Tennessee senior Kelli White burst out of the blocks and never looked back

as she held off Texas All-Americans Nanceen Perry (11.42) and LaKeisha

Backus (11.51) to claim the women's 100-meter dash title in front of 44,639

fans at the 105th Penn Relays on Saturday.

White's victory in 11.32 was one of the three strong performances by the

Lady Vols on the fourth and final day at historic Franklin Field.

In addition to White's victory, Tennessee also had a pair of impressive

relay outings. White, the team captain, contributed to one of those causes

as she anchored the Lady Vols' 4x400-meter relay unit to a second-place

effort in the consolation finals. Lesly Love, Janelle Briggs and Erica

Witter joined in to propel Tennessee to a 3:34.36 clocking, the quartet's

fastest of the season, and an improvement over its previous provisional

reading of 3:37.23.

Also on Saturday, the sprint medley relay endured an early start time

brought on by Friday's thunderstorm postponement of its race. The delay in

competing didn't seem to bother the group as the foursome of Tyangela

Sanders, Heather Sumpter, Briggs and Maureen Ferris circled the track in

3:54.76 to take second behind Seton Hall's 3:49.52.

"We started off tentatively, and things didn't go too well on the first day

of the meet," head coach Myrtle Ferguson said. "We got better as the meet

progressed, though, and the 4x400 ended up with its best time of the year

and an improvement on its provisional.

"For Kelli to win the 100-meter dash is a big step for her. That's a title

that puts her in an elite group who can say they are Penn Relays champions.

I was really excited for her and the team. I think we were able to walk

away having built our confidence."

Andrea Pappas registered UT's best field events performance of the meet,

taking second in the college discus competition on Thursday with a best

heave of 47-3 3/4.