University of Tennessee Athletics
School-Best 13 Earn NCAA Indoor Berths
March 11, 2008 | Women's Track
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The NCAA released its list of qualifiers for the 2008 Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships this weekend, and third-ranked University of Tennessee will be sending a school-record 13 women to compete in nine different events March 14-15 at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark.
That total tops the 11 Lady Vol qualifiers for the 1984 NCAA Indoor meet in Syracuse, N.Y., when UT wound up second in the team standings.?? It also improves upon J.J. Clark???s best indoor tallies of 10 Big Orange qualifiers in 2005 and 2007, when Tennessee won a national title and finished third, respectively.
Making the national cut for the Lady Volunteers are three seniors, five juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen, covering the 60m, 200m and 400m dashes, the mile and 5000m runs, the 60m hurdles, the 4x400m and distance medley relays, and the shot put.?? The UT contingent is slated to depart Wednesday for Northwest Arkansas.
???Really, everyone we thought would get into the meet did get in,??? Clark said. ???As far as the amount of qualifiers, we are very happy to have that many scoring opportunities.?? What would make me extremely excited would be to have those possibilities come through and actually score.?? We???re looking forward to taking those opportunities, doing something with the student-athletes who made it and trying to do the best we can at this meet.???
Automatic qualifiers include freshman Annie Alexander (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago) in the shot put at 57-2, junior Sarah Bowman (Warrenton, Va.) in the mile run at 4:36.51, seniors Courtney Champion (Lawrenceville, Ga.) and Cleo Tyson (Huntsville, Texas) in the 60m dash at 7.25, and the distance medley relay quartet of freshman Brittany Sheffey (Bellport, N.Y.), freshman Brittany Jones (Pompano Beach, Fla.), sophomore Phoebe Wright (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) and Bowman at 11:07.89.
Among the provisional qualifiers are Champion in the 200m at 23.23, junior Celriece Law (Denver, Colo.) in the 60m hurdles at 8.19, sophomore Lynne Layne (New Rochelle, N.Y.) in the 60m at 7.29 and the 200m at 23.68, senior LaTonya Loche (Bastrop, La.) in the 400m at 53.22, freshman Jeneba Tarmoh (San Jose, Calif.) in the 60m at 7.28 and the 200m at 23.26 and junior Katie Van Horn (Glendora, N.J.) in the 5000m at 16:24.28.????????????
Also making the cut was Tennessee???s 4x400m relay unit, with the quartet of Champion, Loche, Jones and Tyson responsible for a time of 3:36.05.?? Earning her way onto the travel party as an alternate for the relay teams is junior Kimarra McDonald (Lumberton, N.J.), who most notably ran the 400m leg on a UT DMR unit that won the SEC title the past two seasons.
The Lady Vols??? top entries are Bowman, who ranks second in the mile, Alexander, who enters third in the shot put, and the DMR, which owns the third-fastest time in the land this season.
A complete list of women accepted into the NCAA Division I Track & Field Championships may be found at http://www.trackshark.com/rankings/d1women_declare.php.
