University of Tennessee Athletics
No. 3 Vols Head to Big 10-SEC Challenge
January 16, 2008 | Men's Track
The third-ranked Tennessee men???s track and field team combines with conference foes Florida, ranked fourth in the nation, and Kentucky on Saturday in Bloomington, Ind., to take on Illinois, Indiana, and Purdue in the Big Ten-SEC Challenge.
???These are two great conferences being represented,??? head coach Bill Webb said. ???We will be running on an outstanding track that was used for the NCAA meet when it was in Indianapolis. We???ve moved more into the indoor season, so I???think people are ready to bust out. Our pole vaulters will not compete and Rubin Williams will not open up yet, just because it???s a long season. We???ve competed at Indiana many times and done extremely well there. Most of our athletes are familiar with the track and its set up. Many (NCAA) automatic and provisional marks will come out of this meet, which is the first of three highly-competitive meets for us before the SEC???Indoor Championships.???
Competing with other conference foes for interconference supremacy is nothing new to the Vols. Tennessee teamed up with Kentucky and South Carolina outdoors in the 2005 Gatorade Classic to defeat the Big Ten team of Minnesota, Penn State and Wisconsin by a score of 420-298.
As the season progresses, more Vols continue to make their season debuts. This weekend serves as the 2008 opener for Paul Cross, Andrew Dawson, Denton Jones, Yarrick Kincaid, Axel Mostrag and Andrew Press. Cross and Kincaid open in their specialty event, the 800, while Dawson, Mostrag and Press are entered in the mile. Jones is expected to run both the mile and the 3,000. Press, a junior transfer from William & Mary, runs in his first competition for the track Vols after earning All-SEC and All-South Region honors for Tennessee???s cross country squad during the fall. Mostrag, a true freshman from Krasnik, Poland, also competes for the first time in Orange.
Heptathletes Jangy Addy, Michael Ayers and Brad Holtz continue their preparations for the first heptathlon of the season, expected to be next weekend at the Penn State National. All three athletes are entered in the high jump and long jump, while Ayers also adds the shot put and 60 hurdles and Holtz adds the shot put. Addy raced to a provisional-qualifying and SEC-leading time of?? 7.23 in the 55 hurdles that ranks 10th on Tennessee???s all-time performance list in the event before clearing a personal-best height in the pole vault last weekend at the Virginia Tech Invitational. Holtz earned a personal-best clearance in the pole vault as well, and he and Ayers both recorded personal-best marks in the shot put.
Sophomore Evander Wells leads Tennessee???s sprint corps after winning the 55 in a provisional-qualifying time of 6.23 that leads the conference and taking the baton for the second leg of Tennessee???s victorious 4x400 relay team at the Virginia Tech Invitational. Wells also placed third in the 200. Seniors Matthieu Pritchett and Blake Jones are scheduled to run the 60 and 200 dashes, while Wells is only entered in the 60. Senior Kris Fant, sophomore De???Lon Isom and freshman Charlton Rolle are entered in the 60 hurdles, with Rolle also expected to compete in the long jump for the first time as a collegian.
Tennessee???s junior throwing trio of Matthew Maloney, Nick Panezich and Richard Wooten also makes the trek to Bloomington. Panezich recorded a personal-best weight throw of 57-4 3/4 and finished fifth in the shot put last weekend. Wooten finished fifth in the weight throw and sixth in the shot put, while Maloney placed seventh in the weight throw. Panezich and Wooten are again scheduled for the shot put-weight throw double, with Maloney contesting the weight throw. Sophomore Brenard Wilson competes in the high jump for the first time in 2008 after finishing sixth in the event at the Clemson Opener in December.
Sophomores Samdi Fraser, Nathan Grace and John Hewitt are entered in the 400 after joining Wells on Tennessee???s winning 4x400 relay at Virginia Tech. Distance runners Mike Brodsky, Chris Platt and Chris Rapp all take on the 3,000, while Brodsky and Platt are also entered in the mile. Sophomore Justin Hansen joins Cross and Kincaid in the 800.
The Big Ten-SEC Challenge begins Saturday at 11 a.m. Eastern Time with the long jump and continues through the 4x400 relay, scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.
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