TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ? Sophomore Kentucky thrower Ashley Muffet (North Canton, Ohio) tied for the 2007 Southeastern Conference Outdoor Women’s Track and Field Commissioner’s Cup, the trophy awarded to the league’s top individual points scorer at the annual outdoor championships, and junior John Richardson (Ocean City, N.J.) claimed his second consecutive 1,500-meter title on Sunday at Sam Bailey Track and Field Stadium. The four-day SEC Championships were hosted by the University of Alabama.
Muffet finished with 22 of Kentucky’s 42 team points at this weekend’s SEC Championships. She finished second in the shot put and hammer throw and third in the discus against stiff competition in each of those events. Auburn’s Kerron Stewart also finished with 22 points.
“This is a really special accomplishment,” UK head coach Don Weber said. “That’s what this meet is all about, seeing who can score the most points. For her to score as many as she did against the level of competition in this meet – the significance of that is huge. This is the best track and field meet in the country year in and year out.”
Muffet has notched NCAA regional-qualifying marks in each of her three events this season and also claimed the 2007 SEC Indoor Shot Put Championship in February. She earned indoor All-America honors this season as well.
Richardson claimed the men?s 1,500-meter title for the second consecutive year with a personal-best time of 3:43.02. It was the eighth-best time in school history in that event.
?It?s very significant to win the 1,500 meter two years in a row,? Weber said. ?In the history of this meet, obviously that hasn?t happened too often. What is really special is the fact that he is just a junior and has the opportunity to make it three years in a row.?
“I am just honored to be competing in this conference with athletes of this caliber and I am thrilled to come out on top,” Richardson said. “Words just can’t describe this. I was running really smooth and at about the 2:50 mark I just decided that it was then or never. I was a little worried about the wind on the final straightaway, but I was able to come out on top. I just chalk that up to my training and my coaches.”
Still fatigued from winning the 1,500 meter, Richardson came back an hour later to score in the 800-meter run as well, as he finished seventh in that event.
The Kentucky women finished eighth overall with 42 team points, while LSU claimed the women?s team title with a 139.50. Arkansas was second with 110 points. The men finished in 10th place with 36 points. Tennessee captured the men?s team crown with 129.50 points, while LSU was second with 122.
?We had our ups and downs this weekend, but I was really pleased with the way a lot of our athletes competed,? Weber said. ?I was especially pleased with the effort that Lavera Morris gave this weekend. We have a lot of young people in a lot of areas and it is going to take them a while to adjust to this level of competition. They got to experience this, they were not overwhelmed by the level of competition and they are going to work hard at getting better.
?We had five sprinters miss qualifying for the finals by a total of 28 hundreths of a second,? Weber continued. ?This league is so competitive that it?s that little difference in times that makes a huge difference in point production.?
Junior Lavera Morris (Orlando, Fla.) posted a personal-best time in the 1,500-meter run, finishing fifth in 4:23.62. Senior Georganne Way (Lititz, Pa.) followed Morris in sixth place. Morris then ran a gutsy race in the 800 meter, finishing fifth against a difficult field with a season-best time of 2:06.44.
The men?s 4×400 meter relay squad, consisting of Jose Acevedo (Caracas, Venezuela), Nathan Browning (Petersburg, Ill.), Justin Harrison (Wheaton, Ill.) and Luis Luna (Barquisimeto, Venezuela) recorded a season-best time of 3:03.96 in a hotly contested race. It bested Kentucky?s previous season-high of 3:06.27 by more than two-and-a-half minutes. The Wildcats were just 34 tenths of a second shy of event champion LSU.
Luna registered a personal-best in the men’s 400-meter dash finals with a mark of 46.31, the fourth-best time in school history.
Muffet began the day by finishing third in the women’s discus with a personal-best toss of 162-11. Her mark was the sixth-best in the discus in school history. Freshman thrower Emily Bernhardt (Marietta, Ga.) also qualified for the finals of the women’s discus and finished ninth with a personal-record throw of 139-4.
Senior Gavin Ball (Cottage Grove, Wisc.) was fourth in the men?s shot put on Sunday with a toss of 57-7 to earn five points for the Wildcats.
“I think on the whole, with the small group that we brought, we did an excellent job of competing and pulling out points this weekend,” UK throws coach Doug Reynolds said. “We didn’t necessarily have the highlight performances that we had hoped for, but they did a great job of coming out and giving everything they had. That competitiveness says a lot about the character, integrity and passion these kids have for Wildcat athletics.”
Kentucky returns to action May 25-26 when the Wildcats travel to Columbia, Mo., to participate in NCAA Regionals. Complete results and a recap of UK?s participation in regionals will be available at ukathletics.com.
?Going into regionals, it may seem like an upgrade of competition because you are going from a conference meet to a national meet, but there are not any better athletes than the ones in the SEC that we saw this weekend,? Weber said.
Kentucky Results on Sunday at the SEC Championships (May 13, 2007 ? Tuscaloosa, Ala.)
Men’s 1,500-Meter Run
1. John Richardson – 3:43.02 – SEC CHAMPION
Women’s 1,500-Meter Run
5. Lavera Morris – 4:23.62
6. Georganne Way – 4:30.84
Women’s Discus
3. Ashley Muffet – 162-11
9. Emily Bernhardt – 139-4
Men’s 400-Meter Dash
5. Luis Luna – 46.31
Men’s 4×100 Meter Relay
5. Kentucky – 40.33
Men’s 800-Meter Run
7. John Richardson – 1:51.59
Women’s 800-Meter Run
5. Lavera Morris – 2:06.44
8. Georganne Way – 2:11.72
Men’s 200-Meter Dash
8. Jose Acevedo – 21.55 (-0.5)
Women?s Pole Vault
12. Maggie Tincher ? 11-1.75
Women’s Javelin
14. Natalie Wise – 121-0
Men’s 5,000-Meter Run
12. Andre? Silva ? 14:35.68
20. Bruce Hordusky ? 14:56.28
28. John Thompson ? 15:07.65
32. Jonathan Thomas ? 15:13.25
Women?s 5,000-Meter Run
14. Taylor Miller ? 17:25.82
Men’s 4×400 Relay
3. Kentucky ? 3:03.96
Women?s 4×400 Relay
7. Kentucky ? 3:41.54
