April 6, 2000

AUSTIN, Texas – The University of Kentucky staked its claim to having oneof the best groups of 800-meter runners in the nation Thursday when it tookfirst place in the 4×800-meter relay at the Texas Relays.

The quartet of senior Jeff Limpert and freshmen Thomas Morgan, HunterSpencer and Chad Johnson crossed the finish line in a time of 7:28.35beating out second-place Texas by more than one second. UK’s 800-meterspecialists have consistently improved their individual times since theindoor season. Just last week at Auburn, Limpert ran the third-fastest 800meters in school history, while Johnson broke the UK freshman record in thesame event.

Junior Rebecca Wedel continued her assault on the Kentucky record books byraising the top mark in the hammer throw for the third consecutive meet.Wedel’s toss of 161-09.00 put her in ninth place in the event but first inUK history. She improved the record by more than two feet Thursday, havingadded nearly 20 feet since the outdoor season began.

In the men’s hammer throw, senior Matt Kavanagh maintained his earlyseason consistency with a third-place heave of 207-10.00, his thirdstraight NCAA outdoor provisional qualifying mark. This toss tied him forthe third longest throw in school history, which he also achieved at theHurricane Classic on March 18. In finishing third, Kavanagh was less thanfive feet behind second place and more than 10 feet ahead of fourth.

The Cats continue competition Friday on day three of the Relays with thefinals of the women’s javelin and high jump, and the preliminaries of thewomen’s 100-meter hurdles and men’s 100-meter dash.

AGATE: (First Place and Kentucky Finishers)

A = NCAA Automatic Qualifying Mark
P = NCAA Provisional Qualifying Mark
SR = School Record