Toyin Olupona named athlete of the week

University of Tennessee senior Toyin Olupona has been named the Southeastern Conference Women’s Track & Field Female Runner of the Week as well as Lady Vol Athlete of the Week.  It marks the first time in her career she has received conference accolades and the second occasion she has been chosen for departmental acclaim. The sprinter from Orillia, Ontario, Canada, matched her UT and Stokely Athletics Center records in the 55-meter dash at the Tennessee Indoor Classic on Feb. 18.  Her time of 6.74 on the Stokely straightaway, which gave her a win in that race at the TIC for the third-straight season, equaled the reading she posted a year ago at the same meet. The mark, which automatically qualified Olupona for the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 11-12, converts to a 7.26 reading for 60 meters.  That distance is what will be run at the NCAA meet in two weeks, and Olupona currently ranks second in the nation among all Division I sprinters.  The 2004 NCAA Indoor runner-up in the 60m, Olupona and teammates Tianna Madison (Elyria, Ohio), Cleo Tyson (Huntsville, Texas) and Courtney Champion (Lawrenceville, Ga.) give UT four of nation’s top 11 in the 60-meter dash. Olupona and her fourth-ranked Lady Vol squad departed Thursday for the Southeastern Conference  Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark.  The meet, held at the University of Arkansas’s Randal Tyson Track Center, runs from Friday through Sunday.