Kentucky Track & Field to Begin 2021-22 Season at Cardinal Classic

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — University of Kentucky track & field will compete in its first meet of the indoor track & field season, the Cardinal Classic, on Saturday, Dec. 11 in the Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Center, hosted by the University of Louisville. 

The meet begins at 1 p.m. with the women’s high jump. The first track event is the women’s 500-meter race at 2:20 p.m., while the first throwing event, the women’s weight throw, is at 2 p.m. 

Live results will be available Athletic.net by DC Timing. 

Spectators are welcome in Norton and it is free to enter, but parking costs five dollars per car. 

The Wildcats will compete against Louisville, Campbellsville University, Eastern Kentucky University and University of the Cumberlands. 

The 2021-22 Wildcats return Tokyo Olympians in Dwight St. Hillaire and Megan Moss, as well as reigning NCAA Indoor 200m Champion Abby Steiner, two-time defending SEC Indoor Pole Vault Champion Matt Peare (not scheduled to compete on Saturday), SEC Silver Medal men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams, 2020 SEC 400m Champion Alexis Holmes, reigning SEC Outdoor Pole Vault Champion Keaton Daniel and even more All-Americans. 

The 2020-21 Indoor Season 

Last year’s indoor track & field season was a historic one for the Wildcats. 

Overall, the women finished 13th at NCAA Championships and fifth at SEC Championships in the 2021 indoor season. The men placed 14th at NCAAs and seventh at SECs. 

The Wildcats earned 17 All-America awards for the indoor season. 

Abby Steiner won the NCAA 200 title, tying the collegiate record of 22.38. Her run was the second-fastest in United States indoor history and fifth-fastest in indoor world history in an event rarely run indoors outside North America. 

Steiner also won gold in the same event at 2021 SEC indoor championships, finishing with a time of 22.50. 

Another impressive performance from 2021 NCAA indoor championships was that of the men’s 4x400m relay, earning a silver medal. The team of Jacob Smith, Lance Lang, Kennedy Lightner and Dwight St. Hillaire finished with a school-record time of 3:03.61. 

The women’s 4x400m relay of Masai Russell, Steiner, Megan Moss and Dajour Miles also performed well, finishing fifth overall at NCAAs. 

Alexis Holmes won the SEC 400m in 2020, before missing much of the 2021 season with injury. 

Lang finished sixth in the 200m with a time of 20.88 and St. Hillaire placed eighth in the 400m (45.89). 

Lang ran for a personal best in the 200m at SEC Championships, finishing third with a time of 20.79. 

Annika Williams also had a strong performance, finishing sixth in the pentathlon with 4,173 points. 

At 2021 SEC indoor championships, senior Matt Peare won the pole vault, becoming the first Wildcat to win back-to-back SEC titles in the pole vault. He vaulted 17’9.75″/5.43m for the gold. 

Both the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams earned silver at SEC Championships, finishing in 3:04.68 and 3:28.82, respectively. The teams were comprised of the same athletes that competed in 4x400m relays at NCAA Championships. The women’s relay set a new UK school record. 

The 2021 Outdoor Season 

Kentucky finished strong in the outdoor season as well. The men’s team finished fifth at NCAA outdoor championships, highlighted by a pole vault silver medal from Keaton Daniel (18’2.5″/5.55m), fifth place finish in the shotput (65’0.5″/19.82m) by Josh Sobota and Dwight St. Hillaire running for fifth in the 400m (45.20). 

Daniel’s silver medal was the first men’s NCAA pole vault medal in UK history. 

The women’s team finished 21st at NCAA outdoor championships, highlighted by Masai Russell’s fourth-place finish in the 400m hurdles (56.18) and sixth-place result in the 100m hurdles (12.97). The women’s 4x400m relay finished eighth. 

It was the seventh-straight year the Kentucky women finished in the top-25 at NCAAs. 

The Wildcats earned 26 All-America honors for the outdoor season. 

Kentucky track & field also boasts two current members on the team who ran in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. St. Hillaire ran the 400m and 4x400m relay for Trinidad & Tobago while Moss ran the 4x400m relay for the Bahamas. 

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