STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

More Other Sports

• Sports Buddies big help for Big Brothers
• Sophomore Smith surprises at tennis challenger
• NCAA snubs Lady Vols from championship cross-country meet

Share and Enjoy [?]

Get Reprints

Want to use this article? Click here for options!

If Tennessee is going to qualify for the NCAA women's cross country championship for the sixth consecutive season it will need some help.

The No. 25 Lady Vols finished fourth at the South Regional in Gainesville, Fla., but only the two two teams earn automatic bids to the championship. UT will have to wait until Monday when 13 additional at-large teams as well as individuals will be announced for the championship meet on Nov. 19 in Terre Haute, Ind.

Third-ranked Florida State won the South team title win 40 points. No. 29 Georgia was second with 75, followed by Florida (94) and UT (152).

The Lady Vols beat both Georgia and Florida two weeks ago to win the SEC title.

"It was not an exceptional showing that we had," Lady Vols coach J.J. Clark said. "As a group, it was very hard for us to rebound when we found out Jackie Areson would not be able to run for us due to a foot injury. We might have an outside shot of getting to nationals. We'll just have to wait and see."

To make matters worse, UT's fifth runner was disqualified, although it would have not changed the team order.

Susan Kuijken of Florida State won the race by the covering the 6,000-meter course at the University of Florida Golf Course in 20 minutes, 19.01 seconds.

Three Lady Vols earned All-South Region by finishing in the top 25 in the field of 145 runners.

Katie Van Horn was 11th in 21:06. She ran third for UT for most of the race before kicking hard over the final 500 meters to pick off a number of runners.

"Katie Van Horn has performed consistently for us every time out, the entire year," Clark said. "I am not surprised at all about how consistent she has been."

Sarah Bowman was 14th in 21:12 and repeated as All-Region. The junior ran with the lead pack for much of the race before falling back during the last mile. It's the first this season Bowman didn't finish first for the Lady Vols.

Junior transfer Heidi Magill-Dahl was 16th and earned her third All-Region finish at 21:15. The previous two were at BYU.

Freshman Brittany Sheffey was 33rd in 22:01.

Junior Rolanda Bell would have been UT's fifth scoring runner in 34th place with a time around 22:03, but she and Georgia freshman Kylie Foley got tangled up as they converged on the finish line. When Bell stumbled, she stretched out her arms to catch her balance. As she did so, she and Foley again made contact. Even though the incidental contact would not have altered Georgia's team score, and the Bulldogs filed no complaint, meet officials chose to disqualify Bell anyway and upheld a UT protest, much to the disappointment of Clark.

"I think Rolanda Bell gave her best result of the season," Clark said. "To come back and find out that she was disqualified was extremely disappointing. Between that, getting Heidi onboard late this season and losing Jackie to the injury, it's just been that kind of year for us, but we will continue to persevere as a group."

Men's Cross Country: The UT men finished eighth at South Regional with 178 points,

"It was a disappointing performance today," UT coach George Watts said. "We weren't the same team we were at the SEC Championship. We have to learn how to better prepare for back-to-back championship races."

Junior Andrew Press was 24th, covering the 10K course in 31:37.88. Junior Steve Tobin was 34th in 32:00, followed by Denton Jones (38th, 32:12), Michael Spooner (44th, 32:24.85), Yarrick Kincaid (51st, 32:35) and Chris Rapp (70th, 33:22).

Alabama won the region title with 28 points and Florida State was second with 52.

Women's Swimming: The No. 12 Lady Vols (3-1, 2-1 SEC) won eight of 19 events against top-ranked and defending national champion Auburn, but the Tigers held on 201-146 to conclude the two-day meet at home.

"I am really proud of the way we raced this weekend," Lady Vols coach Matt Kredich said. "We made some real progress in understanding our events and learning how to execute under pressure. Auburn was very good this weekend, and showed us some places where we can get a lot better."

Michele King won the 100-yard breaststroke with the Lady Vols' first NCAA automatic qualifying time of the season. She finished in 1:01.19 and broke her personal-best time by one second.

Freshman Tricia Weaner, King, senior Christine Magnuson and junior Carly Mathes won the 200-yard medley relay in an NCAA provisional time of 1:41.92.

Magnuson was third in the 200 freestyle relay with an NCAA provisional 1:48.33.

Weaner earned an NCAA provisional in the 100 backstroke with a fourth-place finish in 55.90.

UT was second in the 400 free relay with King, Weaner, Gehring and Nauta earning an NCAA provisional in 3:23.14.

King won her third race of the meet in the 50 free with an NCAA provisional of 22.84.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.