Feb. 7, 2003
Lexington, Ky. – Kentucky’s two-time All-American high-jumper Janet Crawford matched her career-best jump of 5-11.25 to take first-place honors on Friday in the first day of competition at the Rod McCravy Memorial at Nutter Field House.
Crawford, who provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships at the Kentucky Invitational in the Cats’ season-opener with an identical height, edged out Ohio State’s top jumper, senior Tami Smith. Crawford snapped Smith’s streak of five straight first-place finishes.
“Janet is undefeated and for her to beat out (Tami) Smith who was ranked higher than her and who has already completed a jump of 6-0 this season, was just huge,” UK field events coach John Kenneson said. “She is really doing a great job for us.”
Taking third place in the event was freshman Rachel Kohler. Her jump of 5-08.00 also matched her career-best.
“Rachel didn’t qualify provisionally but she has an excellent chance of making it in the next couple of weeks,” Kenneson said. “We have two more meets and she is working extremely hard to make the qualifying marks. As a freshman, I’m very proud of how she is progressing.”
Also fairing well in the field events for Kentucky were sophomores Nicole Allyn and Gennessa Guzman in the women’s 20 lb. weight throw. Both set personal bests as Allyn took third place with a distance of 59-03.00 and Guzman finished fifth at 57-11.00.
In the women’s distance medley relay, despite finishing second place behind Mississippi State, Kentucky’s Brooke Patterson, Caitlin Phillips, Olubusola Adeagbo, and Beth Heimann set a new Nutter Field House record with a time of 11:26.54. The previous record of 11:32.64 was set by Florida in 1996. Patterson ran her 800-meter split in a personal-best time of 2:09.3 while Phillips, who ran the 1600 split, also set a new personal best at 4:49. MSU’s first place time of 11:18.04 automatically qualified them for the NCAA Championships.
Action resumes on Saturday at the Nutter Field House with events beginning at 10:30 a.m. Also competing in the nine-team field are Appalachian State, East Tennessee State, Eastern Kentucky, Miami (Ohio), Mississippi State, Ohio State, Southwest Missouri State, Tennessee (men only) and Virginia Tech.
