Elijah Clark Anchors Tennessee To First 4×100 Title Since 1983 At NCAAs

In a moment fit for the storybooks, true freshman sprinter Elijah Clark capped off his debut track and field season for the University of Tennessee men on Friday with a race for the ages, earning the Volunteers a national title and a new school record.

What’s more, the 2025 Westlake High School graduate took the final handoff of the men’s 4×100 relay at the NCAA Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field facing a deficit.

As Auburn bungled its exchange and LSU edged ahead slightly, Clark ate up the difference and secured Tennessee’s first win in the event since 1983 in a time of 37.98 seconds. The Volunteers followed with a third-place team finish, reaching the NCAA podium. 

Crossing the line, Clark held out his hands in a state of euphoria.

Auburn, the prohibitive favorite after setting an NCAA collegiate record of 37.75 in the preliminary round on Wednesday, were in prime position to win but failed to send off their final runner. The 4×100 final had just five finishers, too – Oregon, Auburn, Arkansas and Houston all registered DNFs. 

Tennessee freshman Elijah Clark celebrates after anchoring the Volunteers in the men’s 4×100 on Friday at the NCAA Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Photo Credit: Tennessee Athletics

Finishing Off 2026 In Style

Clark certainly could hang his hat on a job well done. He was one of the rare freshman sprinters across the NCAA to contribute to a national-title contending team, no less as an anchor. 

He contributed to a group that also included Traunard Folson, Davonte Howell, and T’Mars McCallum. 

The Volunteers, who were fifth in the NCAA final in 2025, entered the NCAA Championships the sixth-best 4×100 team in the country. In the prelims on Wednesday, they earned the fifth-best seed time of 38.47 seconds. 

Clark had been instrumental for the Volunteers in the weeks leading up to the title. At the SEC Outdoor Championships in May, he ran a career-best time of 10.17 seconds with a legal 0.4 meters-per-second wind, finishing seventh in the final. 

Two weeks later, he ran 10.36 at regionals. Not since 2025, when Clark was a senior with Westlake, had he run that fast. A year earlier, during the UIL Regional Championships last April, he ran 10.14 seconds over 100 meters without a wind reading. He went on to finish seventh in the Texas state final a few weeks later – in a race that saw high school junior Tate Taylor run 9.92 seconds.

Tennessee head coach Duane Ross trusted Clark to help bring the Volunteers to the national championships. The relay squad finished third at SECs and were second at the NCAA East Regional (which is technically considered NCAA’s “first round”).