J.J. CLARK ANNOUNCES LADY VOL TRACK & FIELD SCHEDULE

Oct 01, 2008

Trio Of Home Meets; Dual Meet With A&M; Trips To New York, Philadelphia Highlight 2009 Slate

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- An old-fashioned dual meet with Texas A&M and a trip to New York City highlight the indoor slate, and a trio of home events and the annual trek to Philadelphia for the Penn Relays headline the outdoor itinerary on the 2009 University of Tennessee women’s track & field schedule, released Tuesday by Lady Vol Head Coach J.J. Clark.

“In terms of our schedule, I always try to put us on the best possible tracks to help us qualify for the NCAA meets,” Clark said. “These days, the track you run on could help or not help you accomplish that goal. There was a time when I’d be dying to go to the Millrose Games (at New York’s Madison Square Garden), but they have a 160-meter Mondo track that is not that fast, so I feel like I am wasting a meet from a collegiate standpoint if I go there. You won’t be able to hit an NCAA mark on that surface, so you have to go where you can do that.

“The new tracks around the country now are very fast. You have to be in shape, obviously, but they can help you produce fast times. You can see that when you look at marks throughout the SEC and nationally.”

Year seven of the Clark tenure will open on Jan. 16-17, when the Big Orange women kick off the indoor agenda at the Kentucky Invitational. In addition to providing a wide-turn, oversized track on which to compete, the trip to Lexington’s Nutter Field House also will provide an opportunity to become familiar with the facility that will host the SEC Indoor Championships later in the season.

“Kentucky has an oversized track, it’s where the SECs are held this year, and it is not a long trip from Knoxville,” Clark said. “They have a track that is almost 300 meters, and it has longer and wider turns and you don’t have to go around the turns as many times because of the length of the oval. That yields faster times.”

Stop number two on the 2009 tour is College Station, Texas, where Tennessee will again size up the venue, this time for a trip to the NCAA Indoor meet later in the year. The visit to A&M’s McFerrin Athletic Center also will offer a special bonus to track & field fans -- a rare dual meet. The match-up between the Lady Vols and Aggies should be an intriguing one, matching last year’s eighth- and seventh-place NCAA Indoor squads, respectively, and it will give Clark and company a sneak peek at the latest facility to host a national championship in track & field.

“I wasn’t really looking for a dual meet, but they called and asked if we’d be interested, and I said, ‘O.K.,’” Clark said. “It’s a good meet, it’ll be a scoring meet, and it will be a fun opportunity for our team. We look forward to going.

“More than anything, it gives us an opportunity to get a feel for the track without having a hundred schools or several hundred other athletes there. I am always interested in going and seeing what the track is like where the national meet will be held. In this type of setting, we also can get our athletes into the races we want in order to get them the work they need to perform well down the road.”

Three large invitational meets fill out the schedule prior to the indoor championship season. The annual trips to the Penn State National Invitational in University Park, Pa., and Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., occur on Jan. 30-31 and Feb. 13-14, respectively, sandwiching a trip to the Big Apple for the New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the famed Armory on Feb. 6-7. UT’s only other visit to that high profile meet came in 2003.

“The Penn State meet is something we’ve gone to since I’ve been here, and they have a Mondo, hydraulic track that has produced some great times. The competition is not bad. They allow open competitors to participate, and that allows the quality of the meet to be better.

“The Armory is known for having a very fast track, but we also have a lot of youngsters from that area, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In choosing this meet, it allows family and friends to come out and watch, but the main reasons are the competition we’ll face and the marks that usually come from that meet.”

As mentioned, the Lady Vols will make return trips to Lexington and College Station. The Big Orange women will enter the SEC Indoor meet as the defending runners-up, returning SEC champions in the shot put in sophomore Annie Alexander, the mile and 3000 meters in senior Sarah Bowman and in the distance medley relay in sophomore Brittany Sheffey, senior Kimarra McDonald, junior Phoebe Wright and Bowman. At the NCAA Indoor meet, the 2008 eighth-place squad will return its entire national championship DMR combo of Sheffey, sophomore Brittany Jones, Wright and Bowman. Add to that returnees like Alexander, senior hurdler Celriece Law and junior sprinter Lynne Layne, and newcomers such as rookie middle distance ace Chanelle Price, and UT should once again be in the mix.

Outdoors, Clark welcomes the opportunity to showcase his squad three times at the friendly confines of Tom Black Track at LaPorte Stadium. The annual Sea Rays Relays will offer the first such opportunity on April 8-11, as the Lady Vols take aim at victories and NCAA qualifying marks in a large invitational-style format that features numerous schools from around the Southeast, Midwest and Northeast as well as the occasional squad from the West Coast.

Attempting to introduce a college competition alongside an ultra-successful high school meet, such as occurs at the Drake, Florida and Penn Relays, Tennessee will take part in the long-running Volunteer Track Classic on April 17-18. The Tennessee Twilight Meet, fashioned more as a last-chance-to-qualify, all-comers type of meet, rounds out the home slate on May 9.

“We don’t have an indoor facility, so we are trying to have some outdoor meets at home and trying to help the student-athletes not miss as much school,” Clark said. “Hopefully, the community will take advantage of the opportunity to get behind us and come out and watch the meets. I believe us being at home more often will make it easier to build fan support for our program.

“Normally, you start with a college meet and decide to put high school events into the mix, but we are going about it in a little different way,” Clark said of UT’s foray into the Volunteer Track Classic. We have some good teams coming, and this gives the community another chance to see our student-athletes in action. We are going to see how it works, but I believe it will be fun as well as a success.”

Road trips during the outdoor schedule include a split squad weekend to open the season, sending different groups to Georgia Tech’s Yellow Jacket Invitational in Atlanta, Ga., and the Stanford Invitational in Stanford, Calif., on March 27-28. On the heels of that comes the Pepsi Florida Relays in Gainesville on April 3-4. Another split-squad weekends occurs on April 23-25, as Clark takes the sprint and distance corps to Philly for the 115th running of the Penn Relays, while assistant coach John Frazier takes the throwers to the West Coast for the second consecutive season to compete in the UCSD Triton Invitational.

“The Penn Relays is a very prestigious meet,” Clark said. “You go there, and it brings out the best in you. The stadium is full, the crowd is knowledgeable and there is a lot of media coverage.

“It’s about pride. When you put the orange on and step to the line, you give it your best. You don’t care where you’re ranked or where your opponent is ranked; you just get after it. The exciting thing is that on that day, everyone is equal, and anyone can beat anyone. We look forward to going back there again and seeing what happens.”

The season-concluding troika of outdoor championship meets encompasses the SEC Championships in Gainesville on May 14-17, the NCAA Mideast Regional in Louisville, Ky., on May 29-30 and the NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., on June 10-13. The Lady Vols finished fourth, second and 13th, respectively, at those competitions a year ago. Alexander, Bowman, Jones, Law, Layne, Price and Wright should again be among those to watch.

2009 TENNESSEE LADY VOL TRACK & FIELD SCHEDULE

DATE DAY MEET SITE TIME

Jan. 16-17 Fri.-Sat. Kentucky Invitational Lexington, Ky. All Day

Jan. 24 Sat. Texas A&M Dual Meet College Station, Texas All Day

Jan. 30-31 Fri.-Sat. Penn State National Invitational University Park, Pa. All Day

Feb. 6-7 Fri.-Sat. New Balance Collegiate Invitational New York, N.Y. All Day

Feb. 13-14 Fri.-Sat. Tyson Invitational Fayetteville, Ark. All Day

Feb. 27-Mar. 1 Fri.-Sun. SEC Indoor Championships Lexington, Ky. All Day

March 13-14 Fri.-Sat. NCAA Indoor Championships Fayetteville, Ark. All Day

OUTDOOR

DATE DAY MEET SITE TIME

March 27-28 Fri.-Sat. Yellow Jacket Invitational Atlanta, Ga. All Day