Bowman second in 1,500 to ETSU's Dahl

Tennessee's women loaded the bus for the NCAA outdoor track and field championships with a strong day Saturday at the Mideast Regional in Louisville, Ky.

The news wasn't so good for the UT men, who saw only hurdler Charlton Rolle claim an automatic bid for nationals, to be held June 10-13 in Fayetteville, Ark.

The Lady Vols got automatic bids for Phoebe Wright in the 800 meters, Sarah Bowman in the 1,500, Celriece Law in the 100 hurdles, Lynne Layne in both the 100 and 200 and Annie Alexander in the discus.

The 4x100 relay team (Law, Layne, Ashley Harris and Ellen Wortham) also gained a berth at nationals with a second-place finish.

The top five individuals and top three relays from each of the four regional meets earn automatic bids for nationals.

A few additional slots will be filled with at-large invitations, and that's the hope for several UT men and women who fell just short of automatic bids.

Sophomore Joe Berry, the SEC champion in the pole vault, had a rough day, finishing ninth at 16 feet, 7 1/4 inches. He was competing on an injured ankle.

Berry, who had the 10th-best mark in the nation before the weekend, would appear to likely be an at-large addition.

To earn an at-large bid, athletes had to finish no worse than 12th in the regional.

Akeem Hardnett had a lifetime best mark of 52-4 to take sixth in the triple jump.

"I thought our guys who were ranked high enough to get an at-large bid did a nice job of battling to make sure they were eligible,'' said UT men's coach Bill Webb.

Alexander won the women's shot put at 55-9 on Saturday, one day after finishing second in the discus.

Wright, a junior, won the 800, in which freshman Chanelle Price finished sixth, just missing the automatic bid.

To win, Wright had to beat the defending NCAA champion, Geena Gall of Michigan.

"Phoebe ran great today,'' said Lady Vols coach J.J. Clark. "I'm very proud of her.''

Bowman was second in the 1,500, her first loss of the season in the event. She was outkicked by East Tennessee State University's Heidi Dahl, who competed at BYU and Tennessee prior to ETSU.

Law ran a personal-best 13.14 to finish second in the 100 hurdles.

Layne was third in the 100 and fourth in the 200.

Former Bearden High School standout Judy Johnson of ETSU finished 12th in the 200 (24.18) and 16th in the 100 (11.79).

The Lady Vols, who won the indoor national title in March, converted seven of 10 entries into automatic bids Saturday.

Though team scoring was irrelevant to qualifying, UT finished second in points with 69, behind LSU's 85.5.

"The whole objective of this meet,'' said Clark, "is to get to the NCAA championships one way or the other, automatically or (at-large).

"We accomplished that by getting everyone through that we pretty much expected.''

On the men's side, Rolle, a sophomore, earned a return to nationals. Reaching the semis last year as a freshman, he ran 13.77 to finish third.

He will join Nick Panezich, who earned an automatic bid in the shot put on Friday. Michael Ayers also will compete in the decathlon, which did not require regional qualifying.

Panezich fell short Saturday, going 19th in hammer and 23rd in the discus.

The Vols' 4x100 relay finished seventh. A pair of freshmen, Emerson Peacock and Joe Franklin, were sixth and eighth, respectively, in the 800 and have at-large aspirations.