University of Tennessee Athletics
NICOLE COOK NAMED LADY VOL ATHLETE OF THE MONTH
April 02, 2004 | Women's Track
April 2, 2004
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
Lady Vol track & field standout Nicole Cook has been named the edamerica Lady Vol Athlete of the Month for March in a vote by the University of Tennessee women's media relations staff. The honor is the first of her career and marks the second track standout to earn the distinction in 2004, following Dee Dee Trotter's selection in January.
Cook, from Petersburg, Va., got the nod by seizing the first individual indoor national title by a Lady Vol since 1991 and running the 800-meter leg on UT's first victorious relay at indoor nationals in 13 years. As if that wasn't enough, Cook also ran the second leg on Tennessee's fourth-place 4x400m relay unit, enabling the Big Orange women to amass 43 points for the meet and finish fourth in the team standings. That result is the best by the UT women since 1987.
The middle distance standout collected All-America distinction in all three events and brought her career tally of citations to nine. She personally contributed 13.75 points to Tennessee's meet total of 43, ranking as the seventh-highest scorer out of over 300 competitors in the meet.
In the 800, Cook posted a victorious and career-best time of 2:03.27 to become the first UT national champion in that event indoors since Head Coach J.J. Clark's sister, Joetta, won the very first crown in 1983. The triumph eased Cook's memories of finishing second in 2003 by 6/100ths of a second to UCLA's Lena Nilsson. Her clocking in 2004 ranks as the third-fastest ever at Tennessee behind efforts of 2:02.39 and 2:03.24 by Delisa Walton back in 1983.
In the distance medley relay, Cook ran a blazing 800 leg and pushed the Lady Vols' lead to as much as 50 meters, providing senior Lindsay Hyatt (Auburn, Calif.) with a comfortable margin to bring home the baton to victory in 11:06.07. That mark ranks second in UT annals behind the 11:03.42 that Cook and company ran on Jan. 30 at the Penn State National Open. The NCAA win marked the first time Tennessee had ever scored in the event at the national championships, and it was only the second time Team Orange had qualified for the meet in the DMR.
Finally, in the 4x4, Cook contributed to a 3:31.49 output that was good enough for fourth-place and the five points necessary to push the Lady Vols into fourth in the final team standings. In the process, the UT quartet broke the school record in that relay for the third time in 2004.
Cook and her teammates are gearing up for the 38th-annual Sea Ray Relays, which will be held April 7-10 at UT's Tom Black Track.
