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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The third-ranked University of Tennessee women’s track & field team rounded up three event wins, taking the 60m dash, invitational 5000m run and distance medley relay, and charted 11 NCAA provisional qualifying marks Friday on the first day of the Penn State National at Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track.

“We had a good first day with 11 provisional marks and three wins, which is a great start,” UT Head Coach J.J. Clark said. “A lot of times you are happy to get that total for the whole meet. We still have another day here to run, jump and throw, but our team spirit and the overall progression of our team is moving in the right direction.”

Senior Courtney Champion (Lawrenceville, Ga.) closed out a successful first day by zipping down the straightaway in 7.39 seconds to capture her second consecutive straight sprint title at this meet and give Tennessee its fourth victory in a row in that event at this competition. She had to make it through two preliminary rounds to do so, which she did easily by winning her opening heat in a season-best 7.36 (tying her for seventh best in the NCAA ranks this season) and her semifinal race in 7.37. All three times met the provisional standard.

Four other Lady Vols joined Champion in the 60m finals, but only three of them ran. Sophomore Lynne Layne (New Rochelle, N.Y.) collected third-place honors by clicking off a 7.42 effort in the final, while freshman Jeneba Tarmoh (San Jose, Calif.) was fourth at 7.45 and senior LaTonya Loche (Bastrop, La.) was seventh in 7.62. Tarmoh (7.38) and Loche (7.49) logged season-bests and provisionals in the opening round, as did senior Cleo Tyson (Huntsville, Texas), who did not run in the final after carding a season-topper of 7.36 in the prelims.

Running together for the first time ever, the Lady Vol distance medley relay quartet of junior Sarah Bowman (Warrenton, Va.), freshman Brittany Jones (Pompano Beach, Fla.), sophomore Phoebe Wright (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) and freshman Brittany Sheffey (Bellport, N.Y.) turned in an impressive performance. The foursome delivered UT its fourth DMR crown at this meet in the past five seasons, easily winning in an NCAA provisional readout of 11:13.64 that wasn’t far off the auto standard of 11:09.00.

Bowman and Jones staked the Big Orange to a slight lead over West Virginia through the 1200m and 400m legs. It was Wright, the former walk-on from Red Bank High School, though, who balloned the lead to 70 meters with a 2:07 800m hitch. Sheffey then took care of business on the anchor leg and pushed for the NCAA auto envelope until crossing the line in provisional fashion with a DMR reading that ranks number five all-time in Lady Vol history.

Junior Katie Van Horn charted the Lady Vols’ first victory of the meet, winning the invitational 5000-meter run title for the second year in a row. The product of Glendora, N.J., covered the distance in an NCAA provisional qualifying readout of 16 minutes, 41.72 seconds to become the first woman to claim two invitational 5K crowns at this meet. With Sharon Dickie’s triumph in 2004, UT women now have won three of the past five.

In the weight throw, senior Shanna Dickenson (Cincinnati, Ohio) came up with her best performance of the season. Her top measurement of 64-1 1/4 earned her runner-up status behind winner Brittany Pryor of Virginia Tech (64-8 1/2). UT freshman Taylor Rotella (Knoxville, Tenn.) was 25th in a personal best 43-6 1/2.

Earlier in the evening, Layne landed a tie for seventh place in the long jump. Her mark of record was a leap of 19 feet even. Junior Celriece Law (Denver, Colo.) competed but did not record a legal mark.

In the 60m hurdles, Law made it to the semifinal round before bowing out. She logged times of 8.55 and 8.48 to finish third and fifth in her heats, respectively, in the first two rounds. She wound up finishing in a tie for ninth overall.

“We have definitely had an orange impact on this meet through the years,” Clark said. “With the repeat wins in the 60m and 5000m and winning four of the past five DMRs here, we are showing consistency and demonstrating that we are a solid team, year in and year out.”

On Saturday, Tennessee will have entrants in nine different events, including the invitational sections of the 200m, 800m, mile, 4x400m relay, pole vault and shot put as well as the unseeded sections of the 200m, 500m and the 4x400m relay. Action gets underway at 10:40 a.m., and meet is scheduled to conclude around 6 p.m.