Track and field squad prepares for toughest competition of the season.

Feb. 25, 2000

LEXINGTON, Kty. – The University of Kentucky track and field squad heads to Fayetteville,Ark., for the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships Feb. 26-27.

UK enters the conference meet hoping to add to its list of NCAA hopefulswhich includes provisional qualifiers senior Matt Kavanagh in the 35-poundweight throw, junior in the triple jump and junior AndrewVander Wagen in the high jump.

The Cats will be facing their toughest competition of the season inarguably the strongest conference in the country, which boasts both of thenation’s No. 1 squads in Arkansas (men’s) and LSU (women’s). Nine SEC men’steams and six women’s teams are ranked in the Trackwire Online Top 25.

Head coach Don Weber says that with the strength of the conference he willbe looking more for individual success rather than a team win.

“Although we have some older, proven SEC caliber athletes such asKavanagh, Vander Wagen, (Chris) Daniels, (Roshell) Russell, Threats and(Michelle) Williams,” Weber said, “we are very young and in the process ofrebuilding our teams. We have a very solid group of freshmen who haveposted some good times and marks this season.”

Earlier this year, UK entertained three of the teams it will face thisweekend. At a Quad meet held in Lexington, Kentucky competed againstTennessee, Mississippi State and Alabama, charting five first-place andfour second-place individual honors.

The action gets under way in Fayetteville at the Randall Tyson TrackCenter Saturday, Feb. 26, at 10 a.m. with a portion of the field events,while the sprint preliminaries commence at 1 p.m.