Middle Tennessee State University’s (MTSU) pair of Cecilia Francis and Abike Egbeniyi were outstanding at the Conference USA Indoor Track and Field Championships held on February 17th and 18th in Birmingham, Alabama, winning titles in the women’s 60m and 400m respectively.
Francis who was a member of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m GOLD-winning team at the 2015 African Games in Brazzaville, ran the overall third fastest time of 7.48s in the preliminaries to win her heat, which qualified her for the finals.
The Freshman then stormed to victory in the final where she smashed her previous Personal Best (PB) of 7.40m set in Metz, France two years ago, replacing it with a superior time of 7.37s, while Keiyana Gaskin (7.38s) and Alex Council (7.42s) followed in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Nigerian-born Bahraini athlete Edidiong Odiong who is also a freshman at MTSU, finished 8th in the race with 7.69s.
Francis’ new mark makes her joint 2nd with Aniekeme Alphonsus who set the same time of 7.37s in Lubbock last month, with Stephanie Kalu topping the Nigerian standings with her time of 7.29s set in College Station two days ago.
Meanwhile Egbeniyi emerged the new Conference Champion in the women’s 400m after running the overall fastest time of 53.89s in the heats, before clocking a new C-USA Championship Record of 52.77s to win the final ahead of Joycelyn Assafuah (54.12s) and Chenelle Ricketts (55.03s). Loveth Odia was 7th in 55.97s.
Egbeniyi, who represented Nigeria at the 2017 World Championships in London, then anchored MTSU women’s 4x400m team to the overall fastest time of 3:39.76, having partnered with Janet Amponsah, Agnes Abu and Joycelyn Assafuah.
Francis and Egbeniyi played a vital role in securing the indoor Track and Field Conference USA championship title for MTSU’s women’s team which amassed a total of 127 points, while their male counterparts finished 3rd overall.
