Tennessee Track and Field will race at home for the first time this year.
On Thursday, Apr. 9, the Tennessee Relays kick off a three-day event at Tom Black Track. The meet on Thursday starts at 10 a.m. while events on Friday and Saturday start at 11:45 a.m. Events scheduled for Thursday are the Heptathlon and the Decathlon, with both events starting in the evening and ending on Saturday. High schools from around the state will compete, with their events beginning earlier all three days.
This will be the first time Tennessee competes at home this season after traveling to all of their indoor-season track meets and traveling to their first four meets of the outdoor season. This will also be the home debut for first-year director of track and field/cross country Beth Alford-Sullivan.
“I’m excited to be at home and showcase our kids at home,” Alford-Sullivan said. “I had the time to look through the records on our track and the records from the competition and look at the history and the historic marks that have been laid down on our track from this meet. I’m just excited to embrace it and have a great time and have our team be at home and representing.”
Several members of the track team also echoed Alford-Sullivan’s excitement about being at home for the first time this year. Christian Coleman heard that alumni are planning to watch the events and is eager to compete in front of them.
Coleman will be running in the 200 meter dash, the 4×1 relay, and also competing in the long jump. The freshman, who is an indoor first team All-American, is No. 25 in the nation in the 200 meters.
“I’m trying to go out and (personal record) in 200,” Coleman said.
Red-shirt junior Austin Whitelaw will be running in the 5,000 meters after running in the same event last weekend at Stanford. At Stanford, Whitelaw set a new personal best with a time of 13:58:69. He is the No. 32 ranked runner in the nation in the 5,000 meters.
Whitelaw acknowledged that while distance runners don’t normally run back-to-back weeks, he is excited to run at home in front of family and friends.
Coming off of last weekend’s performances, the men’s track team moved up in the rankings to No. 13 and will look toward further improvement this weekend.
“Where we are at, No. 13, we certainly have potential to rank a little higher,” Alford-Sullivan said. “We certainly have some more marks that will come through as the season progresses but it’s an impressive ranking right now, it’s a solid very honest ranking right now. Just very proud of being in the top 25.”
