Photo by: Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
Both Teams Place Top Five, Sears Wins Commissioner’s Trophy At SEC Outdoor Championships
May 14, 2023 | Track & Field, Cross Country
BATON ROUGE, La. — Tennessee track & field wrapped up the 2023 SEC Outdoor Championships with a pair of top five team finishes on Saturday at LSU's Bernie Moore Track Stadium. The Vols scored 87 points for third place on the men's side, while the Lady Vols racked up 67 points for fifth place overall.
Under the direction of first-year head coach Duane Ross, Tennessee both finished top five in the men's and women's team standings at the SEC outdoor meet for the first time since 2008.
Lady Vol junior Jacious Sears won the SEC Commissioner's Trophy as the highest individual point scorer at the meet, tabbing 20.5 points for the Big Orange on Saturday. The Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, native won the 100-meter dash with a school-record mark of 10.96 seconds, earned silver in the 200-meter with a lifetime-best clocking of 22.45, and ran relay legs on the 4x100- and 4x400-meter scoring efforts to finish half a point ahead of Arkansas' Britton Wilson and Florida's Jasmine Moore.
The Big Orange won 10 medals on Saturday and 12 for the meet, highlighted by individual titles for Sears (women's 100m) and Tennessee graduate students Devon Brooks (men's 110m hurdles) and Dylan Jacobs (men's 5,000m). UT also collected three silver medals and three bronze on Saturday in an action-packed evening of competition at the nation's best conference meeting.
HURDLE U: With four Vols competing in the men's 110-meter hurdles final, Tennessee racked up 22 points in the event with a pair of podium finishes from Devon Brooks and Rasheem Brown and scoring performances by Leonard Mustari and Jesse Henderson.
Entering the meet as the NCAA Division I leader, Brooks won his first DI conference title with a time of 13.53 to become Tennessee's first SEC champion in the event since Aries Merritt in 2006. Brown claimed his second SEC medal of 2023 with a third-place finish, running 13.64 for bronze after claiming SEC silver in the 60-meter hurdles indoors.
Mustari placed fourth overall with a time of 13.74, while Henderson tabbed a point for UT with his eighth-place outing.
SEARING SPEED: The reigning SEC champion in the indoor 60-meter dash, Sears dominated her first SEC outdoor meet with a win in the 100-meter sprint with a lifetime-best mark of 10.96 seconds. Breaking the sub-11 barrier for the first time in her career, the Lady Vol speedster took down the school record of 10.98 set by Shania Collins in 2018. Her mark ranks No. 8 on the 2023 world list as Sears became Tennessee's first SEC women's 100-meter champion since Cleo Tyson in 2005.
Ninety minutes later, Sears came back for the 200-meter final and added eight points for the Lady Vols with a mark of 22.45 seconds to finish second overall. Her time ranks No. 2 in UT history and No. 10 on the 2023 world list.
JACOBS' REIGN CONTINUES: Competing in his first outdoor 5k as a Vol, graduate student Dylan Jacobs won his third SEC title of the year with a time of 13:36.93—establishing a new school record, meet record and facility record in the process. The nation's top distance runner adds to his impressive 2023 resume that has garnered four watch list appearances for the Bowerman Award, securing his third SEC championship in 2023 and logging his fourth school record in his debut campaign on Rocky Top.
BUSY RIZZY: Lady Vol graduate Charisma Taylor took down a school record of her own in the women's triple jump competition, one of four events for the talented Bahamian this weekend. She leaped a personal-best 13.99 meters (45-10.75) to top her previous program standard of 13.82m (45-4.25) set at the same facility two weeks ago. Her performance at the SEC meet ranks No. 6 on the 2023 world list and No. 3 in the NCAA this season.
SPRINT DUO SHINES: A pair of Vols picked up their first career individual medals at the SEC Championships, with junior Javonte Harding securing silver in the 200-meter dash and senior Emmanuel Bynum collecting bronze in the 400-meter. Harding's runner-up effort was clocked at 20.14 seconds, while Bynum completed the quarter-mile in a personal-best 44.58 seconds to rank third in UT history and No. 6 on the 2023 world list.
WRAPPED IN BRONZE: The Lady Vol 4x400-meter relay quartet of Javonya Valcourt, Kyla Robinson-Hubbard, Jacious Sears and Jonah Ross closed out the meet with a third-place outing, combining for a time of 3:29.98.
FRESHMAN ON THE PODIUM: Lady Vol freshman Cheyla Scott kicked off the medal-winning efforts on Saturday in the women's high jump with a third-place finish. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native who enrolled at UT in January midway through her senior year of high school set the all-time Tennessee record with a clearance of 1.85 meters (6-0.75) in her first career SEC competition.
SATURDAY SCORERS: In addition to the 10 podium performances, Tennessee recorded 14 top-8 scoring marks on Saturday to round out the conference meet.
Under the direction of first-year head coach Duane Ross, Tennessee both finished top five in the men's and women's team standings at the SEC outdoor meet for the first time since 2008.
Lady Vol junior Jacious Sears won the SEC Commissioner's Trophy as the highest individual point scorer at the meet, tabbing 20.5 points for the Big Orange on Saturday. The Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, native won the 100-meter dash with a school-record mark of 10.96 seconds, earned silver in the 200-meter with a lifetime-best clocking of 22.45, and ran relay legs on the 4x100- and 4x400-meter scoring efforts to finish half a point ahead of Arkansas' Britton Wilson and Florida's Jasmine Moore.
The Big Orange won 10 medals on Saturday and 12 for the meet, highlighted by individual titles for Sears (women's 100m) and Tennessee graduate students Devon Brooks (men's 110m hurdles) and Dylan Jacobs (men's 5,000m). UT also collected three silver medals and three bronze on Saturday in an action-packed evening of competition at the nation's best conference meeting.
HURDLE U: With four Vols competing in the men's 110-meter hurdles final, Tennessee racked up 22 points in the event with a pair of podium finishes from Devon Brooks and Rasheem Brown and scoring performances by Leonard Mustari and Jesse Henderson.
Entering the meet as the NCAA Division I leader, Brooks won his first DI conference title with a time of 13.53 to become Tennessee's first SEC champion in the event since Aries Merritt in 2006. Brown claimed his second SEC medal of 2023 with a third-place finish, running 13.64 for bronze after claiming SEC silver in the 60-meter hurdles indoors.
Mustari placed fourth overall with a time of 13.74, while Henderson tabbed a point for UT with his eighth-place outing.
SEARING SPEED: The reigning SEC champion in the indoor 60-meter dash, Sears dominated her first SEC outdoor meet with a win in the 100-meter sprint with a lifetime-best mark of 10.96 seconds. Breaking the sub-11 barrier for the first time in her career, the Lady Vol speedster took down the school record of 10.98 set by Shania Collins in 2018. Her mark ranks No. 8 on the 2023 world list as Sears became Tennessee's first SEC women's 100-meter champion since Cleo Tyson in 2005.
Ninety minutes later, Sears came back for the 200-meter final and added eight points for the Lady Vols with a mark of 22.45 seconds to finish second overall. Her time ranks No. 2 in UT history and No. 10 on the 2023 world list.
JACOBS' REIGN CONTINUES: Competing in his first outdoor 5k as a Vol, graduate student Dylan Jacobs won his third SEC title of the year with a time of 13:36.93—establishing a new school record, meet record and facility record in the process. The nation's top distance runner adds to his impressive 2023 resume that has garnered four watch list appearances for the Bowerman Award, securing his third SEC championship in 2023 and logging his fourth school record in his debut campaign on Rocky Top.
BUSY RIZZY: Lady Vol graduate Charisma Taylor took down a school record of her own in the women's triple jump competition, one of four events for the talented Bahamian this weekend. She leaped a personal-best 13.99 meters (45-10.75) to top her previous program standard of 13.82m (45-4.25) set at the same facility two weeks ago. Her performance at the SEC meet ranks No. 6 on the 2023 world list and No. 3 in the NCAA this season.
SPRINT DUO SHINES: A pair of Vols picked up their first career individual medals at the SEC Championships, with junior Javonte Harding securing silver in the 200-meter dash and senior Emmanuel Bynum collecting bronze in the 400-meter. Harding's runner-up effort was clocked at 20.14 seconds, while Bynum completed the quarter-mile in a personal-best 44.58 seconds to rank third in UT history and No. 6 on the 2023 world list.
WRAPPED IN BRONZE: The Lady Vol 4x400-meter relay quartet of Javonya Valcourt, Kyla Robinson-Hubbard, Jacious Sears and Jonah Ross closed out the meet with a third-place outing, combining for a time of 3:29.98.
FRESHMAN ON THE PODIUM: Lady Vol freshman Cheyla Scott kicked off the medal-winning efforts on Saturday in the women's high jump with a third-place finish. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native who enrolled at UT in January midway through her senior year of high school set the all-time Tennessee record with a clearance of 1.85 meters (6-0.75) in her first career SEC competition.
SATURDAY SCORERS: In addition to the 10 podium performances, Tennessee recorded 14 top-8 scoring marks on Saturday to round out the conference meet.
- McCallum, Bynum, Green, Harding - Men's 4x100m Relay - 39.14 (4th)
- Sears, Ross, Taylor, Sreenan - Womens' 4x100m Relay - 43.48 (5th)
- Leonard Mustari - Men's 110m Hurdles - 13.74 (4th)
- Jesse Henderson - Men's 110m Hurdles - 26.35 (8th)
- Garison Breeding - Men's Triple Jump - 15.44m / 50-8 (8th)
- Charisma Taylor - Women's 100m Hurdles - 12.84 (4th)
- Javonte Harding - Men's 100m - 10.23 (5th)
- Joe Hoots - Men's 800m - 1:48.54 (7th)
- Rasheeme Griffith - Men's 400m Hurdles - 49.40 (5th)
- Clement Ducos - Men's 400m Hurdles - 50.11 (7th)
- Emmanuel Bynum - Men's 200m - 20.70 (7th)
- Nate Kawalec - Men's 5,000m - 14:09.21
- Rachel Sutliff - Women's 5,000m - 16:15.70
- Hale, Green, Bynum, Griffith - Men's 4x400m Relay - 3:06.33 (7th)
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