University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
SEC Indoor Championships
Vols Finish Sixth at SEC Indoors
February 29, 2004 | Men's Track
Feb. 29, 2004
VOL FINISHES
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Tennessee's track and field squad finished sixth after summing 60 points to conclude the SEC Indoor Championships Sunday at Kentucky's Nutter Field House.
In many events the Volunteers competed fiercely. However, deep in the heart of racehorse country, Tennessee found itself in need of a few more thoroughbreds to sway the team score in its favor. The Vols fielded a young squad that took some maturing steps in the nation's toughest conference meet, while also bettering the situation for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
"We came up short as far as points, but the effort was there," head coach Bill Webb said. "Tennessee should never be sixth in an SEC meet. But we did have some bright spots, and a number of them were by our freshmen. Four teams ahead of us are in the top six in the nation. After third place, the meet got really close, as eight points separated three teams. We've got to get more horses to the line, and regroup for indoor nationals and outdoor season. This is a young team, and we get nearly everyone back."
The men's team race went down to the wire in a dramatic finish. Florida took the team title with 128 points, a mere two points ahead of Arkansas' 126. With the win, Florida joins Tennessee as the only teams to defeat Arkansas at an SEC championship meet since the Razorbacks joined the conference. Auburn finished third with 83 points. LSU and Georgia tied for fourth with 71 points.
Florida led 128 to Arkansas' 126 entering the 4x400m relay, the meet-capping event, and both teams had quartets entered. With the team title riding on the 4x400m relay outcome, the Arkansas runner was involved in a nasty wreck with another team early in the race and did not finish. Florida went on to win the race and pad the victory margin, or so the Gators thought. However, several minutes later during the Gators' victory celebration, the PA announcer read that Florida had been disqualified from the 4x400m relay. Florida's points were taken away and, since Arkansas didn't finish, the final victory margin remained 128-126. In another interesting note, while they couldn't have known it at the time, had the Razorbacks just finished the race, they would have finished last in sixth place. However, three points are awarded to the sixth-place finisher--three points that would have given the Razorbacks a one-point team victory.
Rebuilding always comes with a few growing pains, and construction is never easy work in the SEC. While Tennessee did measure progress individually, the Vols' sixth-place finish stands as the lowest at the SEC Indoor Championships since 1963, head coach Chuck Rohe's first year before he ignited the Tennessee SEC title legacy. After the seventh-place finish in 1963, the Vols won eight consecutive SEC indoor titles. Tennessee missed out on any SEC individual winners, the first time that's happened at an SEC indoor meet since 2000.
"Looking back on the highlights of the meet, I'm most pleased with Chris Helwick's NCAA automatic qualifier in the heptathlon," Webb said. "That's quite an accomplishment for a freshman. Brett Frykberg's high jump PR should get him into the NCAA meet. Garland Porter had a huge improvement in the weight throw. Yesterday Marc Sylvester ran an automatic qualifier in the 800. Paul Cross ran a PR and provisional qualifier today in the 800. Dusty Miller broke the school indoor freshman record in the mile run yesterday. Aries Merritt placing fourth as a freshman in the hurdles is a big accomplishment. Sean Lambert placed well for us in two events and showed good senior leadership. When you look at the list of highlights I've just mentioned, Sean's the only senior who won't be back next year."
In his first SEC championship, Porter stands as Tennessee's high-point man with 11 points contributed to the Vol cause after nabbing silver in the weight throw and sixth in the shot put. Porter led the Vols Sunday with a record-breaking runner-up finish in the weight throw.
Porter, who's been on a tear since arriving on The Hill in January, entered another orbit Sunday. Porter finished second in the weight throw and broke his school record set last week twice Sunday. Porter finished his day with a 69-5.25 mark, nearly three feet farther than any other Vol has ever thrown the 35-lb. weight. Answering the call to compete, Porter kept sending the implement farther afield to answer the efforts of the leaders. However, Josh Whisman (10th, 59-0.25) and Jim Sexton (14th, 56-1.25) missed out on scoring.
"I thought I could have done better," Porter said. "There were some times I didn't take advantage of the opportunity. It's second place, and I'm capable of doing better. I'm not surprised because I worked hard. Coach Webb pushes me every day mentally and physically."
The early atmosphere around Brett Frykberg's lifetime-best high jump was also charged. Frykberg, who didn't even compete last season for Tennessee because of an injury, propelled himself higher into the Kentucky sky than he ever had before in a gritty third-place, 7-1.75 finish. Frykberg was perfect through three heights, clearing 6-8, 6-10 and 7-0 with ease on his first attempts. He cleared his PR and final height on his second attempt before bowing out with three misses at 7-3. However, by improving his provisional mark, Frykberg also improved his chances for making the NCAA indoor field. Heptathlete Helwick attempted to scrap for points on dead legs, but missed scoring with a 6-4.75 leap to tie for 13th.
"I thought it was really exciting," Frykberg said. "I don't really look like a high jumper, so it kind of helps that I'm an underdog. It really helped to have so many of my teammates there to cheer me on. Garland's PR also got me fired up. I didn't really expect to PR today. I just wanted to score some points."
While Friday and Saturday's heptathlon scored the most points of any event for the Vols (13), Tennessee did the most damage Sunday in the 60m dash. Co-captain Lambert and Jonathan Wade combined for 10 points in the 60m dash finals. Sprinting on the same track where he captured third-place honors in a historic 1-2-3 sweep with Leonard Scott and Justin Gatlin in 2001, Lambert's third-place, 6.71 provisional qualifier can be listed as a game performance. Lambert also took seventh in the 200m dash with a 21.23 provisional qualifier. Likewise, Wade's fifth-place 60m dash finish in 6.76 also marked a stepping stone as the dual sporter's best finish in an individual SEC championship event. Wade improved from running the ninth-fastest qualifier Saturday.
Tennessee's Merritt and Robert Boulware also combined to contribute six points in the 60m hurdles. Merritt placed fourth in 7.89, while Boulware took eighth in 7.93. Both efforts met the NCAA provisional standard, but were not quite season bests.
In the 800m run, freshman Cross ran to another lifetime best, his second in as many days, to finish sixth in 1:49.01, a provisional qualifier. However, Tennessee missed out on a probable good chunk of points when co-captain Sylvester aggravated a leg injury, which slowed him substantially down to ninth place.
Tennessee finished fifth in the 4x400m relay with a 3:15.41 time to close the meet. Jacob Dennis, Lambert, Merritt and Cross passed the baton for the Vols. Cross' 47.3 split was the highlight.
The Vols took seventh in the distance medley relay with a 10:06.79 clocking with Dusty Miller, Jak Taylor, Frank Francois and Rob Cloutier taking legs. Taylor split a 47.0 on the 400m leg.
Cloutier finished seventh in the mile run in 4:05.91, his second-fastest time ever, to add two points for Tennessee. Miller took ninth in 4:09.24. Jeff Day finished 10th in 4:24.13.
In the pole vault, transfer Mike Yurcho took eighth with a 16-4.75 clearance in his first SEC meet. However, teammate Jeff Trembley no-heighted.
In the 5,000m run, Tim Kelly, Ed Davis and Matthew Lapp finished most of the race before being lapped by the winner, at which point the runner is pulled from the field. Since Arkansas' Alistair Cragg set the meet record and ran so quickly, 13 of the 25 5,000m runners were pulled from the track before finishing the race.
Tennessee's coaching staff will meet this week to determine who to send to a last-chance qualifying meet next weekend. The NCAA Indoor Championships will be held March 12-13 in Fayetteville, Ark.
TENNESSEE RESULTS
SEC Indoor Championships, Nutter Field House, Lexington, Ky.
Sunday, Feb. 29, 2004
Team Scores (final)
1. Florida (128)
2. Arkansas (126)
3. Auburn (83)
4t. LSU (71)
4t. Georgia (71)
6. TENNESSEE (60)
7. South Carolina (39)
8. Kentucky (32)
9. Alabama (31)
10. Mississippi (16)
60m dash
1. Tyson Gay, Ark. 6.57 **
3. Sean Lambert, Tenn. 6.71 *
5. Jonathan Wade, Tenn. 6.76
200m dash
1. Tyson Gay, Ark. 20.40 **
7. Sean Lambert, Tenn. 21.23 *
800m run
1. Peter Etoot, Ala. 1:46.91 **
6. Paul Cross, Tenn. 1:49.01 PR, *
9. Marc Sylvester, Tenn. 1:52.58 (injured)
Mile run
1. David Freeman, Ky. 4:01.36 *
7. Rob Cloutier, Tenn. 4:05.91
9. Dusty Miller, Tenn. 4:09.24
10. Jeff Day, Tenn. 4:24.13
5,000m run
1. Alistair Cragg, Ark. 13:42.95 **
-- Tim Kelly, Tenn. DNF
-- Ed Davis, Tenn. DNF
-- Matthew Lapp, Tenn. DNF
60m hurdles
1. Joshua Walker, Fla. 7.70 **
4. Aries Merritt, Tenn. 7.89 *
8. Robert Boulware, Tenn. 7.93*
4x400m relay
1. LSU 3:06.79 **
5. Tennessee 3:15.41
(Dennis, Lambert, Merritt, Cross 47.3)
DNF Arkansas --
DQ Florida --
Distance medley relay
1. Arkansas 9:41.80 *
7. Tennessee 10:06.79
(Miller, Taylor 47.0, Francois, Cloutier)
High jump
1. Joe Squittieri, Fla. 7-3 *
3. Brett Frykberg, Tenn. 7-1.75 *, PR
13t. Chris Helwick, Tenn. 6-4.75
Pole vault
1. Daniel Trosclair, LSU 17-5.5 *
8. Mike Yurcho, Tenn. 16-4.75
-- Jeff Trembley, Tenn. No height
Weight throw
1. Lucais MacKay, Ga. 70-5.75 **
2. Garland Porter, Tenn. 69-5.25 *, PR, SR
11. Josh Whisman, Tenn. 59-0.25
14. Jim Sexton, Tenn. 56-1.25
SB-season best mark; PR-personal record/career-best mark; *-NCAA indoor provisional qualifier; **-NCAA indoor automatic qualifer; SR-school record.
