Feb. 10, 2011
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky track and field team will send split squads across the country for the final week of preparation before the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships begin Feb. 25-27.
The distance runners will be traveling the furthest from Lexington to Seattle, Wash., for the Husky Classic, while the throwers head north to the Akron Invitational and the sprinters and jumpers make their way to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Tyson Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
The Husky Invitational will be streamed live on Flotrack.org and will include the invitational sections Saturday afternoon, beginning at 11:15 a.m. ET. The men’s and women’s mile runs will be first up on the broadcast. The live video stream can be found here.
This year’s edition of the Husky Invite will feature 16 men’s teams who currently make up the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Top 25, while 12 of the top 25 women’s teams will be represented.
Kentucky will travel its top distance runners to Seattle, led by seniors Sharif Webb and Josh Nadzam.
Others traveling to Seattle include: Anna Bostrom, Stacey Eden, Trent Halasek, Colin Heenan, Matt Hillenbrand, Adam Kahleifeh, Walter Luttrell, Cally Macumber, Josh Nadzam, Luis Orta and Taylor Wendler.
The Wildcats are building off a solid outing last weekend at the Virginia Tech Elite Meet that included a victory by senior distance runner Walter Luttrell, who secured his win with a personal-best and SEC leading time of 14:29.50 in the men’s 5,000m run. The junior’s previous-best time of 14:41.65 was recorded at the VT Elite Meet a season ago.
A group of four throwers and a select group of distance runners make their final regular season appearance at the Akron Invitational. The meet traditionally has some of the best throwers in the country and this year is no different. The Zipps will host five men’s teams ranked in the top 20, including No. 8 Penn State, No. 11 Auburn, No. 15 Oklahoma, No. 16 Ohio State and No. 18 Arizona. On the women’s side four teams listed in the top 20 will collide in Akron with No. 9 Auburn, No. 13 Arizona, No. 15 Oklahoma and No. 19 Penn State making the trip. Live streaming of the event can be found at GoZips.com and live results here.
Last week, senior Mary Angell recorded her third consecutive top-six finish in the women’s shot put with a throw of 50-07.25/15.42m at the Virginia Tech Elite. The seniors season-best mark of 51-01.75 currently sits second in the conference. On the men’s side in the shot put, senior Colin Boevers approached his season-best mark with a long throw of 56-00.00/17-07. The native of Salt Lake City, Utah, has a season-long toss of 56-02.00/17.12m, which ranks seventh in the SEC.
Several UK sprinters will head south to the Tyson Invitational. Live results can be found here.
The Tyson Invitational will be streamed live from ArkansasRazorbacks.com for a fee and will also have an interactive live blog available for fans interested in following the event without a fee.
Including the Razorbacks, this weekend’s event is scheduled to feature No. 1 Florida, No. 2 LSU, No. 4 Texas Tech, No. 5 Indiana, No. 6 Oregon, No. 8 Penn State, No. 9 Florida State, No. 11 Auburn, No. 15 Oklahoma, No. 21 Georgia, No. 22 Kansas State and No. 23 North Carolina. Including Kentucky, the field will also feature two more SEC teams in Ole Miss and South Carolina.
Junior Keith Hayes, who currently holds the second-fastest 60-meter hurdles time in the SEC will go against the conference leader Barret Nugent for the first time this season. Hayes holds a season-best time of 7.80, while Nugent boasts a time of 7.75. Last weekend at the Virginia Tech Elite Meet against the toughest competition the Wildcats had faced to that point freshman Kyron Joseph posted a top-five finish with a time of 6.82, narrowly missing out on his personal-best time of 6.81. In addition to his 60m dash performance Joseph had his most impressive finish of the day, in the men’s 200m dash. The freshman claimed third with a time of 21.58 followed by fellow freshman Kadeem Kushimo who grabbed fifth in 21.79.
For continuous updates follow the UK track and field team on twitter @KentuckyTrack, and at Ukathletics.com.
