The Kentucky track and field team wrapped up the season-opening Florida State Relays Saturday by qualifying three more student-athletes for the NCAA Regionals. The Cats had an impressive week in Tallahassee, Fla., capped off by taking top-five finishes in 11 events in the last day of the meet.
Ildiko Varga, who holds the school record in the discus, continued her success in the event by taking first place with her qualifying mark of 173-10.00. Gennessa Guzman, who took fifth in the competition, also qualified for regionals with her throw of 157-05.00. Molly Lonergan gave UK three individuals in the top 10 in the discus with her eighth-place toss of 145-03.00. Tony Tzouanakis and Andy Fryman were also successful in the field events for the Cats, as they posted second and third-place performances, respectively, in the discus throw gold competition.
The men?s 4 x 800-meter relay, consisting of Jean Balan, Paul Ciurlys, Kris Landers and James Doaty, posted another first-place finish for UK with their U.S.-leading time of 7:21.59. Landers rounded out the Cats? titles at the meet with his NCAA qualifying mark and personal-best time of 3:48.03 in the 1,500-meter run. UK had a good showing in the event, as Balan came in fifth while Chris Millisor and Tom Byers both posted top-20 finishes in 1,500 meters.
The UK women also had three other top-five performances at FSU, as Talonda Ingram came in fifth in the 100-meter dash, Jackie Gordon crossed the finish line in a fifth-place time of 56.85 in the 400 meters, and Leah Kerstetter registered fourth in the 1,500-meter run in 4:37.42. The women?s 4 x 400-meter relay made it to Saturday?s finals with an impressive third-place preliminary time of 3:44.84 before finishing seventh in the finals.
The men?s squad also had some impressive individual performances on the final day, as Ben Brewster came in second in the men?s 400-meter dash with a time of 50.13. The men?s distance medley relay team also came in second to host FSU with a 9:55.95 finish.
Both the men?s and women?s teams return to action next weekend in Palo Alto, Calif., at the Stanford Invitational.
