University of Tennessee Athletics
Track Begins Outdoor Slate at Miami
March 27, 2008 | Women's Track
Meet Notes (PDF)????
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The University of Tennessee women???s track & field team will open the outdoor portion of its 2008 schedule Saturday, when the Lady Vols take part in the University of Miami???s Hurricane Challenge in Coral Gables, Fla. UT, which finished the first half of its slate by tying for eighth at the NCAA Indoor Championships, will head outdoors with a No. 21 preseason ranking from the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The Big Orange women are among six SEC schools listed in the USTFCCCA preseason rankings. The others are No. 1 LSU, No. 11 Arkansas, No. 13 Florida, No. 16 South Carolina and No. 17 Auburn. Tennessee will face the No. 13 Gators and No. 24 Miami (Fla) at this weekend???s meet, which will be held at UM???s Cobb Track & Field Facility. Other schools expected to be on hand include Big Ten programs Illinois and Virginia, as well as Buffalo State, Florida Atlantic and Florida International.
???Right now, we???re just regrouping for the outdoor season,??? UT Head Coach J.J. Clark said. ???We had overall success during the indoor season, and we???re just trying to get the ball rolling for the outdoor season. The idea with this meet is to make the transition from indoor to outdoor, get the season started and try to get some good marks on the board.
???Everyone is healthy coming off the indoor season. This year, we have tried very diligently with our training staff to keep the injuries to a minimum. We have been successful with that so far.???
While the coaching staff???s emphasis is more on producing good marks rather than stressing on hitting qualifying marks, Tennessee will no doubt earn some automatic berths this weekend to the NCAA Mideast Regional meet. A year ago, the Lady Vols posted seven such efforts as they made their outdoor debut at the Wake Forest Open.
Most likely to notch regional qualifiers for UT in Coral Gables are freshman Annie Alexander (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago) in the shot put and discus, junior Sarah Bowman (Warrenton, Va.) in the 800m or 1500m, senior Shanna Dickenson (Cincinnati, Ohio) in the discus and hammer, senior LaTonya Loche (Bastrop, La.) in the 400m, junior Celriece Law (Denver, Colo.) in the 100m hurdles, sophomore Lynne Layne (New Rochelle, N.Y.) in the 100m and 200m, freshman Jeneba Tarmoh (San Jose, Calif.) in the 100m and 200m, and sophomore Phoebe Wright (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) in the 1500m. The Big Orange 4x100m and 4x400m relay units also could push the regional standards, depending on the lineups.
The Tennessee women head into the Hurricane Challenge with 10 All-Americans from the indoor campaign who achieved 15 accolades at the NCAA Indoor meet. That group, the largest of any school in the country this season, should serve UT well as it embarks on the outdoor schedule.
Whether qualifying marks are achieved or not in South Florida, the meet will provide a great opportunity for training and weather that should be conducive toward that end, as Tennessee lays its foundation for a successful climax at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
???It???s a nice climate, for starters,??? Clark said in explaining his choice to compete in this meet. ???The times (on the track) in the past have been okay, so we decided to go ahead and give it a shot. Outdoors, especially early in the season, you don???t know what kind of weather you are going to have. Going south provides us with the opportunity of knowing the weather will probably be okay vs. going up north or staying here this time of the year when it still might be a little volatile.???
| SATURDAY, MARCH 29 |
| Javelin (Regional: 142-6/43.45m) Noon |
| Brittany Napoli |
| Holly Kane |
| High Jump (Regional: 5-8.75/1.75m) Noon |
| TBD |
| Hammer (Regional: 177-8/54.15m) 2:00 p.m.?? |
| Shanna Dickenson |
| Taylor Rotella |
| Discus (Regional: 155-2/47.30m) 3:00 p.m. |
| Shanna Dickenson |
| Annie Alexander |
| Amara McKell |
| 3000mSC (Regional: 10:50.25) 3:30 p.m. |
| No Lady Vols Entered |
| 4x100m Relay (Regional: 45.70) 4:00 p.m. |
| Lady Vol Lineup TBD |
| 1500m (Regional: 4:27.80) 4:15 p.m. |
| Sarah Bowman |
| Brittany Sheffey |
| Phoebe Wright |
| Rolanda Bell |
| Jackie Areson |
| Katie Van Horn |
| 100mH (Regional: 13.92) 4:40 p.m. |
| Celriece Law |
| 400m (Regional: 54.61) 5:00 p.m. |
| LaTonya Loche |
| Kimarra McDonald |
| Shot Put (Regional: 46-11/14.30m) 5:00 p.m. |
| Annie Alexander |
| Amara McKell |
| 100m (Regional: 11.75) 5:20 p.m. |
| Cleo Tyson |
| Jeneba Tarmoh |
| Lynne Layne |
| LaTonya Loche |
| Celriece Law |
| Long Jump (Regional: 19-8.25/6.00m) 5:30 p.m. |
| TBD |
| Pole Vault (Regional: 12-7.50/3.85m) 5:30 p.m. |
| Alicia Essex |
| 800m (Regional: 2:09.80) 5:40 p.m. |
| Sarah Bowman |
| Brittany Sheffey |
| Kimarra McDonald |
| Rolanda Bell |
| 400mH (Regional: 1:00.82) 6:00 p.m. |
| No Lady Vols Entered |
| 200m (Regional: 23.96) 6:15 p.m. |
| Cleo Tyson |
| Jeneba Tarmoh |
| Lynne Layne |
| LaTonya Loche |
| Celriece Law |
| 3000m (Not An NCAA Event) 6:40 p.m. |
| Sarah Bowman |
| Katie Van Horn |
| Brittany Sheffey |
| Rolanda Bell |
| 4x400m Relay (Regional: 3:42.00) 7:10 p.m. |
| Lady Vol Lineup TBD |
| Triple Jump (Regional: 40-5/12.32m) 7:30 p.m. |
| TBD |
KEY
# - NCAA Regional Qualifier, * - NCAA Automatic Qualifier, + - NCAA Provisional Qualifier, ! - Personal Record (Outdoors), dnf - Did Not Finish, dnq - Did Not Qualify, dnr - Did Not Run, dns - Did Not Start, dq - Disqualified, f - Facility Record, fs - False Start, h - Hand Times, nm - No Mark, p - Prelims, s - School Record (Outdoors).
