University of Tennessee Athletics
TENNESSEE'S CLARK, MADISON, CHAMPION GARNER SEC INDOOR TRACK AWARDS
April 02, 2005 | Women's Track
April 2, 2005
 J.J. Clark |
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The University of Tennessee's NCAA and Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships in women's track & field have once again cast a positive spotlight on the program. Because of their contributions toward those accomplishments, Head Coach J.J. Clark, sophomore Tianna Madison and freshman Courtney Champion were respectively named SEC Women's Coach of the Year, Field Event Athlete of the Year and Freshman Runner of the Year for the indoor campaign.
Those indoor SEC awards, amazingly enough, are the first ever received in those categories by University of Tennessee women's team coaches or athletes.
Clark, in his third year of directing the Big Orange, picked up his first SEC Coach of the Year nod in track & field after directing the Lady Volunteers to the program's first NCAA title in that sport during the 2005 indoor season. The former Florida assistant also piloted his squad to a league title as well, marking the initial conference indoor track crown for UT since the SEC's inaugural event in 1984.
Previously this year, Clark was chosen USTCA National Indoor Women's Coach of the Year and USTCA South Region Indoor Women's Coach of the Year. Additionally, he was honored during the cross country season for his work in that sport. He collected his fourth SEC Cross Country Coach of the Year plaque, including back-to-back awards at Tennessee, as well as earning NCAA South Region Cross Country Coach of the Year for the third-straight season and the fourth occasion in his career.
Since taking over the program during the fall of 2002, Clark has guided Tennessee to NCAA Indoor finishes of 23rd, fourth and first, respectively, in his initial three seasons at the helm. His SEC body of work includes comparable indoor improvement, moving the program from ninth to second to first in just three years.
Madison, meanwhile, beat out an extraordinary candidate in Florida thrower Candice Scott to claim SEC Field Event Athlete of the Year distinction. The sophomore from Elyria, Ohio, who was the SEC Outdoor Freshman Field Event Athlete of the Year in 2004, put forth a stellar 2005 indoor campaign to merit that choice.
First, Madison won the SEC Indoor long jump crown, uncorking a school-record-tying leap of 22-0.25/6.71m to become Tennessee's first champion in that event at the inside league gathering. Then, she made the UT standard her own, soaring to 22-3/6.78m to become the Lady Vols' initial NCAA Indoor victor in the long jump. Her mark at that meet rated as the fourth-best ever recorded indoors by an American woman. It also ranked her as the top U.S. jumper indoors in 2005 and the number-three ranked woman in the world.
In addition to charting a long jump career best at every meet this season and winning four of five competitions, Madison also made her mark in the sprints. To her credit was a third-place NCAA outcome in the 60-meter dash (7.34) and a fourth-place finish in the 60 meters (7.27) at the SEC Indoor Championships, both of which came with personal-record clockings.
Champion, meanwhile, lived up to her prep All-America credentials in her initial semester at Rocky Top. The Lawrenceville, Ga., product had her fingerprints all over the success that came Tennessee's way during the indoor season. Most notably, Champion closed out the first part of the schedule with finishes of third in the 200 meters (22.98) and sixth in the 60 meters (7.29) as well as anchoring the Big Orange's 4x400-meter relay to second place in a season-best 3:31.76 at the NCAA Indoor meet. Her time in the 200m was a school record, and her 7.25 clocking in the 60m prelims was good for a Lady Vol freshman record.
At the SEC Championships, Champion posted runner-up performances in both the 60 (7.26) and 200 meters (23.18), aiding the Tennessee cause in a huge way. The rookie's 200m finish was the best by a Lady Vol since Kelli White took second as a senior in 1999, and her short sprint placing was the top showing since Dedra Davis won the 55m dash at SEC Indoors in 1994. When the season ended, Champion stood as the number-two ranked U.S. woman in the 60 meters and was rated eighth in the world.
SEC INDOOR AWARDS:
Women's Coach of the Year (J.J. Clark, Tennessee), Men's Coach of the Year (John McDonnell, Arkansas), Women's Runner of the Year (Tiandra Ponteen, Florida), Men's Runner of the Year (Kerron Clement, Florida), Women's Field Event Athlete of the Year (Tianna Madison, Tennessee), Men's Field Event Athlete of the Year (Maurice Smith, Auburn), Women's Freshman Runner of the Year (Courtney Champion, Tennessee), Men's Freshman Runner of the Year (Xavier Carter, LSU), Women's Freshman Field Event Athlete of the Year (Shaka Dennison, Georgia), Men's Freshman Field Event Athlete of the Year (Mike Mason, Kentucky).
NEXT UP:
Clark, Champion and Madison, and the rest of the Lady Volunteers, will have the current weekend off. They are gearing up, however, for the Gatorade Classic at UT's Tom Black Track on April 8-9. In that meet, a unique scoring format will feature SEC teams Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee joining forces to take on Big 10 schools Minnesota, Penn State and Wisconsin. Friday night will feature one men's and two women's throwing events, beginning at 5:30 p.m., while Saturday's full, time-condensed slate begins at 2 p.m. with the meet expected to be concluding around 6:05 p.m.
