University of Tennessee Athletics
2007 LADY VOL TRACK & FIELD SEASON PREVIEW
January 10, 2007 | Women's Track
Jan. 10, 2007
"Developing Champions"
The field of photography has experienced a technology transition from the old method of developing film in a darkroom to one where images are created digitally and are graphically adaptable with a computer and a mouse. At Tennessee, Lady Vol Head Coach J.J. Clark and his staff have utilized the best of old- and new-school techniques to create "Kodak moments" for their team and individual athletes in NCAA and Southeastern Conference competition.
In just his fifth season in Knoxville, Clark has employed the ideal combination of recruiting, physical training, mental preparation and motivation to continue a long-standing tradition of success at the University of Tennessee. That legacy, stretching from UT's 1981 AIAW Outdoor national title to its most recent 2005 NCAA Indoor national crown, is that Big Orange Country is the place for "Developing Champions."
Whether it is producing Olympic-caliber athletes, such as his wife, Jearl Miles-Clark, his sisters, Joetta and Hazel Clark, and countless others, or preparing collegiate performers for success in the NCAA or SEC ranks, it is clear that J.J. Clark has a keen eye for talent. What has set him apart from other coaches, though, has been his gift for developing champions out of blue-chip recruits and diamonds-in-the-rough alike.
"There are very few athletes who can come into a Division I program and win an NCAA title, become All-Americans as freshmen or deliver an individual conference championship, but we all look for those athletes," Clark said. "The truth of the matter is that your team is built upon the idea of developing athletes toward becoming champions. Even the top high school athletes have to develop the mindset and character to become champions. Once they do that, they can help your team win championships.
"We take the idea here that we'll recruit athletes with great potential, like Tianna Madison, and develop them into champions. The same can be said about Nicole Cook, Dee Dee Trotter and so on."
 Courtney Champion |
Not only do Clark and his full-time aides Caryl Smith Gilbert and John Frazier have Cook, Madison and Trotter to tout as examples, they can also point to Kameisha Bennett, Sharon Dickie-Thompson and Toyin Olupona as snapshots of athletes who have made progressions. They not only developed into athletes competing for championships at the NCAA and SEC levels, but they also recently made, or are in the process of making, the transition to international success.
Then, there is the development of a team toward winning a national championship. Check a mark next to Clark's name for that accomplishment as well. He guided his third team at Tennessee, the 2005 squad, to the NCAA Indoor crown that year. That achievement has become the standard by which all other track & field teams at Rocky Top are measured.
After suffering surprise personnel losses the past two seasons, when Trotter and Madison developed into international stars and signed lucrative pro contracts before their college careers were completed, Clark is actually entering the 2007 campaign with his camera loaded. The image from his view finder looks very promising.
For starters, he returns 16 letterwinners from a year ago, when Tennessee learned how to compete without the services of Madison, as well as a pair of highly-decorated departees in Cook and Olupona. Among his top returnees are five All-Americans, 13 athletes who have scored at the SEC level and a total of seven who have prior NCAA championship experience.
Among the most-decorated of the returnees are sprinters Cleo Tyson, Courtrney Champion and LaTonya Loche, middle distance aces Sarah Bowman and Leslie Treherne, long distance star Felicia Guliford and throws anchor Shanna Dickenson.
Add to that promising crop of veterans a class of newcomers that Track & Field News rates as the sixth-best signing class in the nation, and it becomes clear that Clark and his staff are anxiously looking forward to developing a team with the potential of making front-page news.
If he were shooting photos with a 35mm camera, Clark would be well stocked with high speed film. His fifth-year sprint/jumps/hurdles specialist, Smith Gilbert, a national assistant coach of the year in 2005, has at her ready one of the nation's most-talented sprint corps.
It all starts with Tyson, an 11-time All-American, who is one of the team's captains and is the squad's most-heralded athlete. As a junior, she already stands as the program's record-holder at 60 (7.20) and 100 meters (11.10) and has been a catalyst for all of UT's sprint relays, two of which own top marks at the school.
Tyson returns as a five-time All-SEC performer, having won the league's 100m dash crown in 2005 en route to the league's outdoor freshman of the year accolades. She also has fared well on the international scene, most recently winning gold in the straight sprint for the U.S. with a meet-record performance at the 2006 NACAC Under-23 Championships and aiding a victorious 4x100m relay effort as well.
 Sarah Bowman |
Joining her in the immensely-gifted sprint assembly are a pair of Tyson's classmates in Champion and Loche. Between them, they have combined for 17 All-America citations, five All-SEC awards and four school records in their first two seasons with the Lady Vols.
Champion, the 2005 SEC Indoor Freshman of the Year, played a huge role in Tennessee's conference and national title run during her rookie season. The eight-time All-American supplied Big Orange relays with some key legs a year ago. It is hoped she will also surge back to the forefront individually, where her tremendous talent is evidenced by the Lady Vol 200m dash record (22.98) she set in her inaugural season at UT.
Loche, meanwhile, is a seven-time All-American. As did Champion, she also contributed mightily to UT's tandem events in 2006. Her eighth-place indoor 200m finish (23.45) and 11th-place outdoor 400m outcome (53.13) in 2005 NCAA action as a freshman, however, serve as proof that she, too, can be a key point-getter individually as well as on relays.
Sophomore Celriece Law joined the fold a year ago as a redshirt freshman, and the somewhat un-heralded newcomer's impact was immediate in the area of hurdles and jumps. She wound up as a two-event scorer at the SEC Indoor and Outdoor Championships, scoring (7th/8th) in the triple jump, placing fifth in the 55m hurdles indoors (7.68) and taking eighth in the 100m hurdles outside (13.53). She moved to second on both UT's indoor and outdoor triple jump all-time performers lists with jumps of 41-8 1/2 and 41-1 3/4 and moved to number two and three, respectively, on the indoor and outdoor hurdles lists.
Though the sprint/jumps/hurdles corps suffered a huge loss with the graduation of 2006 SEC Indoor and Outdoor 400m champ and eight-time All-American Patricia Hall, that deficit could be offset if a sensational cache of newcomers performs to its capabilities.
First, there are two transfers who could add immediate talent and depth to Law's area. Sophomore Brittany Daniels, who came from the University of Southern California, and sophomore Pavi'Elle "Tiki" James, who headed north from her hometown University of Miami, enter the picture with not only physical gifts but also a year of collegiate seasoning.
After never really settling in at USC and Miami, Daniels and James sought changes of scenery and opted to compete at a school that had tried to sign them out of high school. Daniels' pedigree includes distinction as the 2005 Gatorade and Track & Field News National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year after a prep career that featured an American junior record triple jump of 44-11 3/4. Daniels, who also had a wind-aided leap of 45-7 3/4, additionally owns a career-best long jump reading of 20-8 3/4. Working under the tutelage of Smith Gilbert and former Olympic silver medalist Charlie Simpkins may be just the ticket to helping Daniels rediscover her form.
James, meanwhile, was a 2005 Nike Outdoor national champion in the 100m hurdles and a three-time Florida 4A high school winner in that event, with a career best of 13.53. She was eighth at the ACC Indoor Championships in the 60-meter hurdles (8.45) a year ago and was sixth in the 100m hurdles (13.80) at the league outdoor meet.
A trio of freshmen rounds out Smith Gilbert's crew. That group includes Nia Ali of Pleasantville, N.J., Leigh Ann Burton of Atlanta, Ga., and Lynne Layne of New Rochelle, N.Y. Ali joins the Lady Vol family after winning the 2006 60m hurdles at the Nike Indoor National Championships in a meet-record 8.36. She ranked No. 1 among prep girls in the 55m (7.75) and 60m (8.36) hurdles indoors and was sixth outdoors in the 100m hurdles. Her indoor times would already rank her second and third, respectively, on UT's all-time performers list in those events, while her outdoor mark would rate fourth.
 Cleo Tyson |
Layne, likewise, won a Nike Indoor title during her prep career, taking the 200m dash crown (24.07) in 2006 and finishing third in the 60m dash (7.44). In 2004, she also won the Nike 60m title and in 2005 she led the nation with a top time of 7.43, was second in the 55m (6.94) and third in the 200m (24.26). Also a gifted long jumper, she owns a career best of 19-7 1/4 and will join Ali, Daniels and Law on the runway.
Burton, meanwhile, enters with less fanfare than Ali and Layne. The two-time state 100m hurdles champion and long jump winner from Georgia, though, will attempt to follow in the footsteps of Law, who blossomed into a difference-maker last year under the experienced guidance of the Lady Vol staff.
The distance corps is the team's largest group in numbers, and that area's performance this season will hold the key to Tennessee reaching its potential. Clark welcomes back a strong collection of talent and will implement several highly-touted new members into the fold.
Last year left no question that Tennessee has two of the league's, and potentially the nation's, best runners in the shorter distance races. Treherne returns after developing into an All-American in the 800 meters in 2006. She lowered her outdoor PR to 2:03.38 during the season, was the SEC Outdoor runner-up by a hair's breadth and wound up eighth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
A senior indoors and a junior outdoors, the team tri-captain extended her success into the summer months in 2006. First, she made the 800m finals at the USA Championships and finished eighth with a PR readout. Then she represented the U.S. abroad at the NACAC Under-23 Championships, coming away with a fourth-place result in that event. With a full year and a half of training in after redshirting due to injury in 2005, big things are expected of Treherne for the 2007 indoor and outdoor campaigns.
Joining her is Bowman, a highly-regarded signee who overcame some early season injuries to develop into a third-place SEC Indoor finisher in the mile and an SEC Outdoor champion in the 1500 meters as a rookie. Bowman ran well in taking third in the 1500m at the NCAA Mideast regional in 4:19.19, but struggled at the NCAA Outdoor meet. With some maturation and consistency as a sophomore, she is capable of being a major player on the national scene.
Two promising sophomores also deepen the pool of talent in the short distance group. Kimarra McDonald and Rolanda Bell poured the foundation in 2006 for solid futures at Tennessee. McDonald actually was a contributor to a pair of Lady Vol relays, aiding a fourth-place SEC Indoor DMR unit as well as a fourth-place 4x4 at the outdoor league gathering.
Bell, meanwhile, enters the 2007 season after making great strides in her training and times during the fall cross country campaign. She also had a huge confidence boost last summer when she notched a seventh-place performance at the USA Junior Championships.
 Leslie Treherne |
UT's long distance cadre is in equally capable hands, as seniors Guliford, Katie Flaute and Carly Matthews and sophomores Leah Soro and Katie Van Horn supply this area with a load of possibilities for Clark and volunteer coach Kayla Matrunick.
Guliford, the team's third captain and a DMR All-American in 2005, returns as the most accomplished of the bunch. If she rediscovers the form that helped her sweep the SEC Indoor 3000m and 5000m crowns and claim the SEC Outdoor 5000m title in 2005, then things will become very interesting in Big Orange Country. Likewise, Flaute battled injuries a year ago, but her cross country campaign during the fall indicated she is back and poised for her strongest season as a Lady Vol. Flaute has scored in the 3000m and 5000m at SEC Indoors and is a two-time point-getter in the 10,000m outdoors.
Matthews and Soro return with SEC scoring experience as well. Matthews was fifth a year ago in the 5K at SEC Indoors and was sixth the season prior to that. She was ninth at the league meet in the steeplechase, so she has the potential to contribute to the UT coffers in two events outdoors in 2007.
Soro, meanwhile, charted a sixth-place effort in the SEC Outdoor 5000 meters as a rookie. If the local product can shake the injury that limited her in cross country this fall, she could also bolster Tennessee's efforts at the conference level.
Adding to the intrigue is Van Horn, who joined the Lady Vols last January after transferring from Richmond. She was not able to make a splash for the squad in 2006, but if her fall cross country season is any indication, she will definitely make her name known on the track in 2007. Van Horn improved over the course of the season to where she was in UT's top two at its final two meets and earned All-South Region status on the trails.
An influx of talent from a standout rookie class only adds to the excitement about the distance group. Jackie Areson of Delray Beach, Fla., joins Ali and Layne as UT's three freshmen who won Nike national championships during their prep days. Areson's strength is in the short distances, as she claimed the mile title at the 2006 Nike Indoor meet and is the owner of Florida state records for the high school and middle school mile. However, Areson was an all-region performer for the UT cross country team during the fall and seems to have the range to supply Clark with options.
A pair of longer distance aces provides the Big Orange with support for Guliford and Flaute. Ocala, Fla., product Kelly Parrish and County Kildare, Ireland, native Rose-Anne Galligan were highly-regarded prep prospects and have the ability to assist UT's drive toward winning championships.
Parrish was considered the top senior long distance runner in the state of Florida in 2005-06 and is a seven-time state champion. The two-time Nike All-American has fared well in national-type meets in both the mile and 3000 meters and is expected to have a thriving career once she makes the transition to collegiate running.
Like Parrish, Galligan was not as productive during the cross country season as she would have liked, but her track record, and her 9:28.67 indoor 3K PR, suggest she will be a force on the oval.
Two in-state 800m signees round out the distance brigade. State champ Alyssa Bryant of Andersonville and all-state performer Phoebe Wright of Signal Mountain are now in the pipeline at UT and hoping to reap the benefits of the coaching and training of Clark.
The throws area is under the new leadership of Frazier, who joined the Lady Vol staff after coaching both the men's and women's throwers at the University of Arizona. The athletes he has tutored at Arizona, Florida (with Clark), UC Irvine, Humboldt State, Cal State Northridge and Cal State Los Angeles have earned 32 All-America honors and won four NCAA titles, so he has a proven record of building champions at all levels of competition.
Sure to benefit from his expertise is UT's top throws returnee in Dickenson. The junior finished sixth in the discus at last year's SEC Outdoor meet and qualified for her first NCAA Championship meet as well. After winning the 2005 USATF Junior title in the discus at 176-2 and grabbing silver at 2005 Pan Am Juniors, Dickenson is hopeful that Frazier can help her produce those types of results in 2007.
Dickenson also placed eighth in the weight throw at SEC Indoors a year ago and finished just out of the scoring in the shot and hammer at the SEC Outdoor meet. The school's number-two all-time performer in the weight and hammer has the potential to affect this team in many ways, which is key, since the Lady Vols saw 2006 seniors Ariel Brooks and April Thomas conclude their careers.
 Felicia Guliford |
Junior Amara McKell and sophomore Claudia Burton return, and Frazier welcomes aboard sophomore Sasha Anderson. A year ago, McKell improved in all phases and could develop into a point threat at the SEC level. Burton has yet to compete at the collegiate level after specializing in the shot in high school, while Anderson hopes to eventually aid the Big Orange cause in the javelin throw after prepping at Nashville's Hume-Fogg.
David Job is back for his fifth season of leading Tennessee's pole vaulters, and he has been masterful in transforming accomplished and novice vaulters alike into SEC and NCAA caliber performers.
With school-record-holder and former SEC champion Jessica Reust lost to graduation, Job will have his work cut out for him in 2007, as he returns only sophomore Alicia Essex from a year ago.
Essex was an 11-6 1/2 vaulter indoors as a redshirt freshman in 2006 but improved to 11-11 3/4 outdoors to tie for 10th at the SEC meet. With Job's assistance and her athletic ability, the potential is there for her to soar even higher in 2007.
Essex will be joined by a trio of newcomers in sophomore Rebecca Cole of Knoxville, and freshmen Jennifer Lewellen of Kernersville, N.C., and Katie O'Connell of Collierville, Tenn.
Cole comes to UT from East Tennessee State, where she vaulted 10-6 indoors to set a school record. Lewellen and O'Connell, meanwhile, arrive on campus with prep bests of 10-6 and 11-2, respectively.
Clark's club will embark on its 2007 schedule in Lexington, Ky., on Jan. 12-13, when the Lady Vols open at the site of the SEC Indoor Championships with the Kentucky Invitational at Nutter Fieldhouse. UT, which will have no home meets this indoor season, will also have stops at the Notre Dame Indoor Opener (Jan. 19), the Penn State National Invitational (Jan. 26-27), the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb. (Feb. 2-3) and the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. (Feb. 9-10) before concluding with the SEC Championships (Feb. 23-25), the Alex Wilson Invitational at Notre Dame, Ind. (March 2-3) and the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville (March 9-10).
Outdoors, the slate will commence on March 23-24 at the Wake Forest Open. UT will also have stops at the Stanford Invitational (March 30-31) and the Pepsi Florida Relays (April 6-7) before a split-schedule weekend on April 11-14 will have the Lady Vols making their only home appearance of the entire campaign at the Sea Ray Relays, while members of the distance contingent travel to the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. The regular season closes out with a jaunt to Baton Rouge, La., for the Alumni Gold meet (April 21) and to Philadelphia for the Penn Relays (April 26-28).
The championship portion of the season gets underway May 10-13, as the orange-clads make their way to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the SEC Outdoor Championships (May 10-13). Wrapping up the campaign are the NCAA Mideast Regional in Columbia, Mo., (May 25-26) and the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, Calif. (June 6-9). It is clear Clark likes the team he and his staff have assembled, but he is cautious when it comes to projecting this team's potential versus conference and national championship competition.
"We're very talented on paper," Clark said. "With all the newcomers who have arrived, we have a good combination of sprints and distance. It's important, though, that we translate what's on paper to reality.
"That's part of developing champions. A lot of schools, on paper, are very talented, and they can be successful if this happens or that happens. Actually putting it all together is another story. Making the vision become reality is what we like to do."
Clark, who will serve on the 2008 U.S. Olympic coaching staff, was savvy enough to put it all together in 2005 and help Tennessee win NCAA and SEC Indoor titles. He also was capable of doing so with his cross country team, as it reeled off four straight NCAA South Region titles (2002-2005) and three straight SEC victories (2003-05).
With the aid of proven full-time assistants like Smith Gilbert and Frazier, who are past national assistant coaches of the year and designees to coach on the U.S. World Championship Team in 2007, everything appears in line for another picture perfect season.
"We want to take the time to develop the athletes," Clark said. "We don't just want to say that or make slogans about it, we want to actually make it happen. I feel good that our staff has done that in the past, and we are striving to continue that tradition of 'Developing Champions.'"
