Track & Field
- Title:
- Assistant Coach (Sprints & Hurdles)
- Email:
- rgarne16@utk.edu
In his first two years on Rocky Top, Garner guided Tennessee's stable of sprinters and hurdlers to 10 school records, 54 All-America certificates and 17 SEC medal-winning performances.
2024 Summary
Senior sprint star Jacious Sears headlined the 2023-24 indoor season for Tennessee individually, taking silver in the SEC 60-meter final and earning a pair of top-five finishes in the 60-meter (4th) and 200-meter (5th) at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Boston. Adding in the Lady Vol 4x400-meter relay squad’s fifth-place finish in a school-record 3:29.79, UT tied for No. 17 in the women’s standings for their second-consecutive top-20 finish at the indoor national meet – breaking that threshold in each of the last three years for the first time since 2009-11.
Sears carried momentum into the outdoor season with one of the fastest sprinting displays in NCAA history at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational on April 13. The Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, product threw down a blistering time of 10.77 seconds in the 100-meter dash, the second-fastest performance in collegiate history behind reigning world champion Sha’Carri Richardson’s record of 10.75 set in 2019. With a legal tailwind of +1.6 m/s, Sears' performance shattered her own school record and currently ranks No. 15 on the world all-time list and No. 7 on the U.S. all-time list.
At the SEC Outdoor Championships, the Lady Vol relay squads asserted their dominance with a pair of conference titles in the 4x100- and 4x400-meter finals. Sears, Dennisha Page, DaJour Miles and Joella Lloyd got the baton around the oval in 42.42 seconds for Tennessee’s first SEC gold in the women’s 4x100 since 1984, while the 4x400 quartet of Javonya Valcourt, Kyla Robinson-Hubbard, Miles and Brianna White capped the meet with a winning mark of 3:24.44. Both performances were school records and collegiate leading marks at the time of the event, and UT became the first school since 2014 to sweep relay titles at the SEC Outdoor Championships.
The Lady Vols’ 2024 campaign wrapped up in Eugene, Oregon, at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The 4x400-meter relay broke their own school record once again, taking second in the NCAA Outdoor Championship final with a time of 3:23.32, and White earned First Team All-America honors in the 400-meter dash with an eighth-place finish in 50.79 seconds.
On the men’s side, sophomore standout T’Mars McCallum held the fastest time in the country in the 100-meter dash up until the final weekend of the outdoor season. His mark of 9.94 seconds was the No. 2 mark in school history behind VFL Christian Coleman and he became just the sixth sophomore in collegiate history to run 9.95 or faster with a legal tailwind (+2.0 m/s).
Tennessee also touted a trio of remarkable 400-meter hurdlers in Clement Ducos, Rasheeme Griffith and Ja’Kwan Hale – who each rounded out their collegiate careers during the 2024 campaign. Ducos went out with the UT school record in the event at 48.26 seconds, while Griffith and Hale each secured medals at the conference meet with their second- and third- place finishes. All three were tabbed USTFCCCA All-Americans in the event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, with Hale leading the way as he took seventh in the final.
The men’s 4x400-meter relay was notably strong during the 2023-24 indoor and outdoor seasons, earning First Team All-America status at both NCAA Championship finals. In the last race of the campaign, Emmanuel Bynum, Christian Parker, Hale and Griffith completed the relay in a school record time of 3:01.22 to place fifth in the nation.
2023Â Summary
Garner coached Jacious Sears to USTFCCCA South Region Track Athlete of the Year honors for the 2023 outdoor season. The Lady Vol speedster posted a team-high 11 points at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and won the SEC Commissioner's Trophy as the highest individual point scorer at the SEC Outdoor Championships. Sears tallied 20.5 points for Tennessee at the conference meet, which included winning the 100-meter dash in a school-record 10.96 seconds and earning silver in the 200-meter with a lifetime-best clocking of 22.45.
Sears also had a spectacular indoor season, claiming the SEC 60-meter title with a school record time of 7.11 and becoming the second fastest performer in collegiate history with a sprint of 7.04 seconds in prelims at the NCAA Championships. She finished third in the national 60-meter final with a time of 7.10, and her personal-best time of 7.04 stood as the fifth-fastest in the world in 2023.
Garner also guided multi-dimensional standout Charisma Taylor to a breakout year in the hurdles. The Nassau, Bahamas, native set the school record in the 60-meter hurdles (7.91) and went on to finish third in the event at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
On the men's side, graduate student Devon Brooks won the 2023 SEC title in the 110-meter hurdles, and his season-best of 13.26 was the top time in the country during the regular season. Under Garner's tutelage, senior Emmanuel Bynum finished third in the NCAA 400-meter final with a mark of 44.49, which ranked top 10 on the 2023 world list.
Prior To Tennessee
Another addition from Ross' staff at North Carolina A&T, Garner came to Rocky Top after spending four seasons in Greensboro. The Aggies' success in sprints helped Garner win two USTFCCCA honors. In 2021, the USTFCCCA named him outdoor men's assistant coach of the year in the south region, and the following indoor season, he was again named the south region men's assistant coach of the year.
Garner assisted the Aggies in winning nine individual national championships – all in sprinting events. The Aggies also won nine team conference championships during Garner's tenure. In 2021, A&T was the only school in the nation to have their men's and women's programs finish in the top-5 nationally during the outdoor season. In addition, the Aggie men's outdoor program finished in the top-15 in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
A&T won an impressive 64 conference event championships – indoor and outdoor combined – in sprinting events during his time on the staff. The Aggies earned 32 first-team All-America honors and 19 second-team All-America accolades during Garner's tenure.
