May 9, 2007
SEC Track Central Including Live Scoring
Tuscaloosa, Ala. – A talented group of distance runners and multi-event standout Garnetta Holloway top the Vanderbilt contingent competing in the Southeastern Conference Track & Field Championships, scheduled to start Thursday at the University of Alabama.
Two former conference individual champions – Holloway, the reigning heptathlon titlist, and Erika Schneble, winner of the 5,000-meter run in 2004 – will make the final appearances of the Commodore careers at the ultra-tough SEC Championships, which goes through Sunday night in Tuscaloosa. Annually, the SEC meet features some of the stiffest collegiate track and field competition in the nation.
Vanderbilt track head coach Lori Shepard will send 11 athletes to compete at the league championships. The team will attempt to improve on a 10th place overall finish in 2006.
Holloway, a senior from Cleveland, Tenn., gives the Commodores an opportunity to get off to an excellent start. Holloway is one of the favorites in the heptathlon, a seven-event discipline that starts Thursday with the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200-meter dash. On Friday, Holloway concludes the heptathlon with the long jump, javelin throw and 800-meter run.
Holloway, No. 2 all-time among Commodores with a career best 5,417-point heptathlon accumulation, has not competed in the event this season. She enters the meet off a solid month of training, but missed several weeks of workouts early in the outdoor campaign.
“I’m looking for 5,400 points from Garnetta,” Shepard said. “If Garnetta reaches that number, I think she will compete for the title and secure a spot at the NCAA Championships.”
In 2006, Holloway used a strong second-day performance to accumulate 5,321 points in a winning effort. One month later, she finished 10th overall at the nationals with a career best showing.
Holloway’s top competition at the SEC Championships is expected to come from Etienne Chaplin of Arkansas and Sarah Gretzmacher of Georgia. Chaplin has the top mark, 5,329 points achieved at the recent Texas Relays, entering the heptathlon.
Besides Holloway, the Commodores feature four solid distance runners: Schneble, sophomore Carmen Mims, senior Ashleigh Wetzel and senior Brittany Sizer.
Schneble always seems to run outstanding races at the conference championships. She has a victory and two second place finishes at the meet. Last year, Schneble ran her best race of the campaign at the meet, finishing a strong second in the 5,000 behind Auburn’s Angela Homan. In 2004, she won the SEC race in a quick 16:24.
Schneble is approaching the meet in top form. Two weeks ago, she ran her fastest 5,000 in nearly three years with a strong performance at the Drake Relays.
Mims gives Commodore distance coach Steve Keith an ideal compliment to Schneble. Mims has showed excellent form throughout the season and enters the race off a superb training regiment.
“I think Erika and Carmen are going to have some fun,” Keith said. “Both have been training well and both are well rested. I expect them to be factors in the 5,000.”
Christine Kalmer of Arkansas appears to be the favorite in the 5,000, on the strength of a 16:16.33 performance earlier this season in Northern California. Other contenders besides the Commodore duo are Georgia’s Jill Steffens and Denise Bargiachi of Arkansas.
Keith is also expecting excellent performances from steeplechase competitors Wetzel and Val Kazmer, and 1,500-meter specialist Brittany Sizer. Wetzel knocked nearly 30 seconds off her personal best in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Vanderbilt Invitational, and will be shooting to erase the team record at the conference meet. Kazmer has set three personal bests, and will attempt to go under 11 minutes for the first time in her career. Sizer has also been remarkably consistent in her final Commodore season, but likely needs to lower her personal best in the 1,500 to make the finals on Sunday.
Other Commodores competing this weekend include sophomore long jumper Lauryn Smith, long jump; freshman Meghan Murphy, 100-meter hurdles; junior Amani Floyd, 400; junior Lauren Fortson, 400-meter hurdles; and sophomore Amanda Scott, 5,000 meters.
