University of Tennessee Athletics
BROOKS SNAGS SEC FIELD EVENT ATHLETE OF THE WEEK HONORS
February 10, 2006 | Women's Track
Feb. 10, 2006
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- After earning Lady Vol Athlete of the Week honors earlier this week, Tennessee senior Ariel Brooks added Southeastern Conference Women's Field Event Athlete of the Week kudos to her ever-growing list of accomplishments in 2006.
Brooks broke her own school record for the third time this season and registered an automatic NCAA qualifying mark in the weight throw at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on Feb. 3. The product of Miami, Fla., stretched the tape to 70 feet, 3 3/4 inches at the Bob Devaney Sports Center last weekend. It easily met the NCAA automatic standard of 68-10 3/4 and earned her a ticket to the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., on March 10-11. She is UT's first athlete to guarantee herself a berth in the 2006 national indoor meet.
Shattering her previous UT mark of 67-0 3/4, Brooks finished second in Nebraska behind a toss of 71-6 1/4 from national leader Tamara Burns of Virginia Tech. The improvement moved the Lady Vol from 10th to sixth nationally and vaults her to number two in the Southeastern Conference this season.
The foray into 70-foot territory was the first of Brook's career, and she managed to hit that plateau twice in Cornhusker Country. Her series included throws of 64-6 1/2, 64-1 1/4 and 68-10 in the prelims and heaves of 65-7, 70-2 1/2 and 70-3 3/4 in the finals. Her third, fifth and sixth throws all rewrote the school record book and her final two attempts each crossed the NCAA automatic threshold.
