University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
USATF Championships
10 Vols to Compete at USATF Championship
June 20, 2017 | Track & Field
10 current or former Vols will compete at the 2017 USATF Championship in Sacramento
SACRAMENTO, California -- 10 current and former Volunteers will compete in 13 events at the 2017 USATF Championships from Thursday-Sunday at Sacramento State's Hornet Stadium.
The meet will be broadcast on NBC's family of networks with events slated for NBC, NBC Sports and NBC Sports Gold throughout the four-day meet.
The Vols will bring five Olympians who have won a combined 10 Olympic medals and appeared in eight Olympic games to the Championships. The 10 #VFLs will look to be among the top three finishers in their event as they attempt to lock up a spot on Team USA for the 2017 World Championships. The World Championships will be held August 5-13 in London, England.
Tennessee will be well-represented in the men's 100m as Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman hold the top two qualifying times. Gatlin holds the top-time of the qualifying cycle as he ran a time of 9.80 at last year's U.S. Olympic Trials. Coleman ranks second with a time of 9.82, which was set two weeks ago at the NCAA Track & Field Championship. That mark was a collegiate record by .07 seconds and made Coleman the fourth-fastest American in history. Coleman then went on to win the 100m and 200m national championships to join Gatlin as the only two people to every complete the indoor and outdoor sprint sweep. Gatlin has won five Olympic medals including a gold in the 100m dash at the 2004 games. Coleman made his first Olympic appearance in Rio as a member of the 4x100m relay team.
Rising senior Nathan Strother will compete in the 400m competition. Strother holds the second-fastest 400m in school history as he has hit the mark of 45.07 in each of the last two seasons. He finished ninth at the NCAA Championship and enters with the 13th-best time in the country.
Seth Whitener will compete in the hammer throw after a breakout sophomore campaign this year. Whitener holds the school record in the hammer throw with a toss of 68.59m (225-0). He earned second-team All-America honors with a 15th place finish at the NCAA Championship. He took seventh at the SEC Championship to score two points for the Vols.
After a stellar career that saw her when seven first-team All-America honors and nine total All-American nods, Chelsea Blaase will run in the 10,000m race on Thursday at 8:27 p.m. Blaase took seventh place at the NCAA Championship despite coming off an injury. She will be joined in the race by #VFL Liz Costello. Costello enters the race with the seventh-best qualifying mark with a time of 31:43.79. Blaase sits in 13th with a Tennessee school record time of 32:08.39, which was set during the 2016 season.
Tianna Bartoletta (formerly Tianna Madison) will look to make some noise after winning two gold medals at the 2016 Olympics. Bartoletta took home gold in both the long jump and 4x100m relay. She will compete in the 100m dash as she has the second-best qualifying time in the United States with a mark of 10.78 seconds. She is the top-ranked entry in the long jump with her gold-winning and personal best mark of 7.17m (23-6.25). Bartoletta also won a gold medal in the 2012 games as part of a record-setting 4x100m relay team.
Class of 2016 graduate, Felicia Brown will take part in the 200m competition at the USATF Championship. Brown holds a season-best time of 22.60, which came as she won the competition at the Grenada Invitational on April 9. Brown was the indoor 200m champion during her senior year at Tennessee.
Tavis Bailey will look to qualify for the world championships after earning a spot on the Olympic Team last year. Bailey enters the discus competition with a top throw of 62.42m (204-9), which ranks eighth in the country. He recorded that mark at the 2017 Iron Wood Throws Classic. Bailey finished 26th in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Aries Merritt rounds out the Vols' competitors at the Championship. Merritt will compete in the 110m hurdles and enters with the second-fastest time of 13.13, which he set at the Diamond League Meet earlier this year. Merritt returned to the track after undergoing a kidney transplant in 2015, but was not able to claim a spot on the Olympic team as he finished fourth at the Olympic trials last summer. Merritt will be looking to return to London where he won an Olympic Gold in the 110m hurdles at the 2012 games.
Tennessee's volunteer assistant coach Dezerea Bryant, who trains with Brown under the tutelage of assistant coach Tim Hall, will be competing this week in Sacramento. Bryant, who worked with Hall at his previous stops at Clemson and Kentucky, will be running in both the 100m and 200m dashes.
USATF Championship Schedule
Men's Competitors
100m First Round: Christian Coleman, Justin Gatlin (Thursday, 8:35 p.m. ET)
200m First Round: Christian Coleman, Justin Gatlin (Saturday, 2:48 p.m. ET)
400m First Round: Nathan Strother (Thursday, 9:46 p.m. ET)
110m Hurdles First Round: Aries Merritt (Saturday, 2:20 p.m. ET)
Discus: Tavis Bailey (Saturday, 3:40 p.m. ET)
Hammer: Seth Whitener (Thursday, 5:45 p.m. ET)
Women's Competitors
100m First Round: Tianna Bartoletta (Thursday, 8:10 p.m. ET)
200m First Round: Felicia Brown (Saturday, 3:15 p.m. ET)
10,000m Final: Chelsea Blaase, Liz Costello (Thursday, 11:27 p.m. ET)
Long Jump: Tianna Bartoletta (Saturday, 3:45 p.m. ET)
