The beginning of the New Year signals many things, one such thing is the beginning of another track and field season.
Tennessee kicked off its indoor season Jan. 9 at the Indiana Duel in Bloomington, Indiana. The men’s side fell to the Hoosiers 66-47 while the women tied with a score of 61-61. The men posted seven wins with sophomore Christian Coleman winning the 60 meter dash and All-American pole vaulter Jake Blankenship making his season debut and winning his event with a vault of 5.45 meters.
The women also posted seven wins at Indiana with transfer Kali Davis-White winning the 60 meter dash and senior Felicia Brown coming out on top in the 200 meter.
More recently, Tennessee and Auburn co-hosted the Conference Clash which paired eight of the SEC teams against eight teams from the other Power Five conferences. Some of those included the traditional track power house University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin and Ohio State University. The meet was held in Birmingham, Alabama. which will also host this year’s NCAA Indoor National Championships in March.
The men finished with 13 top five finishes while the women earned 15 top five finishes during the two days of competition. Second-year head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said that it was a good event to see where Tennessee stacks up with some of the SEC teams. She said with the other power five teams being there, it had an “us versus them” feel to it.
“It was cool that the men won,” Alford-Sullivan said. “They were trailing most of the meet until about midway through the second day. Once we hit our stride in the events on the track on Saturday we really started to pull away.”
With such a marquee event early in the season, Alford-Sullivan said it keeps everyone on their toes and that they will be able to apply what they learned moving forward this season.
As a result of Tennessee’s strong showing during the conference clash, both sides of the team, men and women, surged in the polls. The men are now No. 8 in the country while the women jumped 20 spots to No. 12 in the nation.
Leading the surge in the polls are Colemen, Blankenship and Cameron Brown for the men and Brown, Davis-White and Blaase for the women. Each is ranked in the nation’s top 10 in their respective events. Austin Whitelaw also aided in the jump for the men with a win and career best time of 8:05.59 in the 3000 meters. The men’s Distance Medley Relay team is currently No. 6 in the nation as well and the women’s 4x400m relay is No. 4 in the country.
It has been the newcomers such as freshman Ari Cogdell and junior transfer Kali Davis-White mixed with veterans on the track team that have given resurgence to the Tennessee track program. Cogdell was named SEC Freshman of the Week earlier in the season while Davis-White has the nation’s second best 200 meter time, behind her teammate Felicia Brown. With Brown’s No. 1 time in the 200 meter, she was just named the SEC Women’s Runner of the Week. Meanwhile veterans like Blankenship, Blaase and Whitelaw continue to provide solid performances and rank among to best in the SEC and country.
“You see some of the freshman impacting on the relays and a little deeper in some of the other events,” Alford-Sullivan said. “To be honest with you, it’s a good sign, it’s very difficult to crack the code as a freshman but Ari (Cogdell) is certainly putting it together. Layla White is also having a great freshman campaign so far and Lenysse Dyer is running very well.”
Next up for the Vols will be the Vanderbilt Invitation which is a two day meet starting on Friday, Jan. 29. Tennessee however, will only be sending a small selection of the team with the majority staying in Knoxville for rest and recuperation. The next major track meet for the Vols will be at Virginia Tech in February.
