Wortham fifth in pentathlon

Tennessee's Ellen Wortham ran a strong 800 meters to vault from ninth to fifth place in the final event of the women's pentathlon as the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships got underway Friday night in Lexington, Ky.

The freshman from Maryville finished with 3,736 points, an NCAA provisional qualifying mark.

On the men's side, UT's Michael Ayers is second after four of seven events in the men's indoor heptathlon, which concludes today.

Ayers finished second in the 60-meter dash and the shot put. He was fourth in the long jump. He finished by tying for first in the high jump to get to 3,128 points and close the gap on leader Curt McGill of South Carolina (3,168).

UT freshman Matthew Best is in ninth place with 2,826.

Ayers turned in three lifetime bests in his four events.

"Mike had a really good first day,'' UT coach Bill Webb said. "He's continuing to put pressure on his competition.''

The only final Friday night was the women's pentathlon. Wortham earned five points for the Lady Vols. Jena' Murphy finished 14th.

Kentucky and Mississippi State are tied with 13 points. Alabama has eight, UT 4 and Arkansas 1.

Danielle Sampley, formerly of William Blount, finished sixth for Kentucky.

UT senior Sarah Bowman guns for her third consecutive indoor title in the 3,000 today.

She also ran the preliminaries of the mile, hoping to position herself for a third consecutive title in that event Sunday.