Oxford, Miss. ? The Kentucky track and field team will return to action this weekend at the 2004 Southeastern Conference Championships on the campus of Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss. Competition begins Thursday with the men?s decathlon and women?s heptathlon, and the Cats will open their participation in the meet Friday morning with the start of the field events.
UK is looking to top the three SEC crowns they earned this year at the indoor championships, as Jeff Chakouian, Caitlin Phillips and David Freeman all took home conference titles in February. Chakouian is looking for his unprecedented sixth overall crown in the shot put and second in outdoor competition. The Seekonk, Mass., native is one of only four student-athletes in SEC history to sweep an indoor event all four years of college and has only lost once at an SEC event ?when he took second at the 2001 outdoor championships. Chakouian, who won the title in 2002 before using a redshirt last year, is currently ranked fourth in the conference with the 58-05.75 toss he recorded earlier this year at the Penn Relays. He has also hit an Olympic Trials provisional mark with his mammoth throw of 63-10.75 at the Kentucky Invitational during the indoor season.
Phillips was just seconds away from taking home two titles at the indoor meet, as she won the 5,000-meter run and came in third in the 3,000. The senior, who has the fifth-best time in the SEC going into the weekend, gives UK another legitimate shot at a 5,000-meter outdoor win this Sunday. Fellow senior David Freeman will sit out the competition with an injury in order to rehabilitate for the upcoming NCAA Regionals at the end of this month. Freeman won the indoor mile title in 2004, his first SEC championship crown, and is currently ranked ninth nationally in the 1,500 meters. The senior has also hit an Olympic Trials mark in the event, as well as in the 800 meters.
The UK core of distance runners will hope to make up for the absence of Freeman. The men?s 800 meters is stacked with potential from the Cats, as NCAA-Regional qualifying contenders Kris Landers, Jean Balan, Nick Devenport and Paul Ciurlys will all vie for a spot in Saturday?s finals. Landers and Balan are rated in the top-20 in America in the event, while both have top-five times in the conference this outdoor season. Landers, who has set personal-best times in the 800 throughout the year, has also met an Olympic Trial mark with his 1:47.81 time at the Stanford Cardinal qualifier.
The women?s 800 will once again be represented by Beth Heimann, who finished fourth in the event at the indoor championships. Heimann has already met NCAA Regional and Olympic Trial times this season, and is ranked fourth nation-wide in the race. Fellow teammate and senior Brooke Patterson will also compete in the 800, but looks to take her best shot at a title of her own in the 1,500 meters. Patterson holds the No. 4 conference ranking this season in the event, as well as a top-20 national placing. She came in third in the mile just two months ago in Lexington at the SEC indoors.
Hunter Spencer and Thomas Morgan hope to end their successful UK careers with a bang, as both will be among the favorites in the 1,500 meters. The duo are ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the league, and 13th and 15th in the nation. The seniors are also provisionally qualified for the Olympic Trials in the event. Morgan, the reigning SEC Cross Country Champion, will take his school-record time of 13:45.57 into the SEC?s this Sunday. Only Alistair Cragg of Arkansas has a better 5k time in the 2004 outdoor season.
Chakouian will not be the only UK participant expected to make some noise in the field events over the weekend, as UK freshman Andy Fryman and senior Tony Tzouanakis will both compete in the discus throw, while Fryman will join Chakouian in the shot put. Fryman has hit NCAA Regional qualifying standards in each event, while Tzouanakis will look to improve his eighth-place standing of the 2003 outdoor championships. The Kentucky women?s field unit of Ildiko Varga, Molly Lonergan and Gennessa Guzman have consistently placed among the top of every outdoor competition this year, and this weekend should be no exception. All three are among the best in the discus throw in the SEC, while Guzman is also a top-10 prospect in the women?s hammer throw.
Live results from the meet can be followed at www.olemisssports.com. Recaps of each day?s competition can be accessed at www.ukathletics.com.
