The University of Tennessee women’s track & field team will have a busy week in store as it gets in its final preparations for the championship portion of the outdoor campaign.
The 19th-ranked Lady Vols travel to Philadelphia, Pa., to compete in the 112th Penn Relays, Thursday through Saturday, and return home to join the UT men in playing host to the Knoxville Invitational on Sunday at Tom Black Track at LaPorte Stadium.
The Big Orange women will have 15 competitors in Philly, with Tennessee taking part in seven events on Thursday, five today and potentially four on Saturday.  The baton events, for which the meet is most famous, will see Lady Vol entries in the 4x100m, 4x200m, 4x800m and sprint medley relays.  UT will also have athletes in the hammer, shot and discus as well as the triple jump, 100m hurdles, 3000m steeplechase and 5000 meters. 
Head Coach J.J. Clark’s squad will be seeking to get back on the victory stand after enjoying three wins in 2004 but none in 2005.  With 11 Penn Relays “Championships of America” to their credit though the years, Team Orange will seek to add to that tally in 2006.  UT’s previous titles have come in the 4x100m (1984, 1994), 4x400m (1984), 4x800m (1981-84, 2004), sprint medley (2004) and distance medley (1983, 2004) relays.
“We’re taking teams in the 4×8, sprint medley, 4×1 and 4×2,” Clark said.  “We go into the meet thinking we’ll be competitive in every relay with a chance to win.  That is the challenge, and it something we are going to try to match up with.”
Tennessee has previously run 4x100m, 4x800m and sprint medley relays this season.  The Lady Vols are qualified for the NCAA Mideast Regional in the 4×1 with a time of 44.44 seconds, with redshirt freshman Celriece Law (Denver, Colo.), and sophomores Courtney Champion (Lawrenceville, Ga.), LaTonya Loche (Bastrop, La.) and Cleo Tyson (Huntsville, Texas) carrying the baton.   
Team Orange, meanwhile, owns a clocking of 8:36.45 in the 4×8 from the Sea Ray Relays, and that mark is sure to improve on Saturday with junior Leslie Treherne (Chesapeake, Va.), senior Brooke Novak (Kaukauna, Wis.), junior Mindy Sullivan (Lubbock, Texas) and freshman Sarah Bowman (Warrenton, Va.) handling the stick.  Champion, Tyson, Bowman and senior Patricia Hall (St. Anne, Jamaica), are penciled in for the sprint medley, while Champion, Tyson, Loche and Hall are entered in the 4×2.
Clark said he considers his team’s trifecta in 2004 something that is in the past, and trying to live up to that is not something with which his team needs to be concerned.“We want to be good, train hard and race well, the fourth-year coach said.  “I don’t even think about 2004 or 2002 or 2000.  I think about where we are now and what we have to do to win.“What we have to do to win is go out there and compete with our hearts and with a good strategy and confidence, and then things will fall into place.  I can’t concern myself with the past.”In addition to Tennessee’s success at this revered meet, the Clark family has long been fused with the Penn Relays.  Clark’s sister, former Lady Vol Joetta Clark, is a 2004 inductee into the meet’s Wall of Fame.  She and younger sister, Hazel, helped Tennessee and Florida, respectively, win relay titles in the early 1980s and late 1990s.  J.J. Clark’s wife, five-time Olympian Jearl Miles-Clark, has been part of the scene as well, aiding the American cause in the raucous USA vs. the World competitions on the final day of action at Franklin Field.
”As far as my family is concerned, we have had a good history there, particularly Joetta, Jearl and Hazel, Clark said.”  “They have had great success there winning events.
“I haven’t missed a Penn Relays since I was in the sixth grade.  It’s a fantastic event with a lot of history, and I have seen lots of people go there and run their very, very best.  I expect my athletes to compete at that level and to compete with that same type of spirit that I have seen over the years at this meet.”

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