Bowman cruises to victory

Sarah Bowman literally ran away with the Tennessee Invitational Friday.

The Tennessee Lady Vols senior beat the field by more than a minute, covering the 5,000-meter course on the Lambert Acres Golf Course in a career-best 17 minutes, 21 seconds.

Bowman led UT to the team title with 19 points. Chattanooga was second with 40.

In the men's race, Tennessee was second with 33 points, six behind winner Miami (Ohio). Andrew Press of UT finished second in 25:01.62. Miami's Pat Sovacool won in 24:54.22.

After Bowman, Chattanooga's Tara Gietema was the next finisher (18:25).

"It's good to get out here and race,'' Bowman said. "I didn't race the first meet, doing a lot of conditioning stuff, so this was the start of my intervals and training. It was just exciting to be part of the team and run with the group for the first time."

After Bowman, the Lady Vols swept the three through six spots.

Phoebe Wright was third in 18:33, followed by Jackie Areson (18:40), Rolanda Bell (18:53) and Brittany Sheffey (18:56).

For the Vols, Press led three UT runners placing in the top 10. Steve Tobin was sixth in 25:18.95 and Michael Spooner was ninth (25:36.90).

"We had a 43-second spread among our top five, which is pretty good for the first meet of the season,'' UT coach George Watts said. "Andrew Press had a nice, steady, smart race. His time was very good for this early in the season.

"The nice thing about the race today was that we were forced to compete all the way through. It was almost like a dual meet. We got edged in a few places and that was the difference."

UT's Chris Rapp was 12th (25:43.07) and Ryan Beabout was 14th (25:44.43).