Track Central: Penn Relays, App State Open, Clark Wood Invite, Desert Heat Classic

Track Central: Penn Relays, App State Open, Clark Wood Invite, Desert Heat Classic

April 25, 2024 | Track & Field

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee's 2024 outdoor track & field regular season concludes this weekend with the Big Orange set to compete in four meets nationwide, ranging from the Northeast to the Southwest. UT will have entries at the Penn Relays (Philadelphia), App State Open (Boone, N.C.), Clark Wood Invitational (Louisville, Ky.) and Desert Heat Classic (Tucson, Ariz.) during the weekend of April 25-27.

A pair of Lady Vol distance runners will kick off the weekend slate Thursday night at the Penn Relays, competing in the College Women's 10,000m Championship at approximately 9:50 p.m. ET. Caroline Lyerly looks to improve upon her UT freshman record of 34:04.38 set last month at the Raleigh Relays, while rookie Jillian Candelino is set to make her collegiate track debut after an SEC All-Freshman, All-Region debut campaign on the cross country circuit last fall.

Seventeen UT distance runners will also travel to Boone, North Carolina, for the App State Open. The meet will begin Friday at 7 p.m. with freshman duo Brody Chapman and Simon Schabort running the invitational 3,000-meter steeple chase, while four women and seven men are entered in the mile at 7:15 p.m. and 7:25 p.m., respectively. The meet will wrap up Saturday with Tennessee running four athletes in the women's 5,000-meter at 9:40 a.m. and Kameron Helmlinger closing out the competition in the men's 800-meter at 2:50 p.m.

The 10th-ranked Lady Vols will send four pole vaulters and one horizontal jumper to Louisville for the Clark Wood Invitational. Freshman Alyssa Raymond is set to compete in the women's long jump and triple jump, while the quartet of Ellison Colarossi, Kendall Ford, Sarah Schmitt and Caroline Weems will see action in the women's pole vault on Saturday.

The final weekend of the regular outdoor season will culminate with more than 30 athletes from Tennessee's crop of sprinters, hurdlers, throwers and jumpers taking part in the Desert Heat Classic at the University of Arizona. Action begins Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET with Jada Seaman and Mikele Vickers competing in the women's long jump, and the meet will conclude at 12:55 a.m. ET Sunday with the men's 4x400-meter relay.

Meet schedules, heat sheets, live results and streaming information for all four competitions can be found on the official Tennessee track & field schedule page.

TENNESSEE SPEED: Duane Ross' sprint group has been heating up over the past few weeks and currently boasts the top times in the country in both the men's and women's 100-meter. On April 20 at the USC Outdoor Open, Vol sophomore T'Mars McCallum most recently dropped the collegiate lead to 9.94 (+2.0) with a massive personal-best that ranks second on the global charts in 2024. The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, was recognized as the USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week and SEC Runner of the Week for his efforts in Columbia.

One week prior on April 13, Lady Vol sprint star Jacious Sears stormed to a World Lead of 10.77 (+1.6) seconds at the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville, Florida. Her time was the second-fastest mark in collegiate history and only 0.02 seconds off the collegiate record set by Sha'Carri Richardson in 2019.

Tennessee is the first SEC school since LSU in 2017 to have a wind-legal sub-10 and sub-11 performance recorded in the same season.

The UT sprints, hurdles and relays group totals 10 marks that rank top-10 in the NCAA this season, including the nation's fastest women's 4x100-meter relay with a school record time of 42.98 set at the LSU Battle on the Bayou in late March.

RANKINGS UPDATE: In the latest installment of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) track & field rating index, the Lady Vols remained at No. 10 nationally while the Volunteers rose 28 spots to No. 11 in the country.

With postseason right around the corner, UT own 25 marks that rank top-8 in the Southeastern Conference this outdoor season.