Kentucky senior Jeff Chakouian won his fourth consecutive indoor shot put title at the 2004 Southeastern Conference Championships Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Nutter Field House in Lexington, Ky. The title marked Chakouian?s fifth overall in the event and his fourth in as many years as a Wildcat. Only three other athletes in SEC history have ever swept an event in all four years at the SEC Indoors.
Chakouian highlighted a day at the meet which saw multiple records broken from student athletes around the league. Candice Scott of Florida set a new SEC Indoor record and broke a Nutter Field House record with her mark of 74-07.25 in the weight throw. The Gators took four of the top-five places in the event, all of which were NCAA automatic qualifying marks.
The SEC also saw its first-ever men?s heptathlon champion in Maurice Smith of Auburn, who automatically qualified for the NCAA?s with a mark of 5767 in the inaugural event at the indoor championships. Fred Townsend of South Carolina also hit an NCAA mark with a score of 5518.
Hyleas Fountain continued her dominance at the meet on Saturday. After taking the women?s indoor pentathlon on Friday, the senior captured the long jump and high jump titles as well on Saturday. Fountain is accounting for 30 of Georgia?s team-leading 45 points thus far.
The women?s 400-meter dash proved to be perhaps the best event of the day, as the top three times in the event all smashed the previous SEC Indoor record of 51.97 that was set in 2000. Lashinda Demus of South Carolina topped the preliminaries on Saturday with her record time of 51.78, which ranks as the second-fastest time in the nation this year. The top five times in the event all qualified as NCAA automatic berths. In the 3,000-meter run, the only track final of the day, Alistair Cragg of Arkansas and Brooke Novac of Tennessee captured first-place finishes. It was the first for Novak in the event and second consecutive for Cragg.
For UK, Caitlin Phillips captured second place and hit an NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 9:31.07 in the 3,000-meter run. Beth Heimann took third in the preliminaries of the 800-meter run and Brooke Patterson captured third in the preliminary section of the mile run. Both will compete in the finals tomorrow. On the men?s side, David Freeman advanced to the finals in the mile run with his time of 4:06.57. James Doaty and Paul Ciurlys will also compete tomorrow in the 800-meter run, as both qualified with marks of 1:49.36 and 1:49.69, respectively. UK is currently in eighth place on the men?s side with a score of 10, while the women are in seventh with a team score of 12.
Auburn is currently in first place on the men?s side with 35 points. Arkansas and South Carolina are close behind with 25 and 19 points, respectively. Georgia is followed in the women?s competition by Florida with 36 and Tennessee, who has 28 points.
The final day of the SEC Indoor Championships will begin at 10 a.m. Sunday. Finals from all running events will begin at 1:30 and conclude at approximately 5 p.m. Live updates throughout the day can be found at www.ukathletics.com.
