The Southern Conference released this week’s Athletes of the Week awards on Wednesday and Georgia Southern University is proud to have a member of the track and field team as one of the two recipients.

Freshman hurdler Taylor Wade was named Indoor Field Athlete of the Week for her performance at the Birmingham Invitational in Alabama on Jan. 25-26.

At the event, the Loganville, Ga., native placed seventh in the 60-meter hurdles after recording an 8.95 second run. She also competed in the pentathlon where she placed 16th.
The pentathlon is scored by averaging the performances in the 800-meter run, 60-meter hurdles, long jump, high jump and shot put.

“I am very happy to see Taylor’s hard work and discipline pay off,” head coach Marlo Mincey said in a GSU press release. “She is a tough competitor and we can expect big things from her throughout the seasons.”

This week was also good for Wade’s standings in the SoCon rankings. She is currently fourth in the conference for shot put and ranked fifth in the pentathlon.

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore Amanda Sumner was given the honors for Indoor Track Athlete of the Week after her first 3K race at the Rod McCravy Memorial which earned her the second place 3K ranking in SoCon.

“We’ve just hit the midway point of the indoor track season,” Mincey said.

The hard work of the team and strong coaching skills employed by Mincey has brought the team to third place in the SoCon indoor power rankings.

Appalachian State University and Samford University are ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. GSU is close behind Samford in the third spot out of the twelve teams in the conference.

The team is on its way to Blacksburg, Via., where GSU will compete in the Virginia Tech Elite.

News for the event along with additional track and field coverage can be found here at The George-Anne online and in the Tuesday-Thursday print editions of The George-Anne.

Next Friday through Saturday the team will be off to Clemson, S.C., where they’ll be ready to compete in the Tiger Paw Invitational.