Njoku, Williams Represent Tech in Opening Multis

Thursday, January 24

Lubbock, Texas

12:00 P.M.

Texas Tech Athletics

Texas Tech Classic

Njoku, Williams Represent Tech in Opening Multis

January 24, 2019 | Track and Field

Full Results

Red Raiders complete pentathlon to open Texas Tech Classic.

By: Jeremy O'Brien

LUBBOCK, Texas –Texas Tech had two student-athletes going in the women's pentathlon Thursday to open the Texas Tech Classic. The duo of Rose Njoku and Tiara Williams competed in five events over the course of the day.

Associate Head Coach James Thomas, who oversees combined events, was pleased with the first multi competition of the year.

"Both those girls went out there and gave it their all," Thomas said. "I think at this point of the year you're trying to work on some technical queues. There were close fouls and some bars that just barely went down. At the end of the day you're just using it as an opportunity to get a pentathlon under their belts and prepare themselves for conference."

The two opened the day running the 60m hurdles. Njoku got off to a strong start with a second-place 8.44 that netted her 1,030 points right off the bat. Williams, a junior transfer from Bethune-Cookman, placed 10^thwith a 9.00 for 910 points.

The two then switched to field events for three rounds, where Njoku and Williams opened the high jump with finishes of 10^th(689 points) and 11^th(621) place, respectively. Njoku was second in the field in the long jump after a solid 18'0.25" (5.49m). Williams had a top leap of 16'-10.75" (5.15m).

Both had a good showing in the shot put, finishing third and fourth. It was Njoku who took third and grabbed 582 points for herself after a top toss of 35'-5.25" (10.80m). Williams placed fourth after topping at 35'-2" (10.72m).

The two concluded their day in the 800m, where Njoku's 2:35.25 propelled her to a final score of 3,627 – a new personal record. Williams, who was rounding out her first career pentathlon, ran a 2:38.31 to finish with 3,301 points.

While Njoku will likely focus on jumps as the year goes on, Thomas would like to see Williams contribute in the pentathlon when the Big 12 meet rolls around. Though she is new to the event, Thomas believes Williams can make an impact.

"When you're a mid-year and you have multiple events to learn, everything is a new language," he said. "Then, she's jumping into a new conference and competition that will be a little more heightened than she's used to, she's going to start to grow."

He finished, saying, "She took her lumps today, learning what it's like to compete against some elite-level people, but over time I think she's going to continue to get in better shape, understand some things better technically and hopefully evolve into somebody that can help us at the Big 12 level."