Jan. 12, 2017

Meet Info | Live Results | Schedule of Events | Start List

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee track and field will head to the mid-state to take part in the Commodore Invitational on Friday and Saturday in Nashville, Tenn. Events will begin at 4 p.m. CT/5 p.m. ET on Friday and 10 a.m. CT/11 a.m. ET on Saturday.

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Meet Info

Date: Friday, Jan. 13
First Event: 4 p.m. CT/5 p.m. ET
Date: Saturday, Jan. 14
First Event: 10 a.m. CT/11 a.m. ET
Venue: Vanderbilt Multipurpose Facility

Tennessee

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This will be Tennessee's first trip to the Vanderbilt Multipurpose Facility since it opened in November 2013. The Vanderbilt facility features a 300m track around the school's indoor football field. The Vols will return to Nashville later this season for the SEC Championships on Feb. 24-25.

"We are heading over to Nashville to participate in the Commodore Invitational in Nashville," director of track & field/cross country Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "We are excited to see their facility, I have yet to be there, and it is the site of the Indoor SEC Championships. We are going to get a good preview of the facility, the runways, the rings and the track itself. We are looking forward to getting some exposure to that facility for competition later on. We came off a great experience up at Bloomington and we will go one step further this weekend. We will have a lot of athletes competing, moving more towards their primary events. We will look to cap off the weekend with some strong relays at the end."

Tennessee began the season ranked in the top 15 on both the men's and the women's side according to the USTFCCCA National Poll. The UT men begin the season in 13th while the women are 15th in the preseason poll.

The meet will feature some tough competition with seven other SEC schools sending competitors including members from Florida (No. 1 Men/No. 6 Women), LSU (3/7), Alabama (17/22), Ole Miss (36/21), Missouri (54/45), Auburn (90/44) and the host Vanderbilt (--/53). There will also be teams from Texas Tech (12/64), Georgia Tech (123/46), Western Kentucky (35/80), Lipscomb (117/--), UTEP (79/91), Middle Tennessee State (57/101).

Nation's Best

Two meets into the 2017 season, some of Tennessee's best are already running amongst the top times in the country. There have already been 11 Tennessee performances which rank in the top 10 in the country in their events. There are seven more student-athletes who have posted marks that rank between 11th and 20th in the NCAA.

These marks are led by the men's 4x400m team of Ari Cogdell, Christian Coleman, Nathan Strother and Mustaqeem Williams who have the nation's top relay mark of 3:10.25 which they set last weekend at the Indiana-Tennessee Dual. That foursome has really stood out so far this season as they have each posted a mark that is among the top four in the country.

Coleman set a Gladstein Fieldhouse Record last weekend with a mark of 20.86 in the 200m as he posted his first event win of the season. That mark was .01 seconds from being the nation's top mark at this early stage of the season. He would have cruised to the meet victory, but he was pushed by Williams who finished in 21.16, the fourth-fastest 200m mark posted this year. Williams also posted the sixth-fastest 60m mark in the country this year as he won the 60m dash in Bloomington.

The other half of the relay consisted of Strother and Cogdell who both competed in the 400m and both posted top early season marks. Strother posted the third-fastest time in the country as he crossed the line in 47.67 while Cogdell finished in 47.71, the nation's fourth-best mark this year.

The men's side also saw some impact performances from a couple of freshmen, Tristan Slater and Darryl Sullivan. Slater posted the 11th-best pole vault in the country as he cleared 5.10m/16-8.75 and took first place at the Indiana-Tennessee Dual. Sullivan jumped 2.13m/6-11.75 in the high jump, to tie for the Tennessee freshman record in the event as he tied for the top mark vs. Indiana, but finished in third place.

Junior Shania Collins was tabbed the SEC Runner of the Week this week after posting some of the top sprinting times in the country. Collins set two personal records as she finished the 60m in 7.41, the 12th-fastest time in the country, and tied a meet record with former UT student-athlete Sue Walton. Collins followed that up with the NCAA's third best 200m time of 23.63 as she won the event.

Sophomore Stamatia Scarvelis has made an impact for the Tennessee throws as she posted two event wins vs. Indiana including the sixth-best shot put in the country and the sixth-best in UT history with a mark of 16.03m/52-7.25. She followed that with the fourth-best weight throw in the Tennessee record books with a toss of 19.05m/62-6.

Rounding out the Vols' top 10 performers is junior Cidae'a Woods. Woods has the seventh-best long jump in the country and the sixth-best in UT history as she leaped 6.18m/20-3.5 to win the event at the Indiana-Tennessee Dual.