April 24, 2009
PHILADELPHIA and SAN DIEGO – The Kentucky track and field teams attained six NCAA regional-qualifying marks Friday led by the successes of the UK women’s throws squad at the Triton Invitational in San Diego as well as the Wildcat men’s relay performances at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.
At the Triton Invitational, senior Ashley Muffet continued her dominant outdoor season, finishing as the second collegiate overall in the women’s discus. For the third-straight week Muffet improved upon her personal-best throw and collected a regional-qualifying mark. Muffet’s throw of 183-0 improves her second-place mark all-time at UK. The veteran thrower also earned a qualifying mark in the hammer, throwing 181-2 to place ninth overall.
Sophomore thrower Mary Angell threw a personal-best distance of 162-9 in the women’s discus to move into the school’s all-time record list at the eighth position. Meanwhile, senior Emilee Strot made it three NCAA marks with a qualifying discus throw of 160-0.
Junior Kristin Smith’s hammer throw of 179-6 also made the NCAA qualifying cut.
Out east at the Penn Relays, the ninth-ranked Wildcat men made some noise.
The men’s 4x400m relay team earned an NCAA mark with a sixth-place finish of 3:07.27. The team of senior Brandon Austin, freshman Justin Austin, junior Kwasi Obeng and senior Jose Acevedo earned a spot in the College Men’s 4x400m Relay Championship of America final Saturday. The same four Wildcats also advanced to the 4x200m Relay Championship of America, turning in a seventh-place time of 1:24.04.
Senior Gordon McKenzie joined Austin, Austin and Acevedo in the 4x100m relay. The team crossed the finish at 40.92 to place 15th.
In the distance medley relay, sophomore Josh Nadzam, junior Geoff Daley, sophomore Matt Frawley and sophomore Adam Henken also finished 15th, clocking in at 10:11.44.
The Wildcats resume competition at both meets beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET Saturday. Live results links for each can be found at UKathletics.com.
A recap of the Cats’ performances will be available on UKathletics.com after each day of competition.
