foes Eastern Kentucky, Lipscomb, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt.
"This is typically a very competitive meet, so I'm excited to see how we match up against some other big schools," said Assistant Coach, Kate Buckman.
Bucknam is excited to see what Hallum can do to represent the Bruins in Raleigh. "I think it's important to keep in mind that this is the first race back on the track for her in over a year. The number one goal is to take advantage of the great competition and run fast," said Bucknam.
"Definitely a great opportunity to see where we are at currently and get back into the racing mindset to set them up well for the rest of the season."
Saturday, BU will travel approximately 20 student athletes to Kentucky for the Margaret Simmons Invitational, hosted by Murray State, where they will dust off their spikes for the first time in over a year's time.
"The Murray State meet will simply be a rust buster for us," said assistant coach Joe Frye.
The Bruins will see competition from OVC schools Austin Peay, Jacksonville State, Murray State, Tennessee State and UT Martin and other student athletes from Bellarmine, Berea, Brescia, Campbellsville, Carlow, Centre, Freed-Hardeman, Illinois-Chicago, Indiana Tech, Kentucky Wesleyan, Lindsey Wilson, Olivet Nazarene, Purdue Fort Wayne, Southern Indiana, St. Mary of the Woods, and Quincy.
"I'm excited to get the season started for our athletes this weekend," said Frye. "We've been training for a long time in some pretty unconventional situations, so I know the athletes are anxious to put their hard work to the test and see where they're at."
Both meets will have live results available.
