University of Tennessee Athletics
Coleman Named USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week
May 16, 2017 | Track & Field
NEW ORLEANS, La. -- Tennessee junior sprinter Christian Coleman was named USTFCCCA Outdoor National Athlete of the Week the coaches’ association announced on Tuesday.
This past weekend, Coleman won SEC Championships in both the 100m and 200m distances, winning his first two career outdoor SEC Championships.
He became just the eighth man in world history and the first man in collegiate history to record times under 10 seconds in the 100 and under20 seconds in the 200 in the same day.
Coleman opened things up with a wind-legal time of 9.97 in the 100m to record the top wind-legal time in the NCAA and the fastest mark by an American this year. He now ranks fourth in the world in 2017.
Not too long after, Coleman doubled back in the 200 and clocked a wind-legal time of 19.98, the top wind-legal mark in the NCAA this year and the fourth-fastest time in the world. That mark moved Coleman into second place on the school’s all-time 200m list just behind Justin Gatlin’s school mark of 19.86.
Both of Coleman’s marks ranked 11th in collegiate history, falling just .01 seconds short of cracking the all-time top 10. Coleman earned the Commissioner’s Trophy as the top scorer at the SEC Championship.
This is Coleman’s second USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Year Award of the 2017 season as he earned his first on February 7. Coleman ran the top 60m dash in the country at 6.51 that week as he was named the meet MVP of the Virginia Tech “Doc Hale” Elite Meet during indoor season.
