University of Tennessee Athletics
Vols Off to Fast Start at Armory Invitational
February 08, 2002 | Men's Track
Feb. 8, 2002
NEW YORK -- Tennessee's top-ranked track and field squad reserved lanes in Saturday's finals and registered three new or improved NCAA qualifying marks Friday night on the fast track at the Armory Invitational in Manhattan.
"We're off to a good start," head coach Bill Webb said. "We qualified people well. This is a highly competitive meet. I'm looking forward to tomorrow."
Sprinter Justin Gatlin posted his first NCAA automatic qualifier of the year with a 20.83 to win his 200M dash heat and reserve a lane in Saturday's finals as the top qualifier. Gatlin's previous season-best of 21.20 came two weeks ago at the SEC Eastern Divison Challenge in Gainesville, Fla. Likewise, Leonard Scott raced to the finals with a heat-winning 21.23 despite running in a tough and tight lane one. Scott's time stood as the day's third-fastest qualifier. Scott's 21.23 was fast enough to meet the provisional mark, but his 20.89 Jan. 19 at the Kroger Invitational in Blacksburg, Va., rates a little better for NCAA qualifying purposes.
The distance medley relay registered the most dramatic improvement of the day. The Vols took third and ran to a strong provisional time of 9:39.60, trimming a whopping 50 seconds off their previous season-best time two weeks ago in Gainesville. The Vol quartet included Rob Cloutier (running in his home state), co-captain Hassaan Stamps, Marc Sylvester (who ran a particularly strong leg according to Webb) and Ryan Demers. The relay action marked Demers' return from the injured reserve and his first track competition as a Vol (although he did compete for Tennessee's cross country squad last fall). None of the four had competed in the event this year for the Volunteers.
Newcomer Gary Kikaya posted a provisional, season-best 400M dash time of 47.03 to win his heat and place second among all the day's qualifiers. Kikaya sliced .85 off his previous season-best time and will line up in Saturday's finals.
In a final, Farragut's Eric Bell bettered his career-best 3,000M run time by nine seconds with an 8:27.02 to earn fifth in the university section of the event.
However, not all Vols cranked out qualifiers for the finals. Brooklyn native Sean Lambert didn't quite make the finals cut in the 200M dash in front of the home crowd. Likewise, Shannon Wheatley (48.29) and Dwayne Bell (48.56) missed the cut for the 400M dash finals.
Tennessee lines up for an expanded slate of action Saturday at the Armory. Additionally, four Vols will run the 5,000M Saturday at the Cannon IV Classic in Indianapolis, Ind.
COMPLETE RESULTS WILL BE RELEASED SATURDAY PENDING UPDATES BY THE ARMORY
