Category: Track

Eight Tennessee indoor track and field athletes earn SEC honors

Eight Tennessee indoor track and field athletes earn SEC honors.

Eight Tennessee track and field athletes received All-Southeastern Conference honors at the league’s recent indoor championships.

A pair of UT athletes were named to the first team after winning their respective events.

The Volunteers and Lady Vols had a combined four athletes achieve second-team honors, claiming either second or third in their events at the championships.

Tennessee also had two athletes make the SEC’s All-Freshman team as top rookie finishers.

In the men’s long jump, Carey McLeod was a first team standout as he won the league title with a leap of 8.07 meters (26 feet, 5.75 inches).

The Lady Vols had three earn second-team honors, including one, Charisma Taylor, who medaled in a pair of events.

Taylor claimed a silver medal in the 60-meter hurdles and earned bronze in the triple jump. Sydney Seymour finished second in the women’s 5,000-meter run.

The Vols’ Georgios Korakidis earned second-team honors as he claimed a silver medal in the men’s weight throw.

Yariel Soto won a bronze in the heptathlon and earned UT’s first medal at the SEC indoor championships since 2009.

Jordan West won silver in the men’s shot put.

Fuji Anday made the league’s all-freshman team as he finished 10th in the men’s 5,000-meter run. Lady Vols’ Mikele Vickers was a top finisher in the women’s triple jump (seventh place).

Canaan Anderson breaks freshman mile record

Tennessee’s Canaan Anderson breaks freshman mile record.

A Tennessee freshman track and field record has fallen.

Tennessee distance specialist Canaan Anderson set the freshman men’s one-mile run record Friday at the Virginia Tech Challenge at the Rector Field House in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Anderson, a native of Murfreesboro, Tennessee and graduate of Siegel High School, won the event in 4 minutes, 5.88 seconds.

His time was nearly two seconds off the previous record, which was set in 2004 by Dusty Miller (4:07.04).

Miller is one of three Tennessee distance runners to break a freshman record this season.

He joins Lady Vols’ Brooke Dixon, Kayla Gholar and Rachel Sutliff, who have broken freshmen records in the past three weeks.

Dixon broke the women’s freshman record in the mile run. Gholar has the record in the 3,000-meter run and Sutliff owns the rookie record in the 5,000-meter run.

Favour Ashe named SEC Freshman of the Week

Tennessee’s Favour Ashe named SEC Freshman of the Week.

For the second time this season, Tennessee track and field athlete Favour Ashe has been named Southeastern Conference Male Freshman of the Week.

Ashe, a native of Ughelli, Nigeria, set Tennessee’s freshman record in the 60-meter dash last weekend in Arkansas (6.52 seconds).

His time broke a record set by Leonard Scott in 1999. Scott’s previous rookie record time was 6.56 seconds.

Ashe’s time is the third fastest time in Tennessee history.

Christian Coleman holds the program’s all-time record (6.45 seconds) set in 2017. Scott has the second best mark all time (6.48 seconds).

Ashe is the first Tennessee athlete to earn multiple Freshman of the Week honors since Coleman achieved the feat in 2014.

Ashe’s time in the 60-meter dash is the fastest in the SEC this season and ranks third in the NCAA and sixth in the world.

Favour Ashe breaks freshman record in 60-meter dash

Favour Ashe shatters UT freshman record in 60-meter dash

Tennessee freshman athlete Favour Ashe set a program indoor record at the Tyson Invitational, hosted by Arkansas, Friday in Fayetteville.

Ashe, the defending SEC Freshman of the Week, broke the school’s freshman record in the 60-meter dash, crossing the finish line in 6.52 seconds during the preliminary race.

The previous record of 6.56 was held by Leonard Scott set in 1999.

Ashe’s time is the fastest in the Southeastern Conference this season and third in the NCAA. His mark is third fastest mark in UT history behind Scott’s 6.48 in 2001 and Christian Coleman’s school record of 6.45, which was achieved in 2017.

Ashe, a native of Ughelli, Nigeria, has the 13th fastest time in the world this year.

Ashe finished seventh in the finals with a time of  7.89 seconds.

Heather Sumpter Blakemore to be inducted into Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame

Heather Sumpter Blakemore to be inducted into Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame.

Former Lady Vols’ track standout Heather Sumpter Blakemore will be inducted into the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame later this month.

She was a two-time All-America performer for Tennessee from 1996-97 and won the 100-meter dash at the Penn Relays in 2000.

Blakemore graduated from UT with a degree in sociology and now works as a guidance counselor at Austin-East Magnet High School in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Blakemore is also the girls track and field coach at Austin-East. She guided the Lady Roadrunners to a TSSAA Class A/AA state championship in 2007 and was named the Prep Xtra Girls Coach of the Year.

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