University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
NCAA Indoor Championships
Brannon, Hoty Compete At NCAAs
March 10, 2012 | Men's Track
March 10, 2012
NAMPA, Idaho -- Tennessee was unable to get on the scoreboard on day one of the NCAA Indoor Championships, but Director of Track & Field J.J. Clark has his focus firmly set on changing that on Saturday. He also sees this meet as a great learning opportunity for the younger members of the program.
In the men's shot put on Friday evening, Matthew Hoty finished 15th. The redshirt freshman improved his marks with each throw, but his best toss of 59-10 1/2 left him in 15th place and unable to advance to the final. The rookie had entered the weekend ranked 14th at 62-3 1/4, which is a UT freshman record and ranks him No. 6 on UT's all-time indoor performers list.
Chase Brannon cleared two bars in the men's pole vault, but his best height of 17-4 1/2 was only good enough to place him 16th. He sailed over 17-0 3/4 on his second try and navigated 17-4 1/2 on his third attempt. His third try at 17-8 1/2, he got his lower body over the bar, but could not clear it with his upper half on the way down.
"On the men's side, we had some bright spots in looking forward, with Chase Brannon being a sophomore," Clark said. "He took some pretty solid cracks at his personal best in the pole vault. It was a great experience for the future of our team in getting experience at this meet. Same thing for Matt Hoty, being here as a freshman and getting his feet wet. We will remember when we are in the running for championships that he already has this experience under his belt."
The final event of the day was the women's distance medley relay, and that usually is one of Tennessee's best events. It was the Big Orange's top finish of this day, but 11th is not what Clark had hoped to see. The quartet of junior Nijgia Snapp, senior Brittany Jones, sophomore Kianna Ruff and senior Brittany Sheffey covered the distance in 11:26.02. UT had entered the meet with a season best of 11:02.74, with Chanelle Price running the opening 1200m leg and Wortham handling the 400. Neither ran in tonight's race, with Price absent after becoming sick following her 800m prelim race.
In that women's 800m, there was disappointment for Price. The senior, a two-time NCAA Indoor scorer in this event and the third-place finisher outdoors last season, did not qualify for the final. After running second for nearly the entire race, she faded to fifth in heat two over the final 40 meters and found herself in ninth place overall, just one spot out of advancing. She had entered the competition seeded sixth at 2:04.25.
Senior Ellen Wortham also suffered a tough result in the women's 400m prelims and did not advance to the finals. Entering the competition ranked seventh after qualifying in 52.99 at a last chance meet, she turned in a 54.20 readout to finish third in a slow and bumpy heat two on Friday evening and wound up 14th overall. On two occasions, Wortham appeared to be knocked out of stride as runners cut in front of her.
"On the women's side it was a tough day with Ellen and Chanelle, pretty much the staples of our program, not advancing and then Chanelle getting sick after the 800 and not being on the relay, which obviously affects our nationally-ranked DMR," Clark said. "So, we are optimistic about tomorrow and look forward to Annie and the mile relay putting some points on the board for us."
On Saturday, as Clark mentioned, Tennessee will have two events remaining at this meet. Senior Annie Alexander, seeded third at 58-1, will compete in the women's shot put at 7 p.m. Mountain time/9 p.m. ET. The Lady Vol 4x400m relay unit, then, will run at 8:40 p.m. MT/10:40 ET. That unit enters ranked 11th at 3:34.76.
Shot Put Final: 15. Matthew Hoty, 59-10.50/18.25m
Pole Vault Final: 16. Chase Brannon, 17-4.50/5.30m
Distance Medley Relay Final: 11. Nijgia Snapp / Brittany Jones / Kianna Ruff / Brittany Sheffey, 11:26.02b
800m Prelims: dna. Chanelle Price, 2:05.95bp/5th, ht. 2 (9th)
400m Prelims: dna. Ellen Wortham, 54.20bp/3rd, ht. 2 (14th)
* - NCAA Automatic Mark, ! - Personal Best, ^ - Oversized Track, $ - SEC Record, a - American Record, adv. - Advanced to next round, b - Banked Track, c - Collegiate Record, dna - Did Not Advance, dnf - Did Not Finish, dq - Disqualified, dnr - Did Not Run, F - Foul, f - Facility Record, fr - Freshman Record, fs - False Start, H - Heptathlon, h - Hand-Timed, mr - Meet Record, nm - No Mark, p - Time Run In Prelims, P - Pentathlon, sr - School Record, u - Undersized Track, w - World Record
