March 9, 2010

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Five additional Kentucky track and field athletes have earned berths at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships scheduled for Friday and Saturday, March 12-13, at Fayetteville, Ark.

The Wildcats were added to the NCAA event based on their provisional scores achieved during the indoor season.  The most recent additions include:

• 
  Kristin Smith
  in the weight throw.  The senior from Marietta, Ga., was granted entry based on a school-record throw of 20.57 meters.
• 
  Precious Nwokey
  in the pentathlon.  The rapidly improving sophomore from Houston, Texas earned a spot with her personal best of 3,967 points.
• Women’s 4×400-meter relay qualified for the national meet for the first time in school history with a school-record time of 3:35.40.  Senior Jenna Martin (Nova Scotia) opens for the relay, followed by junior Brittany Cabbler (Roanoke, Va.), sophomore
  Precious Nwokey
  (Houston, Texas) and sophomore anchor
  Jazmyn Shorter
  (St. Petersburg, Fla.).

A total of eight Wildcats will compete at the NCAAs, including three who achieved automatic qualifying marks during the season.  The automatic entrants include:

• Senior sprinter Rondel Sorrillo (Vessigny, Trinidad and Tobago) will run in the 60- and 200-meter dashes.  He had season-best times of 6.60 and 20.77 seconds, respectively.
• Junior
  Sharif Webb
  (Paramus, N.J.) will be in the 800-meter run, thanks to his time of 1:47.86, the second-best mark in school history.
• Senior
  Ashley Muffet (N. Canton, Ohio) qualified for the shot put with a school-record toss of 17.46 meters.

The University of Arkansas will play host to the NCAA Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Complex.

Three Wildcats Earn All-SEC: Three UK athletes earned Indoor Track All-Southeastern Conference recognition based on their performances in the SEC Indoor Championship Meet held Feb. 26-28 at the University of Arkansas.

Senior
Kristin Smith
was named first-team All-SEC after winning the weight throw with a heave of 19.98 meters.

Cally Macumber
(Rochester Hills, Mich.) and
Patrick McGregor
(Hoover, Ala.) were tabbed for the Freshman All-SEC team.  Macumber was honored for her performance in the 3000-meter run with a time of 10:02.84.  McGregor was recognized for his time of 4:10.27 in the mile run.

Women Join Men in Top 25: The UK women’s track and field team has joined the men’s squad in the national Top-25 rankings sponsored by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

The Wildcat women check in the USTFCCCA rankings at No. 25, the first time the women have been ranked this year.  The men have been in the rankings all season and are currently in the No. 23 slot.