University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
Florida Relays
Vols Finish Strong At Florida, Stanford
April 02, 2016 | Track & Field
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee wrapped a strong week of competition on both the East Coast and the West Coast with some impressive relay finishes and a fantastic showing by Cameron Brown in the hammer throw on Saturday.
"Competition over the last couple of days at Florida was very exciting and very rewarding," Tennessee director of track and field and cross country Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "We had some rain delays and some events canceled due to the weather, but we were able to get a lot of productive competition in. It's early season, we have a lot of work to do ahead of us, but the competition that came out of Florida was very exciting for us."
At the Pepsi Florida Relays, the Tennessee women's 4x200 of Lenysse Dyer, Felicia Brown, Felecia Majors, Kali Davis-White posted the top time among college squads at 1:31.51. The 4x100 of DeAndra Greer, Davis-White, Majors and Brown was third among college teams at 43.45. The 4x400 of Dyer, Brown, Layla White and Majors placed fourth in 3:31.29.
On the men's side, UT's 4x200 relay of Jalen Hunter, Christian Coleman, Mustaqeem Williams and Nathan Strother placed third among college squads with a time of 1:22.92. The Vols' men's 4x400 of Ari Cogdell, Coleman, Darryl Harris and Strother took third place with a time of 3:06.37.
Cameron Brown was the last Vol in action on Saturday for the group that competed at the Stanford Invitational. Competing in the hammer throw for the first time since 2014, Brown threw a career-best 63.94 meters (209-9.00) to take third place.
"Here at Stanford we also had some outstanding early-season performances, but it was really set up to get some great competition in early and know what we have to work on," Sullivan said. "We had a lot of personal bests, some great wins and some great performances in general. I'm very proud of the two squads that were on both coasts this weekend."
Late on Friday night, Chelsea Blaase set a new Tennessee record in the women's 10,000 meters with a fantastic performance at the Stanford Invitational that qualifies her this summer's U.S. Olympic Trials.
Blaase clocked in at a new PR of 32:08.39, beating her previous best by 20 seconds to take seventh place. That time automatically qualifies her for U.S. Olympic trials (qualifying mark is 32:25.00) and is an IAAF Olympic A standard (32:15.00).
"We are very proud of Chelsea Blaase," Sullivan said. "In our schedule this year, this was an opportunity to get into a very competitive and a very high-level 10K. She took advantage of the competition. She took advantage of the environment. She's very fit. She was obviously coming off of a great performance at the indoor NCAA Championships and we were very confident that we would see a great run out of her."
Blaase entered the weekend with a base goal of notching a time that would qualify her NCAA prelims. Her 32:08.39 certainly achieved that and it put her in a great position for this summer's U.S. Olympic trials.
THURSDAY'S EVENTS
PEPSI FLORIDA RELAYS - MEN
5,000m Finals - 9. Jack Little, 14:33.26!
FRIDAY'S EVENTS
PEPSI FLORIDA RELAYS - MEN
100m - 5. Christian Coleman, 10.16!
Invite High Jump - Wesley Edwards, nh
400m - 5. Nathan Strother, 46.18!; 6. Ari Cogdell, 46.45!
800m - 45. Tyler Woodrome, 1:52.94!
400m Hurdles - 19. Jalen Hunter, 52.79!
Long Jump - 1. Mustaqeem Williams, 7.48m (24-6.50)
1500m - 21. Zach Long, 3:47.99; 57. Tyler Woodrome, 4:04.85
PEPSI FLORIDA RELAYS - WOMEN
100m Hurdles - 56. Cidae'a Woods, 14.22!
100m - 5. Kali Davis-White, 11.33!; 7. Felicia Brown, 11.40!
400m - 12. Lenysse Dyer, 53.36!, 15. Layla White, 53.70!
Pole Vault - 8. Erin Champion, 4.05m! (13-3.50), 10. Kristen Denk, 4.05m (13-3.50)
Invite 200m - 2. Felecia Majors, 23.01!
STANFORD INVITATIONAL - MEN
Hammer Collegiate - 5. Seth Whitener, 56.89m (186-8.00); 11. Matthew Zajac, 52.56m (172-5.00)
5,000m - Austin Whitelaw, dnf
Javelin Invitational - 5. Kyle Quinn, 67.38m (221-1.00)
Discus Invitational - 5. Matthew Zajac, 52.75m (173-1.00)
STANFORD INVITATIONAL - WOMEN
Shot Put Invitational - 2. Cassie Wertman, 16.57m (54-4.50)
Javelin Invitational - 2. Maria Jimenez, 49.65m! (162-11.00)
10,000m - 7. Chelsea Blaase, 32:08.39sr!
SATURDAY'S EVENTS
PEPSI FLORIDA RELAYS - MEN
High Jump - Jonathan Mays, nh
Pole Vault - 7. Tyler Porter, 5.00m (16-4.75); 14. Ocean Walters-Carlson, 4.85m (15-11.00)
4x100m - Tennessee A (Malik Elion, Christian Coleman, Mustaqeem Williams, Nathan Strother), dnf
4x200m - 5. Tennessee A (Christian Coleman, Malik Elion, Mustaqeem Williams, Nathan Strother), 1:22.92
4x400m - 3. Tennessee A (Ari Cogdell, Christian Coleman, Darryl Harris, Nathan Strother), 3:06.37
PEPSI FLORIDA RELAYS - WOMEN
4. 4x100m - Tennessee A (DeAndra Greer, Kali Davis-White, Felecia Majors, Felicia Brown), 43.45
Triple Jump - Cidae'a Woods, foul; Brielyn Rogers, nd, nwi
4x200m - 2. Tennessee A (Lenysse Dyer, Felicia Brown, Felecia Majors, Kali Davis-White), 1:31.51
4x400m - 4. Tennessee A (Lenysse Dyer, Felicia Brown, Layla White, Felecia Majors), 3:31.29
STANFORD INVITATIONAL - MEN
Hammer Invitational - 3. Cameron Brown, 63.94m (209-9.00)
! - Personal Best, $ - SEC Record, a - American Record, b - Banked Track, c - Collegiate Record, adv. - Advanced, dna - Did Not Advance, dnf - Did Not Finish, dnr - Did Not Run, dns - Did Not Score, dq - Disqualified, F - Foul, f - Facility Record, fr - Freshman Record, fr* - Tied Freshman Record, fs - False Start, H - Heptathlon, h - Hand-Timed, mr - Meet Record, nh - No Height, nm - No Mark, P - Pentathlon, sr - School Record, u - Undersized Track, w - wind-aided, wr - World Record
