UT Sets Five NCAA Top 25 Marks On Opening Day Of Big Orange Invite

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The nationally ranked Tennessee track & field program opened up its final home meet of the season with four victories and five marks that rank top 25 on the NCAA Division I list for the 2025 outdoor season, rounding out a successful Day 1 of the Big Orange Invite at Tom Black Track on Friday.
 
Meanwhile in Nashville, Tennessee’s distance squad logged five personal-bests – including two marks that ranked top 10 in program history and a 5k victory to wrap up the 10-hour day of competition.
 
BIG ORANGE INVITE NOTABLES

• For the fourth time during her senior outdoor campaign, Sarah Schmitt topped her own school record in the women’s pole vault – clearing an outdoor personal best of 4.45 meters (14-7.25). The mark currently ranks 10th in the NCAA and earned Schmitt her fourth victory in five outdoor meets in 2025.
• True freshman Mya Strahm also notched a new outdoor PR in the pole vault, clearing 4.35 meters (14-3.25) to place third at the home meet. The performance shattered her own UT freshman record and currently ranks 23rd in the country during the 2025 outdoor campaign.
• On the men’s side, Blake Sifferlin was UT’s top performer with an outdoor personal-best jump of 5.44m (17-10.25). His leap ranks 17th on the NCAA list for the 2025 outdoor season, giving the Tennessee pole vault squad three athletes in the men’s national top 25.
• Sophomore All-American Kevin Burr Jr. shattered his personal record in the men’s javelin with a winning heave of 75.19 meters (246-8), moving to No. 9 nationally in his signature event. The mark ranks the Eastampton, New Jersey, native sixth in Tennessee history and makes UT one of two schools in the country with multiple throwers above 75 meters this season.
• In the men’s discus, all four Tennessee athletes set new personal-bests – led by sophomore Aron Alvarez Aranda’s heave of 61.14 meters (200-7) to finish second at the meet. The Bloemfontein, South Africa, product ranks 11th in the NCAA and became the third Vol in history to log a throw further than 200 feet in the discus.
• True freshman Donna Douglas picked up Tennessee’s first win of the afternoon in the women’s discus, launching a mark of 57.02 meters (187-1) for the second-best throw of her career.
• On the track, Cydney Wright earned the win in the women’s 200-meter dash. Running against four other teammates in her heat, the grad student from Daytona Beach, Florida, clocked in at 23.46 seconds.

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