University of Tennessee Athletics
NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Preview
June 05, 2004 | Men's Track
June 7, 2004
| 2004 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships |
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| Date: June 9-12 |
| Location: Austin, Texas Mike A. Myers Stadium |
| Schedule |
| Results |
| VOLS TO WATCH AT NCAAs |
| 200m Dash: Jonathan Wade 400m Dash: Jak Taylor 800m Run: Paul Cross and Marc Sylvester 110m Hurdles: Aries Merritt 4x100m Relay: Jeremy Burton, Sean Lambert, Jonathan Wade, Jak Taylor Javelin: Leigh Smith Decathlon: Blake Sabo |
| COACH Bill Webb ON NCAAs |
| ?We have a good group of athletes going to the NCAA meet. We?ll focus on each individual optimizing his performance and competing at the highest level. We appear to be completely healthy, knock on wood. ?We always want to be top 10 or better at the NCAAs. We can do that, but we?ll have our work cut out for us. ?We need points from our elite guys like Leigh Smith, Paul Cross, Marc Sylvester and Aries Merritt. Those guys have a chance to score some points. We?ll need all those points and want to have our other guys surprise some people, too. ?Nobody cares what?s been done in the past at this meet. As I always say, you?ve got to check your credentials at the door and start over again in Austin.? |
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Though the Olympics and USA championships still remain on the horizon, the meet to crown the nation?s best collegians arrives directly in the headlights in Austin, Texas.
Tennessee sends nine Volunteers to compete for a chance at collegiate greatness at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships Wednesday through Saturday at Texas? Mike A. Myers Stadium.
In a tentative item of good news for the Vols, senior co-captain Sean Lambert?s injury disqualification at last weekend?s Mideast Regional has been partially overturned. The NCAA track committee has given Lambert the OK to compete as part of Tennessee?s 4x100-meter relay in Austin.
However, the committee did not allow Lambert to be included in the 100 field at the NCAA championships. Tennessee has appealed Lambert?s 100 exclusion up the chain of command to the NCAA championships cabinet. No decision has been made by that body at this time (June 4).
Senior Leigh Smith leads the Tennessee contingent with his NCAA-leading 257-feet, 10-inch mark in the javelin. Tennessee 800-meter men Paul Cross and Marc Sylvester arrive next on the rankings list. True freshman Cross? 1:46.60 effort stands as the third-best in the NCAA. Sylvester, a junior co-captain, ranks seventh on the list entering the meet with a 1:47.01 time. True freshman Aries Merritt clocks in 10th on the 110 hurdles list with his freshman school record 13.62. Smith, Cross, Sylvester and Merritt all earned NCAA berths by also finishing in the top five in last weekend?s NCAA Mideast Regional.
The Tennessee 4x100 relay team ranks 12th on the list with a season-best time of 39.60. Lambert?s addition to the team will help. If Lambert remains a go for the 4x100 relay after all appeals are answered, Tennessee will likely suit up Jeremy Burton, Jonathan Wade, Lambert and Jak Taylor for the effort.
Additionally, Wade?s season-best 20.79 time in the 200 stands as the NCAA?s 19th fastest. Decathlete Blake Sabo?s provisional score of 7,335 places him 19th on the descending order list and into the meet. Taylor?s 46.28 time ranks 23rd on the 400 list.
As of now, Chris Helwick and Garland Porter are the first ith narrow misses. If someone on the list above Helwick or Porter scratches in the decathlon or hammer, respectivmen out of the meet wely, then either Vol would be bumped into the NCAA field. However, no one ranking ahead of either has pulled out of the meet with an injury. Helwick?s 7,290 score in the decathlon missed the cut by a mere two points. Additionally, Porter missed the hammer cutoff by just two inches with his 206-0 mark.
The track at Mike A. Myers Stadium will likely have some of the 200 and 400 sprinters salivating. While still measuring a standard 400 meters, the design of the track offers less severe turns to increase the speed coming into the straightaway.
The difference can be attributed to soccer, as the Lady Longhorns? soccer field occupies the infield of the track. Because many collegiate tracks are built around football fields, which are narrower than soccer fields, the turns on the oval become tighter. Conversely, a track encompassing a wider soccer field leads to a looser curve and often slightly faster times.
While far from being the most important factor, the looser track will affect Wade in the 200, Taylor in the 400, the first and third legs of the 4x100 relay and, to some extent, Cross and Sylvester in the two-lap 800.
With the exception of a decidedly hostile welcome at the 13-day siege of the Alamo in San Antonio for some of the early Volunteers in 1836, the Lone Star State has proven fertile ground for the dreams of their track and field descendants at UT in the last 32 years.
Tennessee won its first NCAA cross country title in Houston in 1972. Some 30 years ago, the Volunteers won their first NCAA outdoor track and field title in Austin in 1974. In another tie, Stan Huntsman, the Tennessee coach for both of those titles, later coached at Texas.
VOLS AT THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Tennessee has won the NCAA outdoor championship three times. The Volunteers stood on the pinnacle of collegiate track and field in 1974, 1991 and 2001.
In 1974, Tennessee piled up 60 points to take the crown in Austin, Texas. The Vols were led by Reggie Jones, named most outstanding performer for the NCAA championships, who won the 100-yard dash in 9.18w, finished second in the 220 in 20.00w and ran the second leg of Tennessee?s 4x110 relay that crossed in 39.69 to take third.
Additionally, Doug Brown won the steeplechase in 8:35.84. Willie Thomas also took the NCAA title in the 880 in 1:48.72.
Darwin Bond earned second in the 440 dash in 45.73. Ron Addison finished a tick behind Brown to take second in the steeplechase in 8:36.76.
In 1991, the Volunteers scored 51 points to win the NCAA title in Eugene, Ore. Led by Todd Williams? gutsy double in the 10,000-meter run (second) and 5,000 (third) and Aric Long?s decathlon win, the Vols overcame a slow start to take home the trophy.
Randy Jenkins placed second in the high jump and John Richardson earned second in the javelin to add crucial points. Brian Brophy took bronze in the decathlon. Jose? Parrilla crossed sixth in the 800 run. Rich Fulford (pole vault) and Matt Shelton (decathlon) rounded out Tennessee scoring with eighth-place finishes.
Tennessee got back on the title train at the 2001 NCAA Outdoors at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., site of two of the Vols? three outdoor crowns. The Volunteers eked out a one-point win.
After battling sprint power TCU to a 49-point tie, Tennessee relied on an eighth-place finish in the 4x400 relay courtesy of Jebreh Harris, Hassaan Stamps, Adrian Wheatley and Dwayne Bell Jr. to give the winning 50th point.
The Vols were led by freshman Justin Gatlin?s 22 points, the high scorer for the meet. Gatlin won the 100 and 200, the first time a freshman has pulled the feat since 1976. Additionally, Gatlin teamed up with Sean Lambert, Stamps and Leonard Scott for a second-place finish in the 4x100 relay.
Decathlete Stephen Harris also chipped in eight points with a second-place finish. Lambert and Leigh Smith got the scoreboard moving as well with fourth-place finishes in the 100 dash and javelin, respectively. Scott offered up three more points with a sixth-place finish in the 200 dash./
In a related note, Tennessee also captured the 2002 NCAA Indoor Championship. However, the first NCAA title for the program came in 1972 when the cross country team came home with the top prize in Houston, Texas.
