Vols Impress Home Crowd With 15 Top-5 Finishes Friday at Tennessee Relays

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee track & field program totaled 15 top-5 finishes Friday at the 52^nd Tennessee Relays, including three event victories in front of a home crowd at the Tom Black Track inside LaPorte Stadium. Lenysse Dyer (women's 400m), Alonie Sutton (women's long jump) and Zach Long (men's 1500m) each captured event titles for the Big Orange.

DYER EDGES 400 FIELD: Senior captain Lenysse Dyer took home the first individual win of the day for Tennessee, clocking a season-best time of 52.79 for her first-career victory at the Tennessee Relays. She was the only athlete in the field to go sub-53, and her season-best currently ranks 13^th in the NCAA and 9^th in the SEC.

SUTTON POSTS HISTORIC JUMP, BUT… WIND: Lady Vol phenomenon Alonie Sutton claimed the women's long jump title at the 52^nd Tennessee Relays with her mark of 6.34m (20-9.75). The jump would have gone down as the No. 6 mark in Tennessee history, but a +3.5 m/s tail wind registered the mark as 'wind-aided' and therefore not countable in the program record books.

LONG WON'T BE DENIED: Volunteer distance standout Zach Long held off a kick from Indiana's Kenneth Hagen to win the men's 1500m race with a two-second PR, clocking in at 3:43.09 for the No. 8 mark in Tennessee history. The time is the third-fastest in the NCAA this season, in addition to being the fastest by a Tennessee athlete in 19 years (Marcus Tanner, 2000).

RHODES WRAPS UP CAREER WEEKEND: Multi-event specialist Kiara Rhodes rounded out a successful heptathlon with personal-bests in the javelin throw (29.21m / 95-10) and 800m run (2:25.25) for a total of 5 PRs across seven events at the Tennessee Relays. Her grand total of 5,271 points beat her previous best by more than 500 points and was the eighth-highest total in Lady Vol history.

SPRINTERS SHOW OUT AT HOME: In addition to Dyer, UT's sprinters and hurdlers totaled seven top-5 results Friday afternoon for the bulk of Tennessee's top individual performances.

The 100m hurdles duo of Alexis Duncan (12.90w) and Domonique Turner (13.29w) each logged season-best marks to place second and fourth, respectively. In the 100m dash, Mustaqeem Williams (10.23w) took third place for the men while Gabriella Cantrell turned in a wind-aided 11.41 for fourth place on the women's side.

Tennessee rookie and reigning U-20 World Champion Jonathan Sacoor picked up a bronze-medal finish in the men's 400m dash Friday, crossing the line in 46.99 for his second-best time of the season. Layla White took a fifth-place 400m finish for the Lady Vols with her mark of 54.57.

Brooklynn Broadwater completed UT's successful sprint outings with a season-best 59.08 in the 400m hurdles to place fourth at the meet. It was the first sub-minute performance of 2019 for the junior Philadelphia native.

OTHER TOP-5 FINISHES: The Tennessee throws crew earned a pair of top-5 finishes on Friday as Stamatia Scarvelis (16.26m / 53-4.25) took fourth place in the women's shot put and Joseph Maxwell (18.92m / 62-1) placed fifth on the men's side.

Sophomore jumper Jalen Tate continued his success on the long jump runway with a leap of 7.68m (25-2.5) for third place at the meet, second among collegians. The mark was just two centimeters off his lifetime-best, set two weeks prior at the Stanford Invitational.

Distance runners Andre Hillsman and Karl Thiessen placed third and fourth, respectively, in the men's 5000m to round out UT's top-5 finishes on Friday. Hillsman's mark of 14:41.52 was good for a 14-second personal-best for the senior from Murfreesboro, Tenn.

UP NEXT: The 52^nd Tennessee Relays will conclude Saturday with a plethora of relay events on the track along with a handful of field events. Action begins at 11 a.m. with the women's discus.

The Tennessee track & field program will also honor its senior class of 25 student-athletes, with recognitions beginning at 12:30 p.m. at Tom Black Track.

For the most up-to-date information on Tennessee track & field, follow @Vol_Track on Twitter.

University of Tennessee Athletics

Vols Impress Home Crowd With 15 Top-5 Finishes Friday at Tennessee Relays

Players Mentioned

Brooklynn Broadwater

Gabriella Cantrell

Alexis Duncan

Lenysse Dyer

Andre Hillsman

Zach Long

Joseph Maxwell

Kiara Rhodes

Jonathan Sacoor

Stamatia Scarvelis

Alonie Sutton

Jalen Tate

Karl Thiessen

Domonique Turner

Layla White

Mustaqeem Williams

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