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When the decathlon got to halftime Wednesday evening, Jangy Addy took a nice lead into the locker room.

Now he has to come back today to the Sea Ray Relays at Tom Black Track and close the deal.

The opponent is not the other athletes. Rather, it's the qualifying standard for the NCAA championship meet in June.

Tennessee coach Bill Webb's game plan mapped out the easiest possible route to 7,400 points, the NCAA qualifier.

"He's way up on that," Webb said after five of the 10 events were in the books. "It was a good first day.

"Today, just get a throw, clear a height, finish the meet and you have a qualifier."

Addy, a senior, is at 4,096 points. Running (jumping and throwing) on his heels is UT freshman Michael Ayers, who finished the first half of his first college decathlon at 3,907.

"He showed me a lot today," Webb said of Ayers. "He showed me he's a competitor.

"He's going to be a very good decathlete down the road in the Tennessee tradition."

Speaking of that tradition, two Vol alumni were next in the scores. Chris Helwick, is third at 3,866, and Stephen Harris fourth at 3,833.

Addy is glad to be ahead of pace - and to be relatively healthy as an injury-plagued career winds down.

"We're working every day with the training room and strength team," he said, "just staying on top of things to make sure I can continue and finish up this year strong."

Angie Wilhelm, a former University of Cincinnati athlete, leads the heptathlon after four of seven events with a score of 3,343.

In third place is Kentucky freshman Danielle Sampley, a William Blount product. Sampley won the 200 meters to get to 3,175 points.

The decathlon resumes today at 2:30 p.m., with the heptathlon opening at 4.

Olympic Touch: The entries for Friday and Saturday include several former Olympians. Among them: Dee Dee Trotter, a gold-medal relay member in 2004; Hazel Clark-Riley, 800 meters in 2000 and 2004; Jearl Miles Clark, five-time Olympian, 800; Anthony Famiglietti, steeplechase, 2004; A.G. Kruger, hammer, 2004; Kevin Sullivan, two-time Canadian Olympian, 1,500.

Berry Honored: UT's Joseph Berry is the SEC male freshman of the week. He cleared 16 feet, 6.75 inches Saturday at Auburn to gain an NCAA regional qualifying mark.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.