By Rob Schabert, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech track & field team is making huge strides in 2016, breaking school records and putting up times that rank among the fastest in the Ohio Valley Conference.
One of the driving forces in the record-setting barrage has been distance runner Sarah Brandt. Not only has she etched her name numerous times into the Golden Eagle record book, she has emerged as a team leader seven days of the week, not only in competition but also in practices, in the classroom and on campus.
It’s that combination of leadership qualities that have allowed the junior from Oroville, Calif., to be named as the Athletic Department’s recipient of the Unsung Leader Award for January.
The daughter of Wayne and Tina Brandt, she is a member of the U.S. Navy Reserve, and trains one weekend each month. Born in Paradise, Calif., Sarah is majoring in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in journalism/communications and was listed on the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll in her first semester at Tech following two years at Butte Community College.
“Sarah was on a mission when she arrived at Tech,” said head coach Wayne Angel, who submitted her for the honor. “Her goal was to be the best that she could be, in the classroom as well as in competition. She has done both, as exemplified by her current academic success and being listed No. 1 in the OVC at 800 meters.
“More importantly, she is truly a team player and leader who cares about teammates,” Angel said.
An extremely devoted and competitive runner, Brandt’s school-record time of 2:11.00 in the 800-meter run at Notre Dame’s Meyo Invitational on Feb. 5 ranks as the best this year in the OVC. She also set the school record in the mile run last weekend at the Music City Challenge, recording a time of 5:01.69 which ranks as the seventh-best this year in the conference.
In addition to those two brilliant individual efforts, she has been part of three Golden Eagle relay teams that hve broken school records this indoor season, with two of them ranking among the best in the OVC. She helped the 4x400m relay foursome post a time of 3:48.29 at Notre Dame, the second-fastest OVC time this season. The distance medley relay team which include Brandt in the leadoff leg, has the fourth-best time in the league this year, with a school-record 12:07.21 effort.
Angel also assembled a 4x800m relay team, an event that Tech had only competed in twice before in history. Again, Brandt ran the lead leg, and the foursome established a new school record in 9:25.95 at the Vanderbilt Invitational.
A junior college All-American who posted some of the fastest times in the county last year, Brandt was the California Community College state champion at 800m with a time of 2:11.45, good for the second-fastest time in California and sixth-best time in the nation. She also posted a 1,500m time of 4:34.53, which was second-best in the state and third-fastest in the USA.
“Sarah is a tenacious competitor,” Angel said upon her signing with the Golden Eagle program. “She brings to our program leadership and a strong desire to win. She has the skills and ability to be an OVC champion as well as to qualify for the NCAA championships.”
Throughout the fall cross country season, Brandt was among team leaders, pacing Tech at both Furman and the Commodore Invitational meets. She finished second on the squad in four of her other five meets, posting a personal 5K best at the Louisville Classic with a time of 18:25.2, which ranks as the 12th fastest time in school history. She finished her first year on the cross country team with four times ranked in Tech's top 29 of all-time.
The Unsung Leader Award was created in 2014-15 in order to recognize leadership by Tech’s student-athletes. An award presented each month throughout the academic year.
“This award recognizes leadership, which many times isn’t reflected in headlines or other ways,” said Director of Athletics Mark Wilson. “Sometimes it’s behind-the-scenes leadership that makes everybody better.
“These young men and women are leaders, pure-and-simple, not doing the right thing for recognition but to make themselves, their teammates, and their teams better,” Wilson said.
One student-athlete each month, nominated by members of the athletics staff, is selected and recognized for exemplifying outstanding leadership qualities. The leadership can be shown on the field, in the weight room, at practice, in the classroom, in study hall, on campus, in the community, for a student club or organization.
This award honors a varsity student-athlete who has made a positive impact on their team and the Tennessee Tech community as a whole, through his or her dedication to demonstrating leadership traits, such as:
* Keep Learning, Growing, and Improving
* Follow Through with Excellence
* Accomplish More than Expected
* Inspire and Motivate Others
The previous Unsung Leader Awards for 2015-16 have gone to McKenzie McCloud (soccer/September), Luke Woodason (football/October), Stephen Bush (football/November), and Tyler Brazelton (baseball/December).
Unsung Leader Award winners in the initial season in 2014-15 were Ellen Conti (volleyball in September), Austin Tallant (football/October), Geoffrey Sambu (cross country/ November), Courtney Smith (volleyball/ December), Jordan Hopkins (baseball/ January), and Olivia Bennett (softball/February), Haley Davidson (golf/ March), and Mariah Dean (basketball/April).
