Alabama Women’s Distance Sweeps The Field in the Mile at Samford Invitational

Alabama track and field athletes traveled to Birmingham, Alabama to compete at the Samford Invitational. Even though this was Bama's second meet of the year, it is the season opener for some of the athletes. Woman's distance athletes Flomena Asekol, Jami Reed, Macy Schelp, and Macy's older sister Riley Schelp showed up on Friday going 1-2-3-4 in the women's mile.

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The Tide keeps rolling making every race count. Jami Reed (Jr.) is one of Alabama's strongest distance runners. Her mindset going into the race was to get out there and get into a rhythm.

Reed stated that, "we had a pacer and knew she was going to bring us through the 800 in 2:20 so just hit that again to get close to 4:40. I just wanted to open up with a strong time since we haven't done much speed work this year."

Both Schelp sisters were on the distance team this year and competed in the mile. Having them practice together and be able to compete for Alabama is something that's very wholesome for the Tide.

"I wanted to be competitive no matter what today. Someone was going to have to take control of the second half and push the group so I went up to the front to push the pace a little bit so we could get under five. I love racing with Macy because I'm super competitive with her and she's super competitive with me," said Riley Schelp (Sr.).

The two sisters definitely showed their competitiveness with each other.

"My plan for the race was to not lead because I typically burn out so I was going to stay relaxed in the first half and push in the second half if I can. Racing with Riley is pretty fun but it's also comforting in situations like this I know when she makes a move I'm capable of making the same move. Then I just kicked pretty hard in the end and I think it turned out pretty good I'm happy with it," explained Macy Schelp (Fr.).

The Alabama women have made a great first start to their season and other athletes included.