University of Tennessee Athletics
NCAA Outdoor Championships Preview
June 07, 2016 | Track & Field
EUGENE, Ore. -- With 17 entries in this week's 2016 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Tennessee is poised to make yet another major splash on the national stage.
The Vols arrived at historic Hayward Field on Monday in preparation for the national championships, which will run from June 8-11. All four days of the track national championship will be on the ESPN family of networks. Wednesday's broadcast will runs from 7:30 p.m. ET to 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU and coverage from 8:30 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET on ESPN2. On Thursday, ESPNU will feature coverage from 7:30 p.m. ET to 8 p.m. ET before ESPN picks it up from 8 p.m. ET to 10:30 p.m. ET. ESPN will broadcast Friday's action from 8:30 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET and Saturday's finals from 6:30 p.m. ET to 9 p.m. ET.
ESPN3 (ESPN app) will have a live online broadcast on Wednesday from 3:30 p.m. ET to 11:30 p.m. ET, Thursday from 1:30 p.m. ET to 11:30 p.m. ET, Friday from 3:30 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET and Saturday from 2:30 p.m. ET to 9 p.m. ET.
With seven men's entries and 10 women's entries, Tennessee is well-represented at nationals and has the opportunity to repeat or improve up its impressive showing at the indoor championships when the men finished third overall and the women took seventh. In the Week 9, Pre-NCAA Championships USTFCCCA top 25 rankings, the UT men are No. 8 and the women are No. 10.
"We go in with a full squad and a healthy squad," Tennessee director of track and field and cross country Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "We are very excited and we have a lot of events covered and a lot of entries in the events, so it is going to be pretty week in Eugene for us.
UT's 10 women's entries are its most since sending 12 in 2009 and the Vols have sent seven men's entries in back-to-back years. Tennessee will compete in all four relay races (men's and women's 4x100 and 4x400).
"For our sprint squad, from our first round of NCAAs last week to the finals, it was a goal to get everybody through and we did that," Sullivan said. "We did a really good job of achieving that goal and we are excited about it. I think there are a handful of programs that have all four relays going and we have thrown ourselves into the mix. I believe a year ago we did not have any relays. We are excited about that."
Seven Vols will make return trips to Eugene in a few weeks for the U.S. Olympic Trials. Tennessee's U.S. Olympic Trials qualifiers include Chelsea Blaase (10,000 meters), Felicia Brown (100 meters and 200 meters), Felecia Majors (200 meters and 400 meters) and Cassie Wertman (shot put) on the women's side and Jake Blankenship (pole vault), Christian Coleman (100 meters and 200 meters) Nathan Strother (400 meters) on the men's. Additionally, Kali Davis-White is UT's eighth Olympic Trials qualifier as she has Olympic A Standards in the 100 meters and 200 meters and is set for the Jamaican Olympic Trials.
Several Vols could make history this week. The Tennessee men have not had an outdoor national champion since 2006 when VFL great Aries Merritt won the 110-meter hurdles in an NCAA meet record 13.21. Blankenship, Coleman, Strother and Mustaqeem Williams shined at the NCAA East Prelims. Blankenship took first place last month in Jacksonville with a height of 5.30 meters (17-4.50) and his SEC Championship winning mark of 5.65 meters (18-6.50) is tied for the second-best mark in the nation. He has enjoyed a late-season surge after overcoming an injury that limited him early on.
Coleman, who is competing in the 100 meters, 200 meters and both relays, ran the top 100-meter time at the East Prelims at 10.20 (+0.4) and his PR 10.11 from April's Seminole Invitational is the sixth-best mark in the nation. Coleman, the 2016 NCAA champion in the 200 meters, also owns the country's eighth-fastest 200-meter time of 20.42 (SEC Championships) and ran a windy 20.36 (+2.9) to qualify the Championships. Both Coleman and Blankenship have been on The Bowerman Watch list this year.
Strother is coming off of the best 400 meters of his career. He clocked a PR 45.30 for the No. 2 time at NCAA East Prelims to qualify for both the championships and U.S. Olympic Trials. The 2016 NCAA Indoors runner-up in the 400 meters has also thrived as UT's anchor in both relays.
Williams will make his NCAA Championship debut after gutting out a 20.59 (+3.6) in the 200 meters to take 12th in the East quarterfinal. He is the first leg of the men's 4x100 and the third leg of the 4x400, both talented squads that have run faster as the season has progressed.
The UT women are seeking their first outdoor national champion since 2010 when Phoebe Wright won the 800 meters in 2:01.40. Brown, Blaase, Davis-White, Maria Jimenez, Majors and Wertman are coming off of impressive showings at the NCAA East Prelims and are primed to become Tennessee's next great champion.
Brown is competing in the 100 meters, 200 meters and both relays and enters the NCAA Championships as one of the world's top sprinters. She is the reigning 2016 NCAA Indoor 200-meter champion. She tied for the world's No. 2 mark with a 22.26 to win at the SEC Championships and ran the top time at the East Regional of 22.27 (+4.1). Brown has been clocked as low as 22.19 (+2.6) in the 200 meters. She qualified for the 100 meters with the sixth-best time at East Prelims at 11.36 (-0.3). Brown, who was named the 2016 USTFCCCA South Region Women's Track Athlete of the Year, is also UT's explosive anchor in both relays.
Blaase will run in both the 10,000 meters and the 5,000 meters. One of the nation's elite distance stars, Blaase took second in the 10,000 meters with a time of 34:11.76 and ninth in the 5,000 meters in 16:13.10. In early April, she ran a 10K PR 32:08.39 at the Stanford Invitational to qualify for the Olympic Trials. In May, she battled rainy conditions to win the 10K at the SEC Championships.
Davis-White will run in the 200 meters and the 4x100. She took eighth at the NCAA East Prelims with a 200-meter quarterfinal time of 23.12 (+1.0), bouncing back strong from a disappointing finish in the 100 meters. At the Seminole Invitational, she clocked her 200-meter PR of 22.86, which was also an Olympic Trials qualifying mark.
Jimenez qualified for the javelin with the No. 5 throw at the East Prelims of 49.84 meters (163-6). Earlier in May, she threw a PR 51.23 meters (168-1) to take fifth at the SEC Championships. Jimenez has topped 49 meters in five of her last six meets.
Majors returns to the NCAAs' big stage after first competing at nationals as a freshman in 2014. She ran the sixth-fastest 400-meter time of 52.15 in the East quarterfinals to punch her ticket to Eugene and owns the nation's No. 7 time of 51.29 (SEC Championships). Majors' 51.29 is the second-fastest 400 meters in school history, topped only by legend DeeDee Trotter's 50.00 in 2004. Like, Brown, she will also run on both relays.
Wertman qualified for the NCAA Championships in the shot put with a season-best throw of 17.20m (56-5.25) at the NCAA East Prelims, placing second. She took second place at the SEC Championships with a throw of 17.17m (56-4), giving her three silver medals in the event in 2016 (SEC Indoors, NCAA Indoors, SEC Outdoors) in the event. She has been very consistent all year and topped the 17-meter mark three times this outdoor season.
Sullivan and Brown will conduct a live press conference on Tuesday at 5:44 p.m. PT/8:44 p.m. ET from Hayward Field via TrackTownLive.com
Below is a Tennessee's full schedule of competition for the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. All times listed are Pacific Time.
NCAA Championships Schedule
Wednesday, June 8
Men's 4x100 Semifinal - 4:32 p.m. PT: Mustaqeem Williams, Christian Coleman, Malik Elion, Nathan Strother
Men's Pole Vault Final - 5 p.m. PT: Jake Blankenship
Men's 100m Semifinal - 5:46 p.m. PT: Christian Coleman
Men's 400m Semifinal - 6 p.m. PT: Nathan Strother
Men's 200m Semifinal - 6:44 p.m. PT: Christian Coleman, Mustaqeem Williams
Men's 4x400 Semifinal - 7:48 p.m. PT: Ari Cogdell, Christian Coleman, Mustaqeem Williams, Nathan Strother
Thursday, June 9
Women's 4x100 Semifinal - 4:32 p.m. PT: Maia McCoy, Kali Davis-White, Felecia Majors, Felicia Brown
Women's Javelin Throw Final - 5:45 p.m. PT: Maria Jimenez
Women's 100m Semifinal - 5:46 p.m. PT: Felicia Brown
Women's 400m Semifinal - 6 p.m. PT: Felecia Majors
Women's Shot Put Final - 6:30 p.m. PT: Cassie Wertman
Women's 200m Semifinal -6:44 p.m. PT: Felicia Brown, Kali Davis-White
Women's 10,000m Final - 7:08 p.m. PT: Chelsea Blaase
Women's 4x400 Semifinal - 7:48 p.m. PT: Lenysse Dyer, Felecia Majors, Layla White, Felicia Brown
Friday, June 10
Men's 4x100 Final - 5:32 p.m. PT: Mustaqeem Williams, Christian Coleman, Malik Elion, Nathan Strother
Men's 100m Final - 6:22 p.m. PT: Christian Coleman
Men's 400m Final - 6:32 p.m. PT: Nathan Strother
Men's 200m Final - 7:07 p.m. PT: Christian Coleman, Mustaqeem Williams
Men's 4x400 Final - 7:51 p.m. PT: Ari Cogdell, Christian Coleman, Mustaqeem Williams, Nathan Strother
Saturday, June 11
Women's 4x100 Final - 3:32 p.m. PT: Maia McCoy, Kali Davis-White, Felecia Majors, Felicia Brown
Women's 100m Final - 4:22 p.m. PT: Felicia Brown
Women's 400m Final - 4:32 p.m. PT: Felecia Majors
Women's 200m Final -5:07 p.m. PT: Felicia Brown, Kali Davis-White
Women's 5,000m Final - 5:25 p.m. PT: Chelsea Blaase
Women's 4x400 Final - 5:51 p.m. PT: Lenysse Dyer, Felecia Majors, Layla White, Felicia Brown
