• Track Home
• |
• Tom Black Track
• |
• Coaches
• |
• Archive

Dec. 20, 2001

Trying to forget a disappointing year like 2001 is hard to do, especially for a school like the University of Tennessee where track and field has such as rich tradition. The bottom line for the Lady Vols last season was a failure to reach peak performance at the SEC Championship meets because too many people who were counted on to generate points for the team did not produce. Either they were short-circuited by medical maladies, disconnected from the team due to rules violations or were simply too inexperienced to provide a positive charge under duress.

Since then, all of the negative cells have been eliminated from the team and the youngsters have a year on the circuit under their belts. Add to that the fact that five NCAA Championship competitors return, all three team captains are back and a highly touted freshman class has been introduced to the core and it is almost certain the polarity has shifted. From what UT Head Women's Track and Field Coach Myrtle Ferguson and assistants Scott Bennett and Rodney Rothoff have observed during fall workouts, they have seen proof that the ions have reversed course. Once again, the current is traveling in the right direction and the Lady Vols enter the 2002 season "Energized."

Ferguson's troops can begin releasing that energy as they join the Vols in hosting the Tennessee All-Comers Meet on Jan. 6 at Stokely Athletics Center. Field events begin at 12:45 p.m. with the women's weight throw, while races get started on the track with the 55m dash trials at 5:20 p.m. Admission is free.

Much like the rays in an electric plasma ball, the streams of electricity on this year's track and field team flow in many different paths. The most visible conduit is the group of five returning veterans who have enjoyed success at the SEC and NCAA levels: senior Diane Slinden (discus), juniors Kameisha Bennett (800m/relays), Sharon Dickie (distance/relays) and Christie Elwin (pole vault), and sophomore Denita Miller (javelin). They serve as a power plant of sorts for the team, setting the tone in a couple of different ways.

First, in terms of leadership, the squad is in the capable hands of Bennett, Dickie and Slinden, who are serving as team captains for the second straight year. All three represent their event areas and can provide valuable advice to younger teammates because of their successful experiences at both the conference and national levels.

"Our three captains are holding people accountable," Ferguson said. "They are really pushing the idea of individual responsibility to this team. I can see that the younger athletes respect them and are listening to what they have to say."

Second, they personify how the combination of hard work and good coaching has paid off. Bennett (800m) and Dickie (5000m) qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships last season with Dickie going on to earn All-America honors for the first time. Miller (javelin) and Slinden (discus), meanwhile, made the NCAA outdoor field, and both earned their initial All-America accolades. As for Elwin, the Australian burst on the scene as a freshman in 2000, qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships and later winning the SEC outdoor title with a record-setting vault. In 2001, she once again raised the UT standard outdoors, adding an inch and a quarter to the ledger.

"These folks aren't just looking to do the same thing again in 2002," Ferguson said. "They want to improve their finishes. Those who didn't make All-America or score want to have a bigger impact. They are all thinking higher, and that filters down to the rest of the team."

At the same time, Ferguson and her staff have noticed how the newcomers have been an energy source themselves. They haven't been content to sit back and rely on the returnees to supply enthusiasm or set the tempo in practice. Instead, they have provided an infectious spark to their teammates.

"The freshmen coming in have been figuring out ways to make a difference on this team," Ferguson said. "They didn't choose our program because of where we were ranked. They decided to come here because they trust us as coaches, they believe they can have an immediate impact on our squad, and they want to help us build for the future.

"The newcomers bring confidence and want-to to this team, and they won't take a back seat to anyone. That kind of attitude is contagious, and it challenges the veterans to be the best they can be. All of a sudden, our returnees are even more excited, because they see that help is here and this team will go places if everyone keeps working hard on a daily basis."

Based on recent history, Coach Bennett's field events group returns the most voltage. Three athletes with NCAA experience, including a pair of SEC champions, are back. As mentioned earlier, Miller and Slinden made the NCAA outdoor gathering in 2001. Miller, who led the SEC as a freshman with a javelin heave of 159-3 during the regular season, backed it up at the conference meet with a victory and later picked up All-America honors after finishing among the top eight U.S. athletes at NCAAs. With increased training, she could also supply the Big Orange with a second scorer in the discus at SECs.

Slinden, meanwhile, qualified for NCAAs for the third time in her career and picked up points for a seventh-place showing. At the SEC level, she was unable to validate her season-best conference discus mark of 182-3 when she settled for fifth at the league meet, but she did manage to surprise people with fifth-place points in the shot put at that competition with a personal-best toss of 46-10. Slinden is also the school record-holder in the weight throw at 53-3.50.

The final member of that trio is Elwin, who struggled with back problems early on in 2001 and was never able to catch up with an SEC pack of vaulters who literally took the sport to a higher level. Still, Elwin, the league outdoor champ and record holder in 2000 with a clearance of 12-8.25, managed to do well enough to place fourth outdoors at the 2001 conference gathering and ratchet up the Lady Vol records in her event to 12-6.25 inside and 12-9.50 outside. She looks to add the javelin to her repertoire in 2002, entering the campaign with a prep PR of 126-1.

The coaching staff will look to several other returnees to power up and become contributors on the conference level. Junior vaulter Mandy Bergey (12-1.25 indoors) as well as throwers Sonya Bell (140-0 discus) and Janine Tessarzik (155-1 discus), high jumper Kelly Flowers (5-5.75 indoors) and heptathlete Lindsay Eck (4638) - all sophomores - will have opportunities to shine. Out of that group, Bergey, Flowers and Tessarzik have the best shot at providing immediate assistance.

Bergey came into her own as a vaulter a year ago, registering six top-three finishes during the season, including a victory at the SEC Outdoor Quad. Her athletic ability, work ethic and mental toughness are traits that should serve her well. Tessarzik comes off a redshirt season after suffering a stress fracture in her foot just after the 2001 opener. She had drawn favorable comments from Bennett prior to her diagnosis and could give UT a third competitive discus thrower to go along with Slinden and Miller. Flowers, meanwhile, leaped nearly 5-6 in her first collegiate meet despite also focusing her attention on sprinting. With her concentrating solely on getting over the bar this season, an increase to 5-7 or 5-8 would most likely be enough to help Tennessee gain points in an event that is not the SEC's strongest.

A bundle of newcomers will join the fray and look to chip in, with volunteer coach Charlie Simpkins playing an integral role. Jamie Rebella appears to be the strongest addition, as the three-time Wisconsin state triple jump champ will bring a 39-3.75 resume to the table. With her 17-11.75 PR, she will also join a quartet of long jumpers that includes Eck (19-1.25) as well as freshmen Dee Dee Trotter (18-1) and Karla Marshall (no mark).

Other first-year performers include high jumper Jessica Bishop (no mark), pole vaulters Kendra Rhyne (11-3), Lauren McNeil (10-6) and Jessica Andrews (9-0), and throws specialist Lindsey McFarland, who owns personal bests of 141-2 in the discus and 40-7.25 in the shot and will get a look at the hammer and weight throws for the first time this year.

Complementing the field events trio of NCAA competitors were two athletes from the distance area who made the national field indoors a year ago. Juniors Bennett and Dickie earned a trip to Fayetteville, Ark., for NCAAs and should be up to the challenge again in 2002.

For Bennett, the national meet was the culmination of a great deal of hard work, both physically and mentally. Never having been a big fan of the indoor season, Bennett saw tangible results from Rothoff's coaching when she dropped her personal best time from 2:17.94 at the beginning of the season to 2:07.09 in qualifying for NCAAs with a victory at the last chance Alex Wilson Invitational. While Bennett did not duplicate her NCAA qualification outdoors, a light did come on for her at the SEC Championships, where for the first time in her collegiate career, she was able to fuse together back-to-back races of substance. After clocking an outdoor PR of 2:08.58 in the prelims, she recharged her batteries enough to place sixth with an improvement to 2:08.54. That power surge offers promise of bigger things for her junior year.

For Dickie, Rothoff also proved to be a transformer. The first-year coach helped the sophomore bounce back from an injury-forced redshirt season and find her signature race on the track. In her first attempt ever at 5000m in the Cannon IV Classic, Dickie miraculously won in a time of 16:28.67 and qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships. After going back down to 3K and placing fourth at the SEC meet in a season-best 9:43.24, Dickie made the trip to the Ozarks and hammered out a 16:28.19 reading to take eighth at NCAAs, improve her PR and grab All-America acclaim. While she was unable to duplicate that connection outdoors, her junior campaign offers to bring more of the same flash.

Other returnees who will be plugged into various distances and possibly the distance medley relay include juniors Amber Ayub (800m/400mH), Christy Baird (3000m/3000mSC/5000/10,000m) and Rebecca Collins (800m/1500m) and sophomores Erin Anderson (1500m/3000m) and Jessica Southers (3000m/5000m/10,000m). In addition to Dickie, Anderson, Baird and Southers all played key roles in the cross country team's dramatic arc from eighth in the 2000 conference meet to second in 2001 with Dickie and Southers both earning All-SEC distinction for their third-place and 13th-place efforts, respectively. The groundwork for strong seasons from all three has been laid, as Anderson and Southers come off solid rookie campaigns, while Baird has regained her confidence after missing much of last year with a hip injury.

Also providing juice to the shocking display of power on the cross country course were newcomers Monique Berarducci, Nicole Cook, Elizabeth McCalley and Brooke Novak. Cook and Novak arrived on the scene with the highest wattage, having been multi-time All-Americans and among the nation's top recruits coming out of high school. Novak, ranked at or near the top of U.S. lists in the 1600m (4.43.20) and 3200m (10:17.07) as a prep, will test her range from 1500 to 5000 meters at UT. She showcased some of her abilities during the fall, as she earned All-SEC honors after placing 10th at the league cross country meet. Cook, meanwhile, was ranked number one at 500 meters in high school (1:13.51) and won the 800m at the national indoor meet. She will be a 400/800m specialist for the Lady Vols. Both look to play key roles on the DMR as well. McCalley, a Knoxville native, turned heads during the cross country season and will attempt to do the same in the longer distances on the track, while Berarducci has impressed the coaches with her competitiveness.

"The cross country team has been another source of energy and momentum for us because of the jump they made in the SEC," Ferguson said. "They really pulled together as a team and understood what synergy is all about. That served as an excellent example for the rest of the track and field team about how important it is to pull for each other and cheer our teammates on."

No one has been more electrified by the distance group's ascent than the sprint corps. The conductor of the third and final area of the team, Ferguson is mindful of her group's need to produce this season, and has been jolted by the response she has received from her charges. Largely comprised of a dynamic freshman class, the sprint crew seems intent on making its mark, not only on the team but also within the conference and national circuits.

"A lot of the newcomers came in asking questions," Ferguson said. "They wanted to see where they fit in on the SEC and NCAA lists. They are a very forward thinking group and have demonstrated an 'I want to be good' eagerness that spills over to the rest of the team."

Returnees Samantha Coulson and Aoife Hearne, two of the squad's three seniors, and sophomores Christina (Clark) Billings and Amy Ranker know that the veterans and rookies will need to pool their resources and share information with each other for the good of the team.

The four holdovers and 4x400m relay standout Bennett went through a season of struggles in 2001, as Tennessee's limited number of healthy sprinters prevented Ferguson from putting a Big Orange caliber of talent on the track and in some cases forced her to choose whether a 4x100m or 4x400m combination would compete.

That dilemma shouldn't be the case anymore, as Ferguson welcomes five freshmen with the ability to step in and make sparks fly. Canadian speedster Toyin Olupona heads the list and should give UT another sprinter in the vein of recent All-Americans Kelli White and Heather Sumpter. In fact, Olupona's 7.36 time in the 60 meters would rank her second only to White in the Lady Vol record book.

Joining Olupona are long sprinters Antoinette Gorham and Trotter, state champions from Maryland and Georgia in the 400m (54.32) and 200m (23.9), respectively. Also in the fold is short sprinter Marshall, a Michigan state champ who is number one on Tennessee's depth chart in the 100 meters at 11.62.

Add to that mix middle distance runner Cook, and it is apparent that Ferguson has options for both sprint relays. What's more, the Lady Vols' DMR, which placed third at SEC Indoors last season, will be bolstered by both sprint and distance personnel and seems to have a legitimate shot at earning a place at nationals and challenging for one of the top two spots at the conference meet.

Such depth also provides a spillover effect. Billings, who last year tried her hand at the heptathlon in addition to running on relays, has returned her focus to the 400m as well as the 100m and 400m hurdles. Fresher legs should mean better results in those areas.

As for Hearne, she never did hit her stride last season after battling hamstring injuries since early in the indoor season. A transfer from the University of Rhode Island in 2001, the former Irish national champion is looking forward to a healthy senior campaign and could be a key component on the 4x100m relay.

As always, the schedule is geared to provide opportunities for all three groups to see the type of competition they need to help them qualify for nationals. Key indoor meets for qualifying include the SEC Multi Meet on Jan. 26 and the Cannon IV Classic and Virginia Tech Challenge on Feb. 8-9. Both the SEC and NCAA Indoor Championships will be held at Fayetteville, on Feb. 23-24 and March 8-9, respectively.

Outdoors, the FSU Relays (March 20-23), Stanford Invitational (March 29-31), Sea Ray Relays (April 10-13) and Penn Relays (April 25-27) offer competition in both quality and quantity. Those events will help prepare UT for the SEC Championships in Starkville, Miss., on May 9-12 and the NCAA Championships in Baton Rouge, La., on May 29-June 1.

"On paper, it appears that we have a much better team this year," Ferguson said. "It is our job as coaches to groom them where the athletes feel ready to compete and contribute at SECs and NCAAs. Once we get there, we need every person to think, 'How can I make a difference?' Because, to get where we want to go, it is going to take the talent and energy of every one of us."