University of Tennessee Athletics
Cross Country Awards Announced at Team Banquet
January 13, 2004 | Cross Country
Jan. 13, 2004
2003 CROSS COUNTRY RESULTS | AWARD WINNERS
The Tennessee cross country squad distributed awards at its annual banquet Monday night at Calhoun's on the banks of the Tennessee River.
Letter awards were presented to nine Tennessee cross country runners, one of the largest groups of letterwinners in recent years. Doug Brown, Ed Davis, Jeff Day, Farragut alum Nate Jansen, Tim Kelly, Steve Klein, Matthew Lapp, Knoxville West alum Dusty Miller and Chris Platt all earned letters. In a good sign for the future, four letterwinners were freshmen (Day, Jansen, Miller and Platt) and all return for the 2004 cross country campaign except Kelly and Klein.
Klein and Lapp each earned the Captain Award for steering the young squad through the successes and perils of the 2003 season. Both served with distinction after being elected by their teammates in the preseason.
The sought-after 24th-annual Vega-Watts Award went to Jansen, a redshirt freshman from Farragut. The award was established by former Tennessee distance greats Sal Vega (1977-79) and Watts (1976-78), also the head coach of the Vols. The Vega-Watts Volunteer Award is given to the individual who makes the greatest sacrifice to compete for the cross country team. Jansen becomes the second-consecutive Farragut graduate to receive the award, as former Vol and Admiral Eric Bell took home the hardware in 2002.
The sacrifices honored by the award vary greatly, but are perhaps best summarized by Terry Barr, the award's first recipient and a true Volunteer. Watts told the assembled group about how Barr gave up a full academic scholarship because, at the time, the full ride would count against the team's available scholarship total. Barr worked his way through school for the honor of competing for and adding to the great story of the Volunteers.
Redshirt freshman Brian Mills brought home the Most Improved Award. Mills arrived on campus in 2002 and didn't threaten to break into the lineup, but worked his way into the scrap for a coveted spot on the travel squad throughout the 2003 season.
Kelly, who qualified individually for the NCAA Championships, earned the Most Valuable Award--the last award presented on the night. Kelly shrugged off a tough 2002 season to lead the Vols three times in 2003, the best total on the squad.
Also of great importance, fully six of the above award winners (Day, Jansen, Klein, Lapp, Mills and Platt) earned at least a 3.00 GPA during the fall semester.
Volunteer coach and former Tennessee distance great Todd Williams served as the evening's guest speaker. In addition to his esteemed collegiate career (1988-91), Williams earned further respect by authoring one of the most decorated professional careers of any former Vol. Throughout the 1990s, Williams stood as one of, if not the, best American distance runner of the decade.
The man who made multiple Olympic and World Championship teams told the current edition of the Volunteers that it was not his many successes, but his near misses that drove him the countless miles into the club of American distance greats. Heeding the advice of his high school and college coaches without question fueled Williams through years of dreaded morning runs and enough training mileage to exhaust a car warranty. The end result was that when Williams decided to put the fear of failure behind him and kept aggressively increasing his goals he became one of the most efficient American runners with his ability. Williams found himself running in packs with the supremely gifted athletes of the world because he found a way to make the most of his talent.
In that vein, following Williams' talk, head track and field coach Bill Webb recalled watching Williams once at the World Championships. Running hard for the lead early in the race, Williams opened up a huge gap on the rest of the star-studded field with far superior credentials. While the feared and talented Kenyans hung back, wanting an easy pace early, Williams raced ahead of the pack. He didn't end up winning the world title, but he finished higher than he should have. Webb pointed out that Williams wanted to fearlessly set his own course, that getting chewed up hanging back in the pack waiting on the leaders to set the pace wasn't an option. Webb mentioned Williams' gutsy effort and one of the races that built Steve Prefontaine's legend stand as his most memorable distance racing moments.
To close the banquet, Watts set his own course for an improved 2004 cross country season. The Vol mentor set the bar high with a bold goal -- return to the NCAA Championships as a team for the third time in the last four years. Watts told them that the best way to be ready for cross country in 2004 was to have a strong indoor and outdoor track season. Watts told his charges that the foundation for his cross country goal must be poured immediately with hard work throughout the track campaign.
The distance Volunteers open their season Friday and Saturday in the Kentucky Invitational.
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