LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky track and field teams travel to Auburn, Ala., on Friday looking for another strong performance in the Auburn Tiger Track Classic. The two-day event hosted by Auburn University takes place at the Hutsell-Rosen Track.
The meet begins at 1 p.m. EDT Friday with the multi-events and the hammer throw, and continues on Saturday beginning at Noon EDT. Live results for the event will be available at www.cfpitiming.com.
Participating teams in the meet include: Alabama (women only), Army, Auburn, Bucknell, Georgia Tech, Iowa (women only), Middle Tennessee State, Minnesota (men), Penn State, Purdue, Troy State, Vanderbilt (men only) and Wisconsin. Two of the nation?s top five men?s teams in No. 3 Auburn and No. 5 Wisconsin will be participating in the meet, while No. 8 Auburn, No. 18 Minnesota and No. 21 Georgia Tech are the ranked teams on the women?s side.
?With the exception of a few injuries, this is the first outdoor meet that we will be going into full force with each of our athletes competing in their respective events,? UK head coach Don Weber said. ?We will be focusing on what we need to do for future meets with more specific preparation as we get closer to the championship meets. Like we did last weekend, we are looking to pick up some more regional-qualifying scores.?
The Wildcats recorded a successful weekend at the Yellow Jacket Invitational in Atlanta last week. Kentucky notched seven NCAA regional-qualifying marks over the two-day event. The men?s 4×400 relay squad, consisting of Nathan Browning (Petersburg, Ill.), Justin Harrison (Wheaton, Ill.), Jose Acevedo (Caracas, Venezuela) and Luis Luna (Barquisimeto, Venezuela) finished first last weekend with a regional-qualifying time of 3:06.29. The men?s 4×400 relay squad is currently ranked fourth in the nation, according to Trackshark.com.
Junior distance runner Andr? Silva (Centereach, N.Y.) claimed the men?s 5,000-meter race with an outdoor-best time of 14:41.59. Browining, Harrison and Luna each picked up regional-qualifying marks in the men?s 400 meter. Freshman sprinter Jenna Martin (Nova Scotia, Canada) ran the sixth-fastest 400 meter time in school history with a regional-qualifying mark of 54.61 and freshman Emily Bernhardt (Marietta, Ga.) had a regional-qualifying toss of 183-2 in the women?s hammer throw. The men?s 4×100 relay team also recorded a regional-qualifying time of 40.38.
Complete results and a recap of this weekend?s action will be available at ukathletics.com.
