FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. ? The University of Kentucky track and field teams got off to a phenomenal start at the first day of the Southeastern Conference Championships Friday. The women?s team picked up nine team points via the hammer throw and advanced three runners to various finals, while the men?s squad got a fifth place finish in the hammer throw and advanced a hurdler.
The women Wildcats started the meet strong by placing three in the top eight in the hammer throw. Senior Nicole Allyn broke former UK standout Gennessa Guzman?s school record by over seven feet with a massive fourth place toss of 194-7. Fellow senior Ildiko Varga also posted a personal-best with a throw of 186-6 (t-third all-time at UK), good for sixth place. Freshman Ashley Muffet rounded out the UK scoring with an eighth place performance (183-5). For the event, the group racked up nine team points for the Cats. All three throwers have gone beyond the regional qualifying mark of 177-7 this season. Georgia?s Jenny Dahlgreen crushed the SEC meet and collegiate record with a throw of 235-6 (fifth in the world). The toss was 33 feet further than the second place finisher.
On the men?s side, junior Andy Fryman picked up a fifth place finish in the hammer with a personal-best throw of 195-0. The throw was over an 11-foot improvement over Fryman?s previous PR (183-2) and moved him into second all-time at Kentucky in the event. The Maysville, Ky. native will look to score more points for the Cats as he enters tomorrow?s shot put competition owning the top throw in the conference (63-4.25).
Sophomore Lavera Morris lowered her personal-best to 2:06.55 (fifth all-time UK) with a first place finish in flight two of the 800 preliminaries. Junior Georganne Way finish third in flight one and also improved her personal-best with a mark of 2:06.39 (fourth all-time UK). The duo will race in Sunday?s nine-runner finals with the Cats now guaranteed of team points. There were 11 runners in the four combined heats than ran below the regional qualifying standard of 2:09.80.
Sophomore John Richardson made a bold move and bolted to a ten-meter lead with 250 meters to go and held on for a strong victory in flight one of the men?s 800 prelims. Richardson?s mark of 1:50.21 was the second fastest mark on the day. By finishing first in his respective flight, Richardson assured himself of a spot in Sunday?s finals. Freshman Ryan Finn failed to qualify for the finals but posted a season-best time of 1:52.75.
Richardson, Way and Morris will also compete in their respective 1,500-meter run prelims tomorrow evening.
In the men?s 200 prelims, the Cats failed to advance a runner to the finals. Freshman Gordon McKenzie posted the fastest UK time of the day (21.47), while junior Luis Luna ran a personal-best 21.58.
Freshman Ashley Trimble advanced to the finals of the women?s 400 hurdles with the third fastest time of the day (1:02.85). Senior Dedrick Tillerson capped off the day for the Cats by advancing to the finals of the men?s 400 hurdles with a second place finish (51.66) in flight one.
Tomorrow?s events will begin at 1 p.m. CT with the women?s discus (Varga, Muffet) and women?s long jump (Michelle Gales). Later in the evening, the men?s sprinters will compete in the prelims of the 400. An updated recap will be posted on ukathletics.com following the first wave of field events.
