University of Tennessee Athletics
Wilhelm Wins Sea Ray Relays Heptathlon
April 10, 2008 | Women's Track
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Former University of Cincinnati standout Ashley Wilhelm finished what she started on Wednesday, scoring 5,697 points to claim victory Thursday at the Sea Ray Relays heptathlon at the University of Tennessee???s Tom Black Track at LaPorte Stadium. Wilhelm???s point total was the second best in meet history, falling short of only the 6,018-point gem of Nike???s DeDee Nathan back in 1996.
Wilhelm, who entered the day with 3,343 points and a 329-point lead over West Virginia???s Chelsea Carrier and a 332-point advantage over Kentucky???s Danielle Sampley, used a victory in the javelin to retain her lead and go on to first-place honors. Indiana State???s Erica Moore used a strong second day to move into runner-up honors with an NCAA provisional score of 5,368 points.
Sampley, a product of nearby William Blount High School, took third with a provisional mark of 5,196, while UK teammate Ashley Trimble (5,086) also made the NCAA???s safety cut.
Wilhelm began the afternoon by taking second in the long jump behind Sampley (20-5/w: 2.9) and generating 915 points, soaring 20 feet, 4 1/2 inches with a 5.5 meters-per-second gust at her back. She bounced back to win the javelin with a 628-point heave of 134-7, and closed out the competition by finishing third in the 800m at two minutes, 20.93 seconds to claim her final 811 points.
Tennessee will swing into action full speed on Friday, competing in 11 events. Among those to watch are defending champion senior Shanna Dickenson (Cincinnati, Ohio) in the invitational hammer at 10:45 a.m., junior Sarah Bowman (Warrenton, Va.) in the 3000m run at 12:55 p.m., junior Alicia Essex (Purcellville, Va.) in the pole vault at 1 p.m., junior Celriece Law (Denver, Colo.) in the 100m hurdles at 2:30 p.m., freshman Jeneba Tarmoh (San Jose, Calif.) in the open 100m dash and senior LaTonya Loche (Bastrop, La.) in the 400m dash at 4:05 p.m. UT also is slated to run one relay event on Friday, the 4x200m, at 5:40 p.m.
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).
