The SEC Championships will be held on Friday and Saturday at the Nutter Field House in Lexington, Kentucky. The start time for both days is 10 a.m. and SEC Network + will broadcast both days live online. This will be the seventh time Kentucky has hosted the SEC Indoor Championships.
On the Tennessee men’s side, the team comes into the championships ranked No. 13 in the country and is sending 18 athletes to compete in 12 events. Junior and team captain Jake Blankenship will compete in the pole vault, while freshman Christian Coleman will open the track events for the Vols in the 60-meter dash, an event where he holds the SEC’s second fastest time this season at 6:58. The men will face five of the top 10 teams in the nation, and eight in the top 25.
Tennessee’s women will send 15 athletes to Lexington. Captain and junior Cassie Wertman closes the Vols’ field competition in shot put. Wertman has placed in the top three in all six meets where she has competed. All-American cross country runner Chelsea Blaase will compete in both the 3,000 and 5,000 meter events, owning the SEC’s third fastest time in the 3,000 meters and the nation’s seventh fastest time in the 5,000 meters. Eight women’s teams from the SEC are ranked in the top 25 with Arkansas, Florida, and Georgia holding the top three spots.
Tennessee enters the championships with first-year director of track and field/cross country Beth Alford-Sullivan at the helm. Alford-Sullivan keyed on mental preparation for this weekend, saying she wants her athletes to give their best at the most crucial times.
“I want to have a good weekend of competition,” Sullivan said. “I want our student athletes to go in and be at their best when their best is being asked of them.”
With many of the top teams in the nation coming from the SEC, this weekend will challenge all of the SEC teams.
“The SEC track championships are the best conference championships in the country hands down,” Sullivan said. “If you look at the entry list when it comes out you will see we have the nation’s leading marks in most events. The best athlete in the nation is in this conference, coming from this conference, in most events, men and women.”
Giving the team a few parting words was Tennessee head football coach Butch Jones. He spoke to the team at their meeting on Tuesday night.
“We had the privilege of having Coach Jones come in and speak to the team,” Sullivan said. “Talked quite a bit about mental preparation and he was spot on with that, just in the sense of what we have to do as our team prepares the mental aspect is huge.
“That alone, kind of surprise meeting, I didn’t tell them he was coming so it was a surprise meeting, that brought a lot of energy into the room and we are carrying it right over into the travel to Lexington.”
