University of Tennessee Athletics
2017 Track & Field Preview
January 04, 2017 | Track & Field
Tennessee enters the 2017 track and field season coming off of two top 10 finishes last indoor season, including a third place finish on the men's side and a seventh place showing by the women. Tennessee won five individual SEC Championships last season and had the meet's top scorers on both the men's and women's sides. Tennessee returns five individuals who earned All-American honors in 2016. Last year, Tennessee became the first school to win the 200m Indoor National Championship on both the men's and women's sides in the same year. In addition to all of the talented returners, the Vols were able to add the no. 3 men's recruiting class in the nation according to Track and Field News.
"It's great to be ranked among the top five nationally and as the top SEC school," director of track & field/cross country Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "Our new additions have transitioned well and we are excited about the 2017 track and field seasons. However, we recognize that this is just a ranking and moving forward our focus goes toward performance."
Men's Sprints & Relays
Tennessee's sprints and relay teams are led by Bowerman Award candidate Christian Coleman. Coleman is coming off an excellent 2016 season which saw him earn a spot on the USA Olympic team. He raced in the prelims for the 4x100m relay team at the Rio Olympics as the United States recorded the fastest prelims time.

Collegiately, Coleman was the indoor 200m national championship as he recorded a time of 20.55 in the NCAA final. The junior had already recorded the fourth fastest 200m time in the Tennessee record book with a mark of 20.54 in the finals of the SEC Championship. The Atlanta, Ga. native also won a bronze medal in the 60m dash with a time of 6.52 which is the second fastest 60m time in school history.
Those results came after a spectacular performance at the SEC Championship where Coleman was the co-winner of the Cliff Harper Award for best performance as he won a gold medal in the 60m dash, took second in both the 200m dash as well as the 4x400m Relay team, where he ran the second leg. Ari Cogdell started the race followed by Coleman, Antonio Carter and Nathan Strother. That foursome holds the second fastest time in school history with a 3:06.29 which they set at the NCAA Championship.
Coleman started the 2017 season strong as he broke a facility record at Indiana's Gladstein Fiedhouse by recording a time of 33.26 in the 300m. Strother finished just behind Coleman with a time of 33.64 as the duo recorded the fourth and eighth fastest 300m times in school history.
Strother is coming off a 2016 indoor season where he was the national runner-up in the 400m with a time of 46.28, which earned him All-American honors. Strother, a junior from Norcross, Ga., holds the second-fastest 400m time in school history after he ran a 46.25 at the Tyson Invitational in 2016.
Sophomore Ari Cogdell has already cracked the school's top 10 list in two different events and become an integral part to the UT relay teams. He earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors after recording the third fastest 500m in program history with a time of 1:02.97 at the Virginia Tech Invitational. He also sits 10th on the school's charts with a 400m time of 47.18 which he set at the Tyson Invitational. Cogdell also represented the United States this summer as he ran the second leg for the gold-medal winning 4x400m relay team at the Under-20 World Championships.
Mustaqeem Williams came on towards the end of his freshman season recording a 12th place finish at the outdoor NCAA Championship with a 200m time of 20.73. He will look to continue his growth alongside junior Malik Elion. Elion finished third in the 200m dash at the Hoosier Open to start the 2017 season.
Tennessee also welcomes freshmen Matthew Moore and Joshua McLemore to the fold for the 2017 season. Moore was a 110m Hurdles USATF National Champion and Georgia state champion in high school. McLemore was an Indoor All-American for both the 200m and 400m races in 2016. He also comes to UT as the Pennsylvania state champion in the 200m, 400m and 4x200m races.
Women's Sprints & Relays
Tennessee's women's squad will have to overcome the loss of one of the best sprinters in the collegiate ranks as Felicia Brown completed her eligibility last season after winning the 200m SEC Championship in both the indoor and outdoor seasons as well as the Indoor National Championship. Brown set a 200m school record with a time of 22.45 at the SEC Indoor Championship.

Looking to take up her mantle will be a group of student-athletes led by sophomore Lenysse Dyer. Dyer finished with three top three finishes in the 400m race during the 2016 indoor season including posting a time of 53.93 at the Tyson Invitational which was .08 seconds from cracking Tennessee's all-time top 10 list. Dyer took second place in the 300m race at the Hoosier Open in December with a mark of 38.48 which is ninth in UT history.
Sophomores Maia McCoy and DeAndra Greer both started their second season well as they claimed third and fourth place, respectively at the Hoosier Open in December. Greer has posted four top-four finishes in the 60m dash including her time of 7.55 last month. McCoy tied her personal best with a 7.54 time which moved her past Greer as the duo took third and fourth.
Layla White will also contribute both as an individual and as part of the relay team. White earned a first place finish in the 300m race at the Virginia Tech Invitational last year and took second in the 400m race at the Indiana-Tennessee Dual. White has also become a fixture on the 4x400m relay team which won the SEC Championship last year and finished fifth at the NCAA Championship. The foursome of Dyer, Felecia Majors, White and Brown posted a school record of 3:30.56 at the SEC Championship.
Shania Collins joins Tennessee's program this year after competing for Texas in 2015. Collins will join Greer and McCoy in the sprints as she owns a personal record of 7.47 in the 60m dash. The Vols will also welcome freshman Brooklynn Broadwater to the fold. Broadwater was the Pennsylvania state champion in the 200m and 400m in high school.
Majors, who finished eighth in the 400m race at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, and Kali Davis-White, who was a member of Jamaica's 2016 Olympic team, will both redshirt the 2017 indoor season.
Men's Distance
The core of the Tennessee mid-distance and distance team is made up of the Volunteers' cross country squad which took ninth place at the SEC Championship. Zach Long finished 26th at the SEC meet and then followed that up with a 14th place finish at the NCAA South Regional. Gashaw Duhamel earned SEC Cross Country Freshman of the Week honors after he was the third Vol finisher at the Commodore Classic.

Long is one of the few UT distance runners who has experience on the track. The sophomore from Rutledge, Tenn. competed at the SEC Championship with a time of 4:14.53 in the mile. Junior Tyler Woodrome bettered Long with a time of 4:13.60 at the Indoor SEC Championship.
Wesley Robinson has completed two cross country seasons, but will be making his UT track debut this year. He was the second Vol finisher at the NCAA South Regional with a time of 32:17.80 in the 10K cross country race. Duhamel was the third Vol across the line in 32:35.90 in his freshman campaign. Nick Brey also will make an impact on the track after walking on in the middle of cross country season and consistently scoring for the Vols.
Women's Distance
The women's distance team will see the return of senior Chelsea Blaase. Blaase exhausted her eligibility for cross country and did not compete this season, but she returns for both the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons.

Blaase was a co-winner of the Cliff Harper Award at last year's SEC Indoor Championship. The senior from St. Joseph, Ill. earned 20 points for the Vols thanks to SEC Championships in both the 3000m and 5000m races. She finished the 3000m race in 9:20.57, the sixth fastest time in Tennessee history. Blaase followed that with a 5000m mark of 15:42.47 to take third place at the NCAA Indoor Championship, the second fastest time in the program's annals.
During the outdoor season, Blaase again won a SEC Championship, claiming the 10,000m crown. She currently holds the school's 10,000m record with a time of 32:08.39 which she set at the Stanford Invitational.
Peighton Meske enjoyed a breakthrough sophomore campaign during the cross country season which saw her place in the top five overall at both the Tennessee Dual and the Hokie Open. She also claimed a 63rd place finish at the NCAA South Regional.
Men's Jumps
Mustaqeem Williams came on towards the end of his freshman season posting long jump victories at both the Pepsi Florida Relays and the Seminole Invitational. He took third at the Penn Relays and scored points for the Vols with a seventh place finish at the SEC Championship. His top mark of 7.57m came during his Seminole Invitational victory.

Freshman Darryl Sullivan enjoyed a nice debut for the Vols as he won the high jump at the Hoosier Open in December. Sullivan recorded a height of 2.11m (6-11) in his first competition which is just two inches from cracking the school's all-time top 10 list.
Weldon Wright returns after a freshman campaign which saw him take fourth place in the Indiana-Tennessee Dual in the long jump and finish 14th at the SEC Indoor Championships in the triple jump with a mark of 13.98.
The big loss for the men's jumps is that of graduated senior Jake Blankenship. Blankenship was one of the top collegiate pole vaulters in the country. He finished his career with three SEC pole vault medals during the indoor season and two SEC Championships during the outdoor season. However, his highest honor came in his last collegiate competition as he won the NCAA Championship with a mark of 5.60m last June.
Redshirt sophomore Ocean Walters-Carlson finished with a personal best 5.00m mark at last year's SEC Championship which was good for 11th place. Walters-Carlson claimed a first place victory at the Virginia Tech Invitational last year.
Nate Harper also returns as he posted a personal best of 4.70m at the VT "Doc Hale" Elite Meet last February. Tristan Slater is a new addition to the Vols as he comes to UT from Charleston, W.V. Slater was a five-time All-American and a four-time West Virginia state champion. He competed for Canada at the Youth Olympic Games, the Pan American Junior Championships and the World Junior Championships.
The Vols also bring in freshman Chase Sholl to compete in the multis. Sholl was the Tennessee state Decathlon champion in 2015 and 2016 and earned All-State honors on six occasions.
Women's Jumps
Senior Brielyn Rogers and junior Cidae'a Woods will lead the Tennessee jumps effort in 2017. Rogers specializes in the triple jump posting a personal best of 12.48m at the Tyson Invitational during the 2016 indoor season. She followed that up by winning the Penn Relays college division with a jump of 12.35m.
Woods claimed two first place finishes in the long jump last year as she won both the Indiana-Tennessee Dual and the Virginia Tech Invitational. Her best mark in the event is a 6.15m leap which she completed at last year's Hoosier Open.
LaChyna Roe will enter her sophomore campaign after three top four finishes during last indoor season. Roe took third at the Hoosier Open in the triple jump with a PR of 12.29m. She followed that with a pair of fourth place finishes at the Indiana-Tennessee Dual in the triple jump and the 60m Hurdles race.
The Vols will also see contributions from two student-athletes who are now in their second year in the program after transferring to UT. Chyna Ries joined the Vols from Texas while Rebecka Miranda competed at UC Irvine. Ries has worked primarily as a long jumper as she earned a fifth place finish at the 2015 Outdoor Big 12 Championship with a mark of 6.02m. Miranda won two competitions with UC Irvine, including one as she set a PR with a triple jump of 11.70m at the Big West Challenge.
The Vols will welcome freshmen Madeline Ballard and Domonique Turner to the fold. Ballard, a Brentwood, Tenn. native, was the Tennessee indoor state champion in the long jump and competed in the heptathlon in the 2013 and 2014 Junior Olympics. Turner, who hails from Lakeland, Fla., was the Florida state champion in the 100m hurdles last year after finishing as the runner-up as a junior.
Sophomore Maya Neal will compete in her first indoor season for the Vols as a multis athlete. Neal missed the past indoor season due to an injury suffered in her first career game with the Tennessee soccer team, but she returned in time for the outdoor season and worked her way to a ninth place finish in the heptathlon at the SEC Championship. Neal won the long jump event at the Shamrock Invitational. This fall, Neal had a great freshman season on the soccer field as she was named to the SEC All-Freshman team as well as NSCAA Division I All-South Region third team.
Men's Throws
Senior Cameron Brown has exhausted his indoor eligibility after winning the SEC Championship in the weight throw last season, but he will return for the outdoor campaign. Brown posted a career-best weight throw of 23.54m at the NCAA Championship which earned him a bronze medal. During the outdoor season, Brown notched an eighth place finish at last year's SEC Championship when he tossed the hammer 65.17m.

Seth Whitener started his sophomore season strongly last month as he had a personal best weight throw of 19.08m, nearly one meter better than the best mark from his freshman campaign. That distance tied for the tenth-best throw in school history with Deon McAdoo's 2015 toss.
Matthew Zajac also began the 2017 season well as he posted a PR of 17.16m in the shot put. During the outdoor season, Zajac works primarily as a discus thrower as he won the LSU Alumni Gold meet with a throw of 54.38m.
Tennessee welcomes a pair of talented throwers in Joseph Maxwell and Cole Patterson. Maxwell comes to UT as the 2016 Canadian U20 Shot Put Champion and has six Canadian national championships in the discus and shot put. He also finished sixth in the shot put at the 2015 IAAF World Youth Championships. Patterson, a Knoxville native, was the Tennessee indoor discus state champion last year and finished in second place during the outdoor season.
Women's Throws
Cassie Wertman is in a similar situation as Brown as the two of them both only have outdoor eligibility remaining. The senior will lead the Vols after she finished in second place in the indoor shot put at both the SEC Championship and NCAA Championship last season. Wertman followed that with a second place performance at the outdoor SEC shot put championship.

Sophomore Stamatia Scarvelis joins Tennessee from UCLA and she started her UT career strongly at the Hoosier Open. Scarvelis posted top-10 marks in school history in both the shot put and the weight throw. She had the fourth-best weight throw with a distance of 18.89m and followed that with the ninth best shot put with a toss of 15.21m.
Savannah Marlow opened 2017 strong as well. The sophomore set a PR and posted the eighth best weight throw in school history with a toss of 17.70m at the Hoosier Open. Candice Butler returns as well after finishing 14th at the SEC outdoor Championships in the hammer throw last season.
The Vols bring in freshman Emily Meier who is the Michigan state champion in the shot put and the runner-up in the discus. Tamia Crockett also will compete after a two-time All-American high school career. She won five Tennessee state championships and was a five-time all-state performer.