Lady Vols set world record in distance medley relay at NCAA

The Tennessee Lady Vols set a world record Friday night at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Running before a crowd of 4,315 at Texas A&M’s Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium in College Station Texas, the Lady Vols quartet of Phoebe Wright, Brittany Jones, Chanelle Price and Sarah Bowman set a new mark in the distance medley relay. They covered the 4,000-meter distance in 10 minutes, 50.98 seconds. The Lady Vols topped the previous world and collegiate record of 10:54.34 set by Villanova in 1988.

The mark also topped Tennessee’s month-old American and school record of 10:56.40, which it had run at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York City on Feb. 6, as well as UCLA’s 10:58.19 NCAA meet record from 2002.

“When you come through and do what you are supposed to do, it’s very exciting,’’ Lady Vols coach J.J. Clark said. “What’s on paper is not always what happens and this time it happened ...

“No one in the NCAA has ever run faster. No one in America has ever run faster. No one in the world has ever run faster. That is something that should truly be recognized, and I’m just extremely happy for them, because they put a lot of work into it.”

The Lady Vols were extremely happy, too. Said Jones: “We worked hard and we prayed and like we say, ‘we di-di-did it.’ ”

With the 10 points generated by the event victory, Tennessee heads into the meet’s final day tied for seventh.

BYU is first with 18 points, followed by Texas with 15. Texas A&M, Penn State and Oregon are tied for third with 13 and Arizona State is sixth with 11.

The Lady Vols will have scoring opportunities in five events today.

Men's Track: Evander Wells twice posted season-best times in the 200 meters and earned his seventh All-America certificate with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Wells had the third-fastest time in the preliminaries at 20.81. He then followed that performance with a 20.78 in the final.

"Evander ran a fantastic race in the prelims and then improved in the final,'' UT coach Bill Webb said. "He posted two season-bests and competed very well in a tough field."

Michael Ayers ended day one of the heptathlon in 10th place with 3,057 points.

Nick Panezich was 10th in the shot put with a throw of 58 feet, 11.50 inches.

Men's Tennis: Tennessee won the doubles point for the first time in five matches and proceeded to a 4-1 SEC victory over South Carolina at the Goodfriend Indoor Tennis Center.

Boris Conkic and Matteo Fago clinched the doubles point for sixth-ranked UT (9-3, 2-1 SEC) with a 9-8 victory over Pedro Campos and Ivan Cressoni of No. 15 South Carolina (12-2, 2-1).

Conkic and Fago also won at second and third singles respectively. Fago improved to 10-0 in singles dual-match play this season, beating Jaime Cuellar, 6-1, 6-3.

Matt Brewer clinched the victory for Tennessee by beating Johannes Pulsfort at No. 5 singles, 6-2, 6-1.

"We had good effort and focus from the team today,'' UT coach Sam Winterbotham said. "South Carolina has an excellent program and to beat them in the fashion we did is impressive. That was a job well done for our team and now we need to turn our focus to a very talented Florida team.

Tennessee plays host to the eighth-ranked Gators at 1 p.m. Sunday. Florida lost to No. 4 Georgia 4-3 on Friday.

Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina all are tied for the lead in the SEC's Eastern Division.

Women's Tennis: Playing on the road for the first time in more than a month, the Tennessee Lady Vols stayed unbeaten in SEC play, winning at South Carolina 5-2.

Samantha Orlin improved her winning streak to eight singles matches for No. 12 Tennessee (9-1, 3-0 SEC). Jennifer Meredith clinched the victory for the second time in three matches.

Orlin beat Dijana Stojic, 6-4, 6-4, at No. 3 singles.

Meredith won at No. 5 singles, beating Miljana Jocic, 6-1, 6-1.

Caitlin Whoriskey and Zsofia Zobor joined Orlin in winning in both singles and doubles for Tennessee against No. 22 South Carolina (7-5, 1-2).

Softball: Sixth-ranked Tennessee (21-3) starts SEC play against South Carolina (12-7) today at Lee Softball Stadium.

The doubleheader starts at 1 p.m.

The Lady Vols have won 13 in a row against the Gamecocks, a streak that stretches back to April 1, 2003.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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