{"id":563507,"date":"2026-04-04T05:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/563507\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T05:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:12:09","slug":"record-breaking-lady-vol-freshmen-headline-day-1-at-florida-relays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/563507\/","title":{"rendered":"Record-Breaking Lady Vol Freshmen Headline Day 1 At Florida Relays"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A pair of Lady Vol track & field freshmen set program standards Friday in their respective outdoor season openers at the 2026 Pepsi Florida Relays. Hannah Grace<\/a> equaled Tennessee’s outdoor school record in the women’s pole vault, while Mary Nyaboke Ogwoka<\/a> set the UT freshman record in the women’s 1,500-meter run.
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\nGrace earned the win in Gainesville with a lifetime-best clearance of 4.45 meters (14-7.25) in her collegiate debut. The rookie from Wilmington, North Carolina, tied the school record and currently ranks second in both the NCAA outdoor and U20 world rankings for the 2026 season.
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\nOgwoka closed the evening’s action with a victory in the women’s invitational 1,500 meters, clocking 4:11.72. The mark lowered her previous personal best by more than four seconds, ranks fourth all-time at Tennessee and sits fifth on the 2026 national list.
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\nUnder the direction of assistant coach Jeff Chakouian<\/a>, the Vols and Lady Vols posted several notable performances in the throwing events Friday. Junior Cedricka Williams<\/a> opened the meet with a victory in the women’s invitational discus, heaving a mark of 56.83m (186-5) that ranks fifth in UT history and fourth in the country this season.
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\nIn the men’s hammer, sophomores Igor Olaru<\/a> and Aidan Ifkovits<\/a> posted personal-best marks to climb the program charts. Olaru earned the win with a throw of 69.88m (229-3), while Ifkovits placed fourth at 63.86m (209-6). The marks rank second and 10th in UT history, respectively, while Olaru’s performance ranks seventh in the NCAA this season.
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\nSophomore Lady Vol Caley Sosnowski<\/a> closed out Friday’s field events with a third-place finish in the javelin, recording a mark of 51.10 meters (167-8) in her season debut. It was her first competition in 364 days after sustaining a season-ending injury on April 4, 2025, and her mark ranks second on the Lady Vol all-time list.
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\nOn the track, Lebanese freshman Marc Anthony Ibrahim<\/a> opened his season in winning fashion in the men’s 400-meter hurdles. His time of 49.84 placed first at the meet, ranks fourth in the NCAA this season and eighth in UT history.
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\nAdditionally, the Lady Vol 4×100-meter relay quartet of Lauren Jarrett<\/a>, Dana Wilson<\/a>, Avia Jones<\/a> and Maira Scott<\/a> advanced out of the prelims with a heat victory in 43.75 seconds. The group will compete in the final Saturday at approximately 1:10 p.m. ET.
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\nUP NEXT: Tennessee rounds out the Florida Relays on Saturday, beginning at 11 a.m. with the men’s invitational discus and concluding at approximately 6:15 p.m. with the men’s 4×400-meter relay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A pair of Lady Vol track & field freshmen set program standards Friday in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-563507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}