The University of Kentucky track and field squads pulled double duty Saturday afternoon with a majority of the squad at the Seminole Invitational and the men?s sprinters at the Texas Relays. For the weekend, the Cats produced 12 first place finishes and six more regional qualifying marks.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In the women?s throws, freshman Ashley Muffet continued to add to her already impressive Wildcat resume with two first place finishes Saturday at the Seminole Invitational. Muffet earned her second regional qualifying mark of the season with first place and personal-best toss of 181-11 (third all-time UK) in the hammer throw. The North Canton, Ohio native also improved on her personal-best in the shot put with a huge first place throw of 52-5.25 ? outdoing the second place finisher by almost six feet. Muffet now owns regional marks in the shot put, discus and hammer. Senior Nicole Allyn, also a regional qualifier, placed closely behind Muffet in second with a throw of 180-0 in the hammer. In the discus, senior Ildiko Varga took top honors with a first place throw of 168-4, followed by Muffet in second (141-5).
On the men?s side, junior Andy Fryman wowed the crowd with first place honors in the discus (PR, 179-0) and shot put (59-4), and a second place finish in the hammer throw (177-7). Fryman ranks among the top ten in the conference and all-time at Kentucky in all three events. Sophomore Alek Grietens finished third in the discus with a personal-best throw of 161-10.
Senior Tom Masthay ran a personal-best 14.36 in the 110 hurdles to place first and move up to third all-time at Kentucky in the event. Masthay?s time was just shy of the regional standard (14.30).
Senior Dedrick Tillerson ran an impressive 400 hurdles for the second consecutive weekend, placing first while improving his regional qualifying time to 51.45. Tillerson?s time was just shy of a personal-best (51.28, second all-time UK), set last season.
Freshman Ashley Trimble ran a season-best 14.48 in the 100 hurdles to place a respectable seventh. Trimble also ran the 400 hurdles and placed third, but was shy of her season-best (1:00.94, first all-time UK).
In the women?s 1,500, Kentucky placed the top four runners, led by junior Georganne Way?s 4:34.22. Sophomore Lavera Morris, senior Candance Leep and freshman Andrtea Brown finished second, third and fourth, respectively. For the men, sophomore John Richardson took home first place honors with a regional mark of 3:47.12. Richardson was the only runner in the field to go below the standard.
Morris and Way doubled-up with the 800 as well, and both produced regional marks. Morris came in first with an outdoor personal-best of 2:07.70 (seventh all-time UK), while Way finished second (2:09.21). Both runners now rank in the top ten at Kentucky in both the outdoor and indoor 800s.
Sophomore Stephan Smith placed second in the men?s portion of the 800 with a time of 1:51.17. Richardson, who also competed in the 1,500, placed fourth (1:52.32).
Senior Michelle Gales added to the list of Kentucky winners with a first place sweep in the long (18-10.75) and triple (38-8.25) jumps.
AUSTIN, Texas — A couple states over in Austin Texas, the nationally-ranked men?s 4×400 relay came through with a strong sixth place finish at the prestigious Texas Relays Saturday afternoon in Mike Myers Stadium. The Cats squad of sophomores Nathan Browning and Justin Harrison, freshman Jose Acevedo and junior Luis Luna produced a solid time of 3:05.25, which wasn?t far off of last weekend?s school record-breaking mark of 3:04.81. The race featured a handful of the top relays squads in the country, including the NCAA indoor champ, LSU, who finished first (3:02.31). The Cats can expect a showdown with the Tigers in the regional meet in late May. On Friday afternoon, the UK men?s 4×100 relay team picked up a regional qualifying mark of 40.23. The youthful team featured freshmen Gordon McKenzie, Jose Acevedo, Brandon Austin and sophomore Nathan Browning.
Next weekend, the entire squad will travel to Knoxville, Tenn. for the Sea Ray Relays, April 13-15.
