Tennessee Track/XC Schedule Announced
August 21, 2015 | Track & Field
Aug. 21, 2015
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee director of track and field/cross country Beth Alford-Sullivan has announced her program's schedule for the 2015-16 season, her second on Rocky Top. The completed schedule includes all dates for the 2015 cross country campaign as well as the 2016 indoor and outdoor track and field seasons.
2015-16 TRACK/XC SCHEDULES
2015 CROSS COUNTRY
Sept. 4 - Hokie Invitational (Blacksburg, Va.)
Sept. 19 - Commodore Classic (Nashville, Tenn.)
Oct. 3 - Louisville Classic (Louisville, Ky.)
Oct. 17 - Pre Nationals (Louisville, Ky.)
Oct. 30 - SEC Championships (College Station, Texas)
Nov. 13 - NCAA Regionals (Tuscaloosa, Ala.)
Nov. 21 - NCAA Championships (Louisville, Ky.)
2016 INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
Jan. 9 - Indiana Dual (Bloomington, Ind.)
Jan. 15-16 - Commodore Invitational (Nashville, Tenn.)
Jan. 15-16 - Virginia Tech Invitational (Blacksburg, Va.)
Jan. 22-23 - SEC Challenge (Birmingham, Ala.)
Jan. 29-30 - Vanderbilt Invitational (Nashville, Tenn.)
Feb. 5-6 - VT Elite Meet (Blacksburg, Va.)
Feb. 12-13 - Tyson Invitational (Fayetteville, Ark.)
Feb. 12-13 - Husky Classic (Seattle, Wash.)
Feb. 26-27 - SEC Championships (Fayetteville, Ark.)
March 11-12 - NCAA Championships (Birmingham, Ala.)
2016 OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD
March 18-19 - Shamrock Invitational (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)
March 30-April 2 - Texas Relays (Austin, Texas)
April 1-2 - Florida Relays (Gainesville, Fla.)
April 1-2 - Stanford Invitational (Stanford, Calif.)
April 7-9 - Tennessee Relays (Knoxville, Tenn.)
April 22-23 - LSU Alumni Gold (Baton Rouge, La.)
April 28-30 - Penn Relays (Philadelphia, Penn.)
May 7 - Tennessee Challenge (Knoxville, Tenn.)
May 12-14 - SEC Championships (Tuscalossa, Ala.)
May 26-28 - NCAA East Preliminary (Jacksonville, Fla.)
June 8-11 - NCAA Championships (Eugene, Ore.)
In total, the Vols are set to compete in 28 meets across the cross country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field seasons in 2015-16. All three season schedules feature at least one in-state meet, including a pair of home meets during the outdoor slate.
Tennessee opens the cross country on the first Friday of September when it takes part in the Hokie Invitational on Sept. 4. UT will appear in seven meets during the fall season, including three stops in Louisville, Kentucky. The site of the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Nov. 21, Louisville will also host the Louisville Classic (Oct. 3) and a Pre-Nationals meet (Oct. 17). One in-state meet is also on the docket as the Volunteer harriers will race in the Commodore Classic in Nashville on Sept. 19.
"We open up with cross country season and have two very young teams on the men's and women's rosters," Sullivan said. "We'll open up with some low-key meets early on--we're excited to head over to Blacksburg, Virginia, to get our feet wet there--and then we'll be at the Pre-Nationals. That will be one of our first focal points: to be on the same course in Louisville that will host the national championships in November."
Texas A&M is the host of the 2015 SEC Cross Country Championships, which is scheduled for Oct. 30 in College Station. The NCAA Regional meet will follow two weeks later in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
"It will be a big trip for us to go to College Station, Texas, for the SEC Championships, but we'll have some much-improved conference goals for this year," added Sullivan. "We certainly hope to be representing at the national championships again."
The indoor track and field season follows the start of the new calendar year as Tennessee will open its 2016 slate with a dual meet against Indiana. The Vols will travel to Bloomington, Indiana, for the one-day competition against the Hoosiers, marking the first dual meet for the program since the 2012 season.
Another unique competition awaits UT in January. In conjunction with Auburn, Tennessee will cohost the SEC Challenge--a 15-team event to be held in Birmingham, Alabama, at the site of the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championships. The meet will be scored in a format featuring a handful of SEC member programs going up against teams from other Power 5 conferences.
"The track and field seasons are going to be outstanding," said Sullivan. "We added a dual with Indiana--something that goes back in history on the men's side--and we hope getting the year started with a dual meet will really get the team into a competitive mode early. We also are doing something unique with the SEC Challenge. I will have more details in the near future but we've been working closely with the staff at Auburn and we're excited to be able to pull this off. It's going to be a great competition in preparation for that national championship."
The indoor track and field season will feature 10 total meets for the Volunteers, including traditional stops at the Virginia Tech Invitational (Jan. 15-16), Tyson Invitational (Feb. 12-13), and Husky Classic (Feb. 12-13). The season reaches its boiling point in late February when the SEC Championships--scheduled for Feb. 26-27 in Fayetteville, Arkansas--give way to the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 11-12.
Following the NCAA Indoor Championships, Tennessee will jump headfirst into the outdoor season by opening proceedings the very next week at the Shamrock Invitational in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A trio of meets--the Florida Relays, Texas Relays, and Stanford Invitational--will send the Vols to various corners of the country two weeks later before they reconvene on April 7 for the 50th annual Tennessee Relays Powered by Sea Ray. One of two home meets in 2016, the Tennessee Relays will be the first intercollegiate competition on the new surface being installed this summer at Tom Black Track.
"Outdoor, we're thrilled to be hosting on our new track," Sullivan said. "That's the biggest highlight on the outdoor schedule for me--the Tennessee Relays. We will have the multi events again on Thursday and Friday of that week and some great competition on Friday and Saturday."
UT will also host the Tennessee Challenge on May 7--a one-day, final tune-up before the SEC Outdoor Championships in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on May 12-14.
The outdoor schedule also includes a stop at the world famous Penn Relays on April 22-25, as well as in-conference trip to the LSU Alumni Gold meet on April 23.
Following the SEC Championships, the NCAA East Preliminary Round will be held in Jacksonville, Florida. There, the Volunteers will look to punch as many tickets as possible to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, which run June 8-11 in Eugene, Oregon.
The NCAA Championships mark the start of a thrilling summer for track and field in 2016 as the world's gaze will turn to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August. Tennessee's Olympic hopefuls will have their chance to qualify for the Games on July 1-10 when the U.S. Olympic Trials take place at Hayward Field in Eugene.
"It's an Olympic Trials year, so we'll have a lot of Volunteers working to earn a spot at the trials next July," Sullivan concluded. "It's funny to talk about it this far out, but we're looking to have the full run of things and we're excited about all the potential these schedules bring us."
