University of Tennessee Athletics
2004 SEASON IN REVIEW
January 30, 2006 | Women's Track
"Have You Heard?" If you're a fan of track & field and didn't know great things were happening within the University of Tennessee women's team under the direction of Head Coach J.J. Clark, the results of a fantastic 2004 season probably got your attention, loud and clear. In short order, Clark and his staff have restored the Lady Vols to their lofty status among the nation's elite and have begun to produce athletes of national acclaim that once were the standard for which this program was known.
Olympic gold medallist. Check! NCAA and SEC champions. Check! Collegiate, meet, facility and school records. Check! Top-10 national finishes. Check! You name the accomplishment, and more often than not in 2004, the Lady Vols could mark an affirmative checkmark in the box to denote they did it.
Such across-the-board success in women's track & field hadn't been seen at Rocky Top since the late 1980s and early 1990s. So, despite only two short years of residency in the Volunteer State, it is clear that Clark and his staff, with their knowledgeable coaching and tireless recruiting, have placed the Big Orange women on a path toward greatness.
A year ago, that journey humbly started at the familiar confines of Stokely Athletics Center, where the preseason No. 13 Lady Vols opened with the Tennessee All-Comers Meet on Jan. 9. Despite just coming off the holiday break, the event resulted in six event wins for the home team, highlighted by junior Toyin Olupona's triumph in the 55-meter dash, and a haul of seven personal bests in the low-key affair.
Week two offered a more challenging field, and No. 11 UT rose to the occasion at the SEC Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., on Jan. 25, winning seven events, charting 18 career bests and notching seven NCAA provisional qualifying marks. The performance of the meet, however, went to junior Nicole Cook, as she seized victory in the 800 meters with a 2:05.60 readout and earned an automatic ticket to the national championship meet in her first appearance of the season.
Tennessee, up to eighth in the Trackwire poll, collected two more autos a week later at the Penn State National Open on Jan. 30-31, and the team in orange put on a show that had the P.A. announcer raving. Junior Dee Dee Trotter demonstrated her breakout 2003 campaign was no fluke, throwing a world-leading, school-record and NCAA automatic time of 23.19 on the board in the 200 meters. Trotter (400m) also played a key role for the distance medley relay, which thundered to a school record and auto clocking of 11:03.42 with sophomore Brooke Novak, Cook and senior Lindsay Hyatt supplying the 1200, 800 and 1600-meter legs for Team Orange. The effort would stand as the nation's collegiate best for 2004.
A trip to Fayetteville, Ark., on Feb. 13-14 resulted in an auto mark, a pair of school records and two event wins for a squad whose ranking had risen to a program-best No. 5 in the land. Trotter matched her 200-meter NCAA ticket and UT best with one in the 400 meters at the Razorback-Tyson Invitational, finishing second in 52.34. The 4x400-meter relay combo of freshman Leslie Treherne, Trotter, Cook and senior Kameisha Bennett, meanwhile, charted a program-topper of 3:35.39 to notch a provisional mark the next day at the Tyson Foods Invitational. Novak (mile) and Elizabeth McCalley (unseeded 3000m) collected victories on day one, with Novak's coming in impressive fashion ahead of 2003 NCAA Outdoor 1500-meter champion Tiffany McWilliams of Mississippi State.
After a quick tune-up at the Tennessee Invitational on Feb. 20, which saw Olupona bring down Kelli White's school and facility record in the 55-meter dash (6.74) as well as earn a trip to the NCAA meet, the No. 6 Lady Vols headed to Lexington, Ky., for the SEC Indoor Championships on Feb. 27-29. It was at this meet that the overall strength of the 2004 squad was revealed, and track observers became aware that UT was again a force to be reckoned with on the conference and national scenes.
There was major evidence in the form of a runner-up team finish, just six points behind first-place Florida, ranking as Tennessee's best performance at SEC Indoors since 1989. Then there were the three event wins, six NCAA auto marks and three school bests as well as the SEC record and facility mark. All of this via a season-high 28 PR efforts from Team Orange.
Cook and Novak were individual winners, taking the 800 and 3000 meters, respectively, and Novak joined forces with Olupona, redshirt freshman Mindy Sullivan and Hyatt to snap a 17-year-old SEC record in the DMR at 11:16.61. Olupona also matched her 55-meter dash school record with one in the 60 meters (7.23), Trotter lowered hers in the 400 meters (51.64) and the 4x400-meter relay unit of junior Antoinette Gorham, Cook, Bennett and Trotter established a UT best at 3:32.59. Meanwhile, Olupona (60m), Trotter (200m/400m), Cook and Bennett (800m) and the 4x400-meter relay breached the NCAA auto plateau.
With all the qualifiers set for the national meet, Clark and company headed to Fayetteville once again for the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 12-13. With a travel roster of 10, no one knew just how Tennessee would perform, and certainly not many expected the school to be in the running for a national championship. Clark, however, was one person who did have an idea of the possibilities at hand.
The No. 5 Lady Vols got on the board twice on Friday, garnering fifth-place points from freshman Tianna Madison in the long jump and striking it rich in the DMR, where Novak, Trotter, Cook and Hyatt logged the program's initial national title in that event. The only setbacks came in the 800-meter prelims, where Bennett failed to advance on time, and Treherne was eliminated due to a false start. Saturday would prove to be even more prosperous, as Cook won the 800 meters, Olupona collected second in the 60 meters, Trotter lowered her school record and took third in the 400 meters and the 4x400-meter relay tandem of Trotter, Cook, Treherne and Bennett snagged fourth place with a UT-best time as well. That run of points helped Tennessee wind up fourth with 43, assuring the Lady Vols their best finish since 1987 and the most points tallied since 1984.
LSU would edge Florida, 52-51, for the NCAA title, with Nebraska taking third at 45.50. Just nine points out of title contention was Tennessee, and one wonders what might have happened had Bennett and Treherne advanced to the finals as Clark had expected. Still, Clark couldn't be anything but ecstatic about a team that matched an indoor program-best 13 All-America citations from eight different athletes.
"This was a great day for our program," Clark said. "Each person on the team stepped up and performed to the best of her abilities. I thought we showed a lot of character Saturday, after not having our best outing on Friday, by coming back and performing at a national-caliber level.
"It's good to be in a situation where we can perform the way the University of Tennessee should in track & field. Seeing it done with my own eyes when Joetta (his sister) was here and knowing it was possible to be successful gave me encouragement and let me know it was realistic."
After having two weeks to savor a sweet indoor season, the Lady Vols embarked on the second half of their campaign - the outdoor schedule. Week one took them to the adidas Raleigh Relays on March 26-27, where Clark's troops brought home victories in the sprint medley and 4x800-meter relays as well as regional qualifying marks in the long jump (Madison), pole vault (Jessica Reust, Kendra Rhyne), 5000 meters (Katie Flaute) and the 4x400-meter relay (Olupona/Gorham/Bennett/Madison). Those triumphs and benchmarks foreshadowed great things down the road for Tennessee and began the outdoor slate on a very high note.
Two weeks later, the No. 9 Lady Vols would get the pleasure of competing at home in the Sea Ray Relays on April 7-10, and they took advantage of the opportunity by charting 19 career bests, winning three events and registering 12 regional qualifying performances. Among the qualifiers were McCalley, who clocked a then-school record time of 10:46.99 in the 3000-meter steeplechase, and Madison, who hit the regional mark in winning both the 100 meters and long jump. Tennessee's 4x800-meter relay unit of Novak, Cook, Treherne and Bennett also emerged victorious, setting a meet record and a Tom Black Track collegiate mark in 8:28.87.
Next, a trip for a handful of Lady Vols to the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., on April 17-18. The brief excursion to the West Coast proved to be worthwhile, as UT charted regional qualifying marks from Cook, who won the 800 meters, as well as Hyatt and Novak (1500m) and Madison and Trotter (100m, 200m).
While Tennessee slipped a spot in the polls to 10th, the Lady Vols' confidence and performances continued to escalate. Nowhere was that more evident than at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia on April 22-24. The UT contingent grabbed attention with a hat trick of "Championship of America" victories, including triumphs in the DMR, sprint medley and 4x800-meter relays to give the program its first trio of baton event wins at the meet since 1984. Foremost of those championship races was the SMR, which charted collegiate, stadium, meet and school records with a 3:41.78 readout by Madison, Olupona, Trotter and Bennett in front of 38,647 fans at historic Franklin Field.
Only a second and a half separated the 4x8 quartet from achieving the same set of records, as anchor Cook, the Penn Relays Female Track Athlete of the Meet, gave it every ounce of effort she had in collapsing dramatically across the finish line to provide UT its third and final win of the weekend. Almost lost in the relay hoopla were regional marks by Madison and Olupona in the 100-meter dash and McCalley in the 5000 meters.
Team Orange added three more regional marks and a school record on April 25, as the squad returned home from Philly to host the Knoxville Invitational on Sunday afternoon. Reust sailed over 13-3 1/2 to reset the UT pole vault standard, while Madison and Olupona landed regional-worthy marks in the long jump and 100-meter dash, respectively.
A week later, Tennessee was back in action on its home oval, competing at the Gatorade Classic on May 1-2. The result was impressive and dominant, as the Lady Vols charted 15 career bests and seven NCAA Regional qualifying marks. They also won nine events, including McCalley's meet-record performance in the 3000-meter steeplechase and Bennett's sensational run in the 800 meters. Bennett's clocking was the best by a UT woman since 1990 and among the fastest in the world at that point in the season.
Back up to ninth in the polls, Tennessee turned its attention to Oxford, Miss., and the SEC Outdoor Championships on May 13-16. While the meet didn't yield as high a team finish (sixth) as Clark had hoped, there were several individual efforts of which the Lady Vols could be proud. Among them was a school-record-setting victory in the pole vault by Reust, who sailed over 13-3 1/2 to pour 10 points in the Big Orange coffers.
Trotter charted the number two time in the world in the 400 meters at 50.66, but she had to settle for second. So did Madison in the long jump and Bennett in the 800 meters, with the latter's 2:02.53 readout and placement standing as career bests at that point. Cook, the SEC Indoor champ in the 800 meters, grabbed third with a career topper, while McCalley (steeplechase), Novak (1500m) and the 4x400-meter relay also kicked in bronze efforts, including another UT record by McCalley.
The next chapter in the season's story came two weeks later on May 28-29, as 14 athletes made the trip to Baton Rouge, La., for the NCAA Mideast Regional, and 10 of them earned tickets for the NCAA Championship meet. To boot, Tennessee improved from seventh at the inaugural regional meet in 2003 to second in 2004.
Headlining that charge were meet-record victories in the 400 meters (Trotter), 800 meters (Bennett) and 4x400-meter relay (Gorham/Bennett/Cook/Trotter) and additional automatic NCAA-qualifying showings by Cook in the 800 meters, Madison in the long jump (2nd), Olupona and Madison in the 100 meters (4th/5th) and Reust in the pole vault (4th). Hyatt (7th, 1500m), Novak (6th, 1500m) and Treherne (800m) also joined the NCAA party, earning at-large invitations to the national meet in Austin, Texas.
With its national ranking up to sixth, Tennessee headed to the Lone Star State armed with its biggest NCAA travel squad since 1999. The "Lady Vol 10" would have to wait an extra day to compete, though, as torrential downpours washed out the opening day of competition and forced a streamlining of the meet into a three-day affair.
The Big Orange women shrugged off the delays, however, and fashioned the program's best outdoor finish since 1994, a 24-point, seventh-place effort. They did so on the strength of a scintillating come-from-behind victory by Trotter in the 400 meters, a runner-up effort by Bennett in the 800 meters and a school-record result in the 4x400-meter relay by Gorham, Bennett, Cook and Trotter. Trotter's masterpiece of 50.32, the first indoor or outdoor national title in that event in school history, broke her school record and toppled the Mike A. Myers Stadium standard. It also provided the UT junior with a victory over UCLA's Monique Henderson and Texas' Sanya Richards on Richards' home oval, a surprise to many in track circles outside the Lady Vol camp.
Bennett came narrowly close to becoming UT's second national champion at the meet, clocking in at 2:03.11 in the 800 meters to chart her first individual All-America award to go along with four relay certificates. She and Trotter were both key contributors, as well, to UT's school-best 3:28.49 result in the 4x4.
Combined with Madison's effort as one of the top eight Americans in the long jump (10th overall), Tennessee walked away from Austin with seven All-America citations from five different athletes. For the season, the Lady Vols accumulated 20 certificates from nine individuals, marking the most honorees since the 1984 squad registered 12.
"We had a big final day, similar to the NCAA Indoor meet," Clark said. "Two top-10 team finishes this season proves we're moving in the right direction. I'm very proud of our efforts after overcoming a very sloppy first day.
"It is good to see hard work pay off in the form of national championships, be it Dee Dee's or those indoors by Nicole (Cook) and the DMR. Sometimes you work hard and give your best, and things don't work out. Each victory was special to our staff, and they show that our philosophy will work and help athletes become the best in the nation in their respective events."
While many of the 2004 team's athletes could pack away their uniforms and spikes for the summer after the NCAA meet, several continued on in national and international events. Madison and Treherne got the post-season slate rolling at the USATF Junior Championships in College Station, Texas, on June 25-27, with Madison winning the long jump with a career-best leap and Treherne taking fourth in the 800 meters. Madison's mark of 21 feet, eight inches, was not only good enough to win, but it also qualified her for the U.S. Olympic Trials in July.
Madison, Bennett, Cook and Trotter made the trip to Sacramento for the U.S. Olympic Trials from July 9-18, and all four of them would wind up making the finals in their respective events. Madison took eighth in the long jump at 21-0 3/4, while Bennett and Cook finished fourth and seventh, respectively, in an 800-meter final that saw Clark's wife, Jearl, and younger sister, Hazel, earn spots on the Olympic Team by taking first and third, respectively.
Trotter took it a step further, becoming the first active Lady Vol to make an Olympic Team since LaVonna Martin (100mH) in 1988 and the initial underclass Olympic performer since Ilrey Oliver (400m & 4x400mR/Jamaica) and Patricia Walsh (discus/Ireland) in 1984. She did so by finishing third in the 400 meters with another school-record race. This time, she lowered her mark to 50.28 and earned a lane in the Olympic 400 meters as well as a spot in the U.S. 4x400-meter relay pool.
After tuning up for the 2004 Summer Olympiad in Athens, Greece, with trips to meets in Canada, Switzerland and Germany, Trotter moved easily through the quarterfinals and semifinals of the Games into a berth in the Olympic final. For the fifth time during her junior season, Trotter snapped her school record, this time registering a 50.00 readout that was strong enough for fifth place in her first Olympic Games appearance.
That result, coming just 1 1/2 years after Trotter was convinced by UT's coaching staff to shift her focus from short sprints to the quarter, ranks as the finest finish ever by a Lady Vol underclass performer and the best by a UT woman since Martin grabbed silver in the 100-meter hurdles in 1992. It also earned Trotter a spot in the USA's 4x400-meter relay rotation.
She was not in the lineup for the United States' second-place run of 3:23.79 behind the Russians in the 4x4 prelims, but Trotter was certainly a factor in the money race three days later. The Lady Vol speedster capped off the season with a career-best opening leg of 49.19 to send the Americans on their way to their third-straight gold medal in Olympic competition in a time of 3:19.01. That clocking, by Trotter, Monique Henderson, Sanya Richards and Monique Hennagan, ranked as the best of 2004 and allowed Trotter to become the first-ever UT underclass gold medallist and only the second Olympic champion in program history along with 1984 100-meter hurdles winner Benita Fitzgerald.
"It was definitely an exciting moment to see Dee Dee make her run and enjoy Olympic status," Clark said. "I'm very proud of what she's done; she's a very electrifying athlete.
"Everything fell into place, and she developed into one of our nation's and the world's best quarter-milers. She is still young in her event and possesses a lot of God-given ability."
While the 2004 AOPi Lady Vol Athlete of the Year capped off the track & field campaign in brilliant fashion in Athens, it was her press conference on Sept. 15 that officially brought a sensational year and her spectacular UT career to a close. As she has done so many times during her three seasons at Tennessee, she accomplished another first on that day. The Decatur, Ga., native became the initial Lady Vol track & field performer to forego her final season of eligibility to pursue a professional career.
Said Lady Vol sprint coach Caryl Smith, "Dee Dee has taken the UT standard to a new level. She has helped our program tremendously by becoming an SEC and NCAA champion, an Olympic finalist in the 400 meters and a gold medallist with the 4x400-meter relay. She'll be staying here, training and completing her degree. I look forward to her becoming an even greater track & field ambassador for UT and Knoxville."
While the head coach was obviously thrilled with the way things worked out for Trotter, he also felt the program as a whole had accomplished all that it wanted and more in 2004.
"From indoors to outdoors, we had more than 190 personal bests," Clark said. "That is a staggering number. We were second at SEC Indoors and took fourth and seventh at NCAAs. We broke a collegiate record and school records, won three Penn Relays plaques and had national champions and an Olympic gold medallist. We definitely met our goals and exceeded them in 2004."
