Senior takes first; men finish second

GREENVILLE, N.C. – UK senior Thomas Morgan followed a first-place performance at the SEC Championships by capturing first place at the NCAA Southeast Regional in Greenville, N.C. on Saturday, Nov. 15. Morgan paced the men to a second-place finish while Morgan came in first among the 181 competitors from 23 schools in the southeast.

Morgan finished the 10k race in 29:56.2, more than four seconds ahead of Scott Shaw of Clemson. The Cats’ Nick Devenport, David Freeman and Hunter Spencer all boasted top-20 performances, as Devenport (30:28.5) came in an impressive 12th, Freeman finished not far behind with a 15th-place time of 30:37.4 and Spencer came in 20th in 30:49.0. Freshman John Richardson also fared well in his first post-season appearance with a 47th-place finish (31:26.3).

Several members of the women’s team were successful at the meet as well, as Brooke Patterson led the Cats with a 16th-place time of 20:46.6, while fellow senior Caitlin Phillips and Allison Grace turned in top-30 performances with times of 21:02.9 (26th) and 21:08.1 (30th), respectively. Leah Kerstetter (52nd), Candace Leep (81st) and Emily King (87th) rounded out UK’s scoring and helped the Cats to a seventh-place team finish out of 26 teams.

N.C State came in first as a team on the men’s side, while North Carolina captured the team title for the women. Shalane Flanagan from UNC took first in the women’s race with a time of 19:44.4.

The Cats will return to action on Nov. 24 at the Byrnes Park/Irv Warren Memorial Golf Course in Waterloo, Iowa, at the NCAA Championships. 255 competitors from around the country will compete for the title, which will be hosted by Northern Iowa University. The last person to finish in the top-25 at the NCAA Championships for UK was Vadim Nemad in 1995.