University of Tennessee Athletics
Bowman, Lady Vols Set for SEC Championships
October 31, 2008 | Women's Cross Country
Oct. 31, 2008
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The University of Tennessee women will be aiming for their eighth consecutive top-three finish and sixth league title when they toe the starting line on Monday morning at the Southeastern Conference Cross Country Championships in Starkville, Miss.
The meet, hosted by Mississippi State University, will take place at the MSU Cross Country Course. The women's 6,000-meter race is slated to start at 10 a.m. Central Time, with the men's 10,000-meter affair following at 11. Admission is free.
The Lady Vols enter the meet with a 72-10 overall won-lost record this season and will be attempting to return to the SEC winner's circle for the first time since putting the wraps on a conference three-peat in 2005. Since that trifecta, UT has posted outcomes of third in 2006 and second a year ago in Lexington, Ky. Head Coach J.J. Clark's units have accumulated a combined 61-5 record in six previous SEC meets since his arrival in 2002.
The seventh-year skipper returns six runners to his roster from the 2007 runner-up SEC squad, and his program has posted finishes of second at the Belmont Opener, first at the Tennessee Invitational, sixth at the Brooks Paul Short Run and fifth at the Penn State National this season. Clark has seen marked improvement with each step the team has taken in 2008.
"The team looks good, and we've been improving every meet," Clark said. "We have to continue to move forward and go down there and give it our best shot. That means executing our plan, getting to the front and running as well as we can.
"I am anticipating a good race from our group. They'll be rested and ready to go. We will have to have our best race of the season to perform well."
Tennessee enters as the third-highest-regarded team, at least as far as the USTFCCCA National Poll is concerned. Defending SEC champion Arkansas stands at No. 13 in this week's rankings, while Florida is right behind the Razorbacks at 14th. The Lady Vols, meanwhile, are not listed in the USTFCCCA Top 30, but they are receiving votes and would be considered No. 35 if the poll included that many teams.
Senior Sarah Bowman (Warrenton, Va.) has performed this season the way a coach would want a captain to perform. After taking some time off after the Olympic Trials this summer and staying home to train through UT's opening meet this season, the three-time All-SEC performer has set the tone in UT's last three meets by leading the team to the finish line.
A victory at the 5K Tennessee Invitational and 6K readouts of 20:28 and 20:24 (second best mark in the SEC this season) at the Brooks Paul Short Run and Penn State National, respectively, have demonstrated that Bowman is running well and should be considered among the favorites to win the SEC individual title. What a fitting end to a career it would be for Bowman to join the ranks of Patty Wiegand (1990) and Alison Quelch (1983) as Lady Vols who've captured SEC cross country crowns.
"Every year, Sarah has tried to win this race, and it's not going to change this year," Clark said of his pupil, who placed fourth in 2007, seventh in 2006 and sixth in 2005. "She'll go out there and put her best foot forward, as she always does. The good thing is that she is liking cross country more.
"She's actually enjoying the sport now, maybe because she is running a little faster or it doesn't hurt as much. I don't know, but the fact that she enjoys it now might just be what she needs to move forward. She's been looking good all year, and only time will tell how she will do."
Expected to make the trip along with Bowman are senior classmates Rolanda Bell (Laurelton, N.Y.) and Katie Van Horn (Glendora, N.J.); juniors Jackie Areson (Delray Beach, Fla.) and Phoebe Wright (Signal Mountain, Tenn.); sophomore Brittany Sheffey (Bellport, N.Y.) and freshmen Elizabeth Altizer (Bartlett, Tenn.), Ally Colvin (Maryville, Tenn.), Chanelle Price (Easton, Pa.) and Elizabeth Tiller (Tuscaloosa, Ala.). Van Horn, who finished seventh in 2007 to earn All-SEC honors with Bowman, has yet to make an appearance in 2008.
Areson and Sheffey haved filled the No. 2 and No. 3 scoring roles for UT this season, while Bell and Wright have typically held down the four and five slots. Clark, though, has been pushing and hoping for his squad to close down on the distance between all five of his scoring runners.
"That's something we're always trying to do, and I don't know that I'd ever be satisfied unless they all crossed the line together," Clark joked. "We are trying to make that gap as small as possible. Our runners are very aware of what they have to do.
"It's very clear, and they understand the opposition that is out there. They are ready to step up and meet the challenge."
