The Lady Vol track and field team, on the strength of Kelli White’s 100-
and 200-meter double victory, came from behind to win the 26th annual
Gatorade Classic on Saturday at Tom Black Track.
Tennessee, with 68.5 points, overtook Illinois (56.5) in the final three
events to get the victory. No. 13 Auburn finished third with 40 points and
Kentucky was fourth with 38.
The Lady Vols racked up wins in the 1,500-, 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs,
the pole vault and the 400- and 1,600-meter relays.
White broke the five-year-old school record held by Tisha Prather in the
100, finishing in a personal-best 11.27 seconds. If not for the wind, she
would have had another personal and school record in the 200. Her time of
22.79 was, however, good enough to hold off Illinois’ Aspen Burkett.
“It felt real good,” White said. “Everybody did well today. The weather was
good for once. It was a really good day for us.”
The Lady Vols started the meet in winning fashion on Friday when Amy
Bartosik and Lauren Bogaty finished 1-2 in the 1,500-meter run. Teammate
Dorothy Denko came in fourth.
On Saturday, UT’s Maureen Ferris ran to victory in the 1,500, four seconds
ahead of second-place Lindsay Speer of Illinois. Ferris also finished third
in the 800-meter run.
Shortly thereafter, Kristen Ritter and Mindy Watkins finished 1-2 in the
3,000 for Tennessee, running away from the field in impressive fashion.
In the pole vault, Beth Gehring defeated teammate Leslie Henley and broke
her Gatorade meet record with a winning vault of 11-6 1/2. Henley also
cleared 11-6 1/2, but needed more attempts than Gehring.
UT’s Tracy Carrington finished tied for third.
Tennessee also dominated the relays. The team of Anissa Campbell, Erica
Witter, Saidah Jones and White set a meet record by winning the 4×100-meter
relay in a time of 43.99. Illinois finished second in 44.43.
In the 4×400, Lesly Love, Janelle Briggs, Witter and Jones won in 3:37.87.
Kentucky was second, some four seconds behind.
“I’m just really proud of the way the ladies competed today,” Lady Vol head
coach Myrtle Ferguson said. “With this kind of a condensed meet and going
into the SECs, I think this gives them a boost.”
Ferguson was especially happy for White. The junior from Oakland, Calif.,
was a part of three records on the day (the wind notwithstanding) and on
top of that, her mother was on hand to watch.
“She had an outstanding meet,” Ferguson said. “She automatically qualified
(for the NCAAs) and set a school record. That is just tops. It’s
awesome.”
The Lady Vols will next compete in the Tennessee Twilight Invitational at
Tom Black Track on May 13. After that, it’s on to Gainesville, Fla., for
the Southeastern Conference Championships.
Ferguson is hopeful that her squad can improve on last year’s seventh-place
showing.
“If we have a great meet, we’ll be in the top five,” she said. “That’s just
where our team is right now. We have a lot of holes in certain events. We
have no discus throwers, no hammer throwers, no shot putters. It’s hard to
get top three in conference with those kind of holes.
“If what we’ve got performs well, we could be the fifth-place team. I would
be just ecstatic to be in the top five because I know we’re gonna get
better from there.”
