UKTF Earns 32 All-America Honors from 19 Wildcats

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky track & field has earned 32 All-America honors coming from 19 Wildcats, announced by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. 
 
The women’s team led the way with 13 first team honors which is the second most of any women’s program. Four of those 13 honors came from Abby Steiner – the most of any athlete in the meet. 
 
The men’s team earned 14 total All-America honors with five first team honors from nine Wildcats while the women’s team earned 18 total All-America honors from 10 Wildcats. 
 
Below is a list of UKTF’s 2022 All-Americans, which honors they earned and in what events. 

Women 

• Shadajah Ballard 

•     First-team All-America – 4x100m relay 

• Perri Bockrath 

• Second-team All-America – 3,000m steeplechase 

• Karimah Davis 

• First-team All-America – 4x100m relay 

• First-team All-America – 4x400m relay 

• Second-team All-America – 200m 

• Sophie Galloway 

• Honorable mention All-America – triple jump 

• Jade Gates 

• Honorable mention All-America – hammer throw 

• Alexis Holmes 

• First-team All-America – 400m 

• First-team All-America – 4x400m relay 

• Dajour Miles 

• First-team All-America – 4x400m relay 

• Megan Moss 

• Second-team All-America – 400m 

• Masai Russell 

• First-team All-America – 100m hurdles 

• First-team All-America – 400m hurdles 

• First-team All-America – 4x100m relay 

• Abby Steiner 

• First-team All-America – 100m 

• First-team All-America – 200m 

• First-team All-America – 4x100m relay 

• First-team All-America – 4x400m relay 

Men 

• Keaton Daniel 

• First-team All-America – pole vault 

• Brian Faust 

• First-team All-America – 4x400m relay 

• Second-team All-America – 400m 

• Rodney Heath Jr. 

• Honorable mention All-America – 4x100m relay 

• Lance Lang 

• Second-team All-America – 200m 

• Honorable mention All-America – 4x100m relay 

• First-team All-America – 4x400m relay 

• Kennedy Lightner 

• First-team All-America – 4x400m relay 

• Jacob Smith 

• Honorable mention All-America – 4x100m relay 

• Josh Sobota 

• Second-team All-America – shot put 

• Dwight St. Hillaire 

• Honorable mention All-America – 4x100m relay 

• Second-team All-America – 400m 

• First-team All-America – 4x400m relay 

• Kenroy Williams 

• Honorable mention All-America – 400m hurdles 

NCAA Championships Recap 
The UK women’s team placed third overall, earning a top-four (trophy) team finish at the Outdoor NCAA Championships for the fourth time ever, and the first time since 2018, when the Wildcats were fourth for the second year in a row. UK scored its most points at the NCAA Outdoor Championships since tallying 50 in a national runner-up finish in 2015. 
 
Steiner won the NCAA 200m title in one of the meet’s most anticipated events, finishing in 21.80 seconds. 
 
Steiner got off to a great start and then unleashed one of her trademark late acceleration performances down the stretch and raising her arms in triumph at the finish line to outduel LSU’s Favour Ofili. The LSU Tiger had set the previous NCAA record (21.96 in April) and won their showdown at the Southeastern Conference Championships in Oxford, Miss., last month. 
 
“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” Steiner said. “Just looking back on the meet from last year, I was watching it from my couch, and so much has gone into just being at this meet in the first place. I’m just surrounded by so many amazing people at Kentucky, my family was able to be here, so these are moments I’m going to hold onto forever.” 
 
UK’s collegiate-record-holding 4x400m relay of Karimah Davis, Dajour Miles, Steiner and Alexis Holmes won the Championship’s last event with a time of 3:22.55. 
 
Steiner made up about a 25-meter deficit on the third leg, eventually clocking a 48.92 split before Holmes hammered out a dominant 50.22 anchor leg to give the Wildcats the first outdoor 4×4 national title in program history. 
 
The 4x400m victory was also especially sweet for Coach Greene. 
 
“That’s one of the individual events I’ve been chasing for 30 years, and to finally win one, that was a heck of a feeling as a coach. I’m excited for the young people to be national champions in the 4x400m,” said Greene. 
 
The women’s 4x100m relay of Shadajah Ballard, Steiner, Masai Russell and Davis claimed NCAA silver with a time of 42.55 to score eight points. 
 
Masai Russell earned her first individual NCAA top three finish, a bronze in the 100m hurdles, running 12.81. Russell came back and scored five more points in the 400m hurdles, running 55.83 for fourth place. Combining her share of silver-medal points in the 4×1 (two points), Russell earned 12 for the meet. 
 
Steiner claimed bronze in the 100m with a time of 11.08 (+0.2), out-leaned at the tape by Texas’ Julien Alfred (11.020) and Oregon’s Kemba Nelson (11.014). 
 
Sophomore pole vaulter Keaton Daniel scored six points for the Kentucky track and field team, earning a bronze medal on the first night of the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships. 
 
Daniel, the two-time defending Southeastern Conference outdoor champion, cleared a season best 18’6.5″/5.65. 
 
Alexis Holmes ran a brave and powerful first half of the 400m and came off the final turn in the lead, before finishing in a personal best 50.71 for fourth place and five points. Her time moved her past Chloe Abbott for No. 2 on the UK all-time list, only behind double Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin’s school record that has stood since 2018. 
 
The Kentucky track and field team’s 4×400-meter relay of Dwight St. Hillaire, Lance Lang, Kennedy Lightner and Brian Faust finished sixth to score three points on the final day of the men’s team competition at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships.  
 
Faust overtook three teams on the anchor leg to earn three points for the Wildcats as they finished in 3:02.98. 
 
Josh Sobota placed ninth in the men’s shot put with a mark of 64’8.75″/19.73m on his second attempt. He was knocked out of the eighth and final scoring place in the last round of the final. 
 
Moss ran a personal best 51.73 in the 400m semifinal to move to No. 4 on the UK all-time list even though she was 15th fastest of the heats and did not advance. 
 
Davis ran 22.81 in the 200m semifinal, a PB that moved her to No. 7 on the UK all-time list. She was 11th fastest and missed the final by a few places. 
 
Freshman Sophie Galloway placed 22nd in the triple jump with a mark of 40’7.5″/12.38m (+0.6) in her NCAA Championships debut. 
 
Jade Gates wrapped her collegiate career with three fouls in the first flight of the hammer throw. She qualified for the NCAA Championships with a ninth-place finish at NCAA East Prelims (215’5″/65.66m) after she set a school record with a silver medal performance at SEC Championships in (220’0″/67.05m). 
 
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