University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
SEC Outdoor Championships
Brown, Quinn Headline Day 1 at SECs
May 14, 2015 | Track & Field
| Name | Event/Place/Mark |
|---|---|
| Kyle Quinn | Javelin/6th/69.29 |
| Chase Hilton | 800m (p)/22nd/1:51.83 |
| Nick Kaiser | 800m (p)/24th/1:52.00 |
| Antonio Carter | 800m (p)/27th/1:55.50 |
| Christian Coleman | 200m (p)/10th/21.20 (-0.6) |
| Jalen Hunter | 400mH (p)/11th/53.19 |
» Full Results
| Name | Event/Place/Mark |
|---|---|
| Felicia Brown | 200m (p)/2nd/23.04 (-0.6) |
» Full Results
Hampered by a couple nagging injuries, Quinn battled in a highly competitive men's javelin competition and turned in one of his top performances of the season. His performance gave the Tennessee men's squad three valuable points as he finished sixth overall at 227 feet, four inches (69.29).
Brown made it look easy on Thursday night as she qualified for Saturday's final in the women's 200-meter dash. Turning in a new career-best time of 23.04, Brown locked up her qualification by winning her heat in dominant fashion. Her time was also the second-fastest recorded in the prelims.
May 14, 2015
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Felicia Brown cruised to a berth in the women's 200-meter dash finals and Kyle Quinn turned in a gutsy effort in the men's javelin as Tennessee opened its weekend at the SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday night at the Mike Sanders Track Complex.
As she has for much of the outdoor season, Brown looked strong out on the track as she cruised into the finals of the women's 200-meter dash with a big performance on Thursday night. Brown jumped out to a big lead in Heat 4 and never relented as she took the top spot with a new career-best time of 23.04. That win qualified her automatically for Saturday's final and stood as the second best time recorded in the preliminary round. Only a 22.93 from Florida's Kyra Jefferson was faster in all five preliminary heats.
Brown's 23:04 is projected to move her inside the top five of the NCAA East Region performance list by weekend's end.
"We got the competition started with a great performance out of Fe Brown," said director of track and field/cross country Beth Alford-Sullivan. "She qualified easily into the final and she just looked great."
The women's 200-meter final is scheduled for Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET. Brown will be back in action on Friday as she looks to reach the final of the 100-meter dash. She runs in the fourth preliminary heat at 5:30 p.m.
Tennessee got a valiant effort out of Kyle Quinn in the men's javelin competition as he battled through a couple nagging injuries to provide the 24th-ranked UT men's squad with its first points of the Championships. The junior qualified for the final rounds with an effort of 227 feet, four inches (69.29) with his second throw of the competition. That mark held throughout his final three attempts as he closed things out in sixth place--snaring three points for the Vols.
Quinn has now finished in sixth-place in back-to-back SEC Championships and his effort on Thursday night stands as his second-best throw of the season. He stood tall amidst a highly competitive javelin competition, the top-three finishers of which turned in PRs and marks that will rank near the top of the national performance list. In fact, gold medalist Ioannis Kyriazis of Texas A&M's winning throw of 257 feet, three inches (78.41) is the third-best toss in the NCAA this season.
"An outstanding effort from Kyle Quinn to get us on the board on the men's side with three hard-earned points in a tremendous javelin competition," Sullivan said.
Freshman Christian Coleman competed in the men's 200-meter dash on Thursday night and was narrowly edged out of an appearance in Saturday's final. He turned a time of 21.20 to finish second in his heat, but his 10th place finish overall landed him one spot outside the qualifying zone for the 200 final.
Like Brown, Coleman will take part in the 100-meter dash prelims on Friday. His quest for a spot in the finals begins at 6:55 p.m.
"I was a bit disappointed for Christian," said Sullivan. "It's the SEC sprints and it's a tough final to make, but we're confident in him coming back for the 100 tomorrow and punching his ticket into that final."
Jalen Hunter also narrowly missed out on a spot in the finals of the men's 400-meter hurdles after finishing 11th in the preliminary round. He recorded a career-best time of 53.19 in the effort.
Running in the men's 800 meters, Chase Hilton finished 22nd overall with a time of 1:51.83. Nick Kaiser (1:52.00 ) was 24th at while Antonio Carter (1:55.50) rounded things out in 27th.
The Tennessee women will have their first opportunity to break onto the team leaderboard on Friday when freshman Cidae'a Woods leads off the day for UT at 3 p.m. ET in the women's long jump. The field events continue at 5 p.m. when Erin Champion competes in the women's pole vault and Tavis Bailey and Matthew Hoty represent the Orange and White in the men's shot put competition.
Five more preliminary rounds await the Vols out on the track on Friday, starting with the men's 1500-meter prelim at 4:45 p.m. The men's and women's 400-meter dash (Nathan Strother, Felecia Majors) and 100-meter dash (Coleman, Brown) are slated to close out the evening for UT.
For continued coverage of all things Tennessee Track & Field, be sure to follow @Vol_Track on Twitter. Fans can also follow @SEC_TFChamps15--the official Twitter account of the 2015 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
