Kentucky Qualifies 14 Entries to NCAA Indoor Championships

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky track and field program will have 10 women’s, and four men’s entries at next month’s NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
 
The championships will be held March 9-10 in Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium on the Texas A&M campus in College Station, Texas.
 
The No. 3-ranked UK women’s team has the same number of entries as a year ago. The No. 18-ranked UK men’s team doubled its number of entries from a year ago.
 
The top-16 declared entries, and top-12 declared relay teams from marks recorded this season qualified for the Championships.

The top-eight scorers in each of the 17 events on the men’s and women’s sides will score points by virtue of their place finish on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. The team with the most points at the end of the meet wins.
 
ESPN3 will stream the meet live starting at 6:30 p.m. ET on March 9 and starting at 5 p.m. ET March 10. A re-air of the championship will be shown on ESPN2 starting at 7 p.m. ET Sunday, March 11.

UK’s NCAA Indoor Championships returners are led by Tim Duckworth, top-seed in the men’s heptathlon, after taking silver last year. Duckworth qualified for NCAA Indoors for the third year in a row.

Olivia Gruver qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships for the second year in a row, and owns the No. 1 clearance in the country this season. She took bronze at NCAA Indoor last season before winning the national title outdoors.

Marie-Josée Ebwea-Bile qualified for her first NCAA Championships indoors a year ago, and this season qualified in both the triple jump and long jump. She made a breakthrough at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships, claiming silver.
 
The other Wildcats to qualify in multiple individual events are recently crowned SEC Champions Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (60m hurdles and 200m) and Sydney McLaughlin (200m and 400m).

Camacho-Quinn is top seed in the 60m hurdles, and McLaughlin is top seed in the 200m. Camacho-Quinn qualified in both events last season, placing seventh in the hurdles.  
 
SEC 5k Champion Jacob Thomson is the No. 7 seed in that event. He qualified for his first NCAA Indoor Championships.

The UK women’s team earned its best team finish at an NCAA Indoor Championship a year ago, fifth place with 25 points.

The UK men’s team’s best NCAA indoor team finish was seventh in 1996 with 22 points. A year ago, the UK men’s team finished tied for 22nd with 10 points as Tim Duckworth claimed silver in the heptathlon, and Nick Anderson placed seventh in the 60-meter hurdles.
 
Kentucky women’s NCAA Indoor Championships entries
200m
4. Kayelle Clarke (22.83)
9. Sydney McLaughlin (22.95)
11. Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (23.00)
 
400m
1. Sydney McLaughlin (50.52)
 
60m hurdles
1. Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (7.95)
 
4x400m relay
8. UK (3:31.65)
 
Pole vault
1. Olivia Gruver (4.67m)
 
Long jump
9. Marie-Josée Ebwea-Bile (6.42m)
 
Triple jump
3. Marie-Josée Ebwea-Bile (13.91m)
13. Latavia Coombs (13.17m)
 
Kentucky men’s NCAA Indoor Championships entries
200m
14. Dwight St. Hillaire (20.73)
 
5k
7. Jacob Thomson: 13:41.33
 
60H
8. Daniel Roberts (7.71)
 
Heptathlon
1. Timothy Duckworth (6071)
 
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