Following a successful home meet, the Tennessee track and field team continued to roll at the War Eagle Invitational this past Friday and Saturday. The Tennessee Power T filled up the leaderboard as the coaches sent a combined 43 athletes for competition in Auburn, Alabama.
Wayne Pinnock headlined the Friday events when he long jumped his way to a No. 2 placement in Tennessee’s all-time record. He won the event with a mark of 8.06 meters. Sara Borton followed up on Saturday, setting a Tennessee freshman record in the women’s pole vault with a height of 4.17 meters.
Coming by the dozen
Pinnock was not the only Vol making noise on the first day of competition, as 12 Tennessee athletes finished in the top-5 of their events Friday. Tennessee athletes even finished 1-2-3-4 in the men’s long jump.
Olympian Carey McLeod joined Pinnock to finish first and second just as they did last month at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Now, Anthony Riley and Jalen Tate have entered the conversation with their teammates as they followed with third and fourth-place finishes.
Friday continued with distance events to close the day. Olivia Janke and Brooke Dixon both set personal bests in the women’s 1,500 meter, finishing third and fourth. On the men’s side, Tim Thacker and Canaan Anderson raced each other to the finish line as they set personal bests finishing first and second with times of 3:45.45 and 3:45.69.
Katie Thronson and Alex Crigger followed up with second-place finishes on both sides of the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Thronson finished with a time of 10:15.29 while Crigger crossed the line at a mark of 9:02.46
Off the chain
Tennessee showed out on the second day of competition. Major names like Charisma Taylor, Favour Ashe and Joella Lloyd hit the rubber as the Vols snatched six event wins throughout Saturday.
In the triple jump event, the Vols once again finished first and second as Garrison Breeding joined Jalen Tate atop of the leaderboard. In her outdoor debut for the Lady Vols, Taylor jumped all the way to No. 2 all-time in the school’s books when she finished first on the women’s side of the triple jump.
Tennessee, once again, finished 1-2 in an event when Rasheeme Griffith and Jakwan Hale scored in the men’s 400-meter hurdles. Griffith won at a time of 50.85 seconds as Hale followed at 51.35.
Ashe was not able to capture the win in the men’s 100-meter dash when he moved into eighth all-time for Tennessee in the event. However, the speedy freshman still helped the 4×100 relay team to a first-place finish as he joined with teammates Hale, McLeod and Emmanuel Bynum.
Lloyd and Chris Bailey brought additional wins as the day continued Saturday. Lloyd brought home the win in the women’s 100-meter dash with a time of 11.40. Bailey made his outdoor season debut with a win in the men’s 400-meter dash.
Though much of the hype hovered over the dashes and relays, however, it was Sara Borton who showed out the most as she climbed atop the Tennessee freshman record book in the women’s pole vault.
Borton elevated to a first-place-tying height of 4.17 meters on her second attempt as she passed Kristen Denk’s freshman record from 2016. Borton tied Dent’s indoor freshman record for the pole vault earlier in the year, as well.
Up next
Tennessee will travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, next weekend for the Crimson Tide Invite on April 22-23.
