Tennessee’s track and field team split up over the weekend to compete in the Arkansas Tyson Invite and Vanderbilt’s Music City Challenge. Sprinters, jumpers and middle-distance athletes traveled to Arkansas, while the throwers and distance runners stayed instate at Vanderbilt.
Thirty-four Volunteers set personal records as eleven athletes sketched new top-10 positions inside the school record books. With only two weeks until the SEC Championships, the team continues to show an itch for improvement.
Trio of freshman records broken
On Friday, Favour Ashe set a school record in the 60-meter, as he spurted across the finish line with a time of 6.52 seconds in his preliminary run. This time surpassed a the previous record set by Leonard Scott in 1999.
Earning Freshman of the Week in his past outing, Ashe’s time this week now puts him No. 1 in the SEC and No. 3 in the NCAA.
Distance runners Kayla Gholar and Rachel Sutliff also set school freshman records for their performances this weekend.
In the women’s 5,000 meter, Sutliff’s time of 16:45.44 demolished Morgan Thompsons 1991 record by nearly 10 seconds.
Gholar then grabbed the third freshman record with a time of 9:34. 61 in the women’s 3,000 meter.
Director of track & field/cross country Beth Alford-Sullivan was proud to see the young players fulfill one of their personal achievement goals of the season.
“All three have done a tremendous job this season,” Alford-Sullivan said. “We put those carrots out there to them at the beginning of the year and they have kept their eyes on it and have put in the work to get there. Our whole staff is just so proud of them and we are excited to see what else is in store for them moving forward.”
In addition to Gholar, senior Katie Thronson finished first in the 3,000 meters with a time 9:15.91.
Maines leads the throwers
On Saturday, Latavia Maines broke her own school record as she heaved a shot put 18 meters on her final throw of the day.
Maines finished with the top collegiate performance and second overall in the event. This also puts Maines atop the SEC in women’s shot put.
Alford-Sullivan credits Maine’s maturity and professionalism as the key to her success.
“We speak quite a bit about athletic maturity and that is what I saw in Latavia today,” Alford-Sullivan said. “She has lived through these trails the last few years and knows how to time when she hits her peak and that is the next two competitions. I am thrilled to see Latavia break her school record, but we know she has her sights set on the SEC and NCAA meet coming up next.”
Senior Georgios Korakidis finished in similar fashion as he competed in the men’s weight throw. Like Maines, Korakidis performed best on his final attempt as he finished third overall in the event. His throw of 21.42 meters was best collegiate performance of the event.
Up next
Tennessee will split the group and travel to competitions at the JDL DMR Invitational and Blacksburg, Virginia, for the Virginia Tech Challenge.
The team will look to keep performances in an upward trend as they compete one last time before the SEC Championships.
