By Alex Boggis, UT Martin Assistant Sports Information Director
The University of Tennessee at Martin track and field program posted a big weekend at the 2021 Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships held at O’Brien Field on the campus on Eastern Illinois.
The Skyhawks posted numerous individual personal records in the championship field while reaching the podium four times with medalist honors. UT Martin’s men finished the championship with 49 points which ranked as a modern-era record, shattering the previous total points record by the team since the program was reintroduced prior to the 2017 season by 16.
Senior Ryan Ford paced the Skyhawks with a banner weekend with two podium finishes including his first OVC title. He began his championship quest on Thursday evening in the grueling 10k field where he was neck-and-neck through the final turn before finishing runner-up with a time of 29:56.40 to claim eight points for the team. He then came back on Saturday afternoon with another title in his sights in the 5k. This time he would not be denied as he won his first OVC championship and third career OVC championship medalist honor by placing first with a time of 14:25.99 to earn 10 points for the Skyhawks.
Freshman Darius Holland put the Skyhawks on the board on Thursday afternoon in the men’s long jump. After setting the program’s record earlier in the season, Holland proved up to the task in his first championship experience by finishing third in the event with a distance of 7.28 meters for six points.
The team’s final podium performance came on the final day of the championship in the men’s 4x100m relay as the team of Colby Martin, Corey Smith, Marquerious Hayes and Holland sprinted to a new school record once again with a time of 41.93 seconds to finish third and claim six points.
While the team enjoyed life on the podium, several other Skyhawks posted impressive performances throughout the championship to contributed to the team point total or record PRs.
Along with his record-setting performance in the 4x100m relay team, Hayes also took part in his first decathlon on the first two days of the championship. With the 10 events including the 100m (11.39), long jump (5.99m), shot put (7.56), high jump (1.59m), 400m (50.70), 110m hurdles (17.52), discus (20.05m), pole vault (NH), javelin (29.43m) and 1500m (5:32.51) split across two days, he earned 10 points for the Skyhawks with 4,462 total points.
Thursday’s schedule featured several prelims in preparation for finals later on the weekend. Corey Smith qualified for the 400m hurdles final with a PR of 55.03 to set a new program record while the quartet of Oisin O’Gailin, Luke McNair, Cole Davis and Daniel Smith each advanced to the finals of the men’s 1500m. The PRs continued to roll in the 200m with the pair of Addison Taylor (26.74) and Timeria McCullough (28.89) each posting new career-best times on the women’s side while Jamire Thompson joined in on the action on the men’s side with a time of 22.92.
On Friday, Thompson and Taylor continued their championships of PRs. Taylor added another one in the 100m hurdles at 15.32 while Thompson posted a time of 15.25 in the men’s 110m hurdles. Corey Smith (10.94) and John Collin Askew (11.19) posted new PRs in the men’s 100m dash (10.94) while Martin also recorded one of his own in the men’s 400m dash just minutes before with a time of 50.71. Wrapping up the day’s competition was the lone track final of the day with the men’s 3000m steeple. The Skyhawks posted a big night in the event with both Daniel Smith (9:27.76) and Tim Dye (9:29.53) breaking the previous school record en route to sixth and seventh place finishes and five total points for the team. Also just missing out on a scoring position was William Graves who finished 10th with a PR time of 10:07.75.
The final day of the championship got off to a good start with the men’s 4x100m relay team finish in third place followed by a strong performance in the men’s 1500m. O’Gailin just missed out on a podium finish in fourth place with a time of 3:49.16 while McNair joined him in the scoring group in seventh at 3:51.69. The pair combined to claim seven points for the team. Stepping down in distance, Corey Smith broke his own record once again for the second time in three days in the 400m hurdles to finish in fifth place with a time of 54.76 seconds.
On the field side, the pair of Thompson (12.32m) and Hayes (12.30m) also continued their eventful championship by posting PRs in the men’s triple jump. Meanwhile, Holland set a new school record in the same event with a distance of 14.02m.
Along with Ford’s winning performance in the men’s 5k, the Skyhawks were also represented in the scoring group by O’Gailin who claimed points for the second time on the day with a seventh place finish with a time of 14:42.60. Then in the final event of the championship, UT Martin’s 4×400 men’s team of Martin, Hayes, Askew and Smith finished in fifth place with a time of 3:21.48 to claim four points and wrap up the team’s impressive week.
Graphic courtesy of UT Martin Sports Information.