March 11, 2010
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Eight UK track and field athletes to compete in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships March 12-13 at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark.
Championship events begin at 10 a.m. Friday with the men’s heptathlon competition. To find complete results, heat sheets and press conference quotes visit www.ArkansasRazorbacks.com and www.NCAA.com.
The first event for Kentucky will be Friday at noon with the women’s weight-throw preliminaries and finals. Senior Kristin Smith (Marietta, Ga.) will compete in her final indoor championships as a Wildcat. Smith is currently ranked 8th nationally with her NCAA provisional mark of 20.57m (67 feet, 6 inches).
The United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Southeast Region Track Athlete of the Year, UK senior sprinter Rondel Sorrillo (Vessigny, Trinidad and Tobago), will run in the 60m and 200m dash prelims on Friday. The 60m prelims begin at 6:25 p.m. and the 200m prelims follow at 7:25 p.m. Permitting his qualification, he will run the 200m final at 8:45 p.m. Friday night.
Holding the second-fastest time in school history, men’s team member Sharif Webb (Paramus, N.J.) will race for the Wildcats in the 800m run. Webb’s NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1:47.86 earns him a current ranking of seventh fastest time in the country.
Multi-event athlete Precious Nwokey (Houston, Texas) will kick-off Saturday competition when she competes in the pentathlon at 11:30 a.m. Nwokey, a sophomore, ranks 16th in the country with a point score of 3967.00 in the pentathlon competition.
The women’s 4×400 meter relay team comprised of Jenna Martin (Nova Scotia), Precious Nwokey (Houston, Texas), Jazmyn Shorter (St. Petersburg, Fla.) and Brittany Cabbler (Roanoke, Va.) qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships as the first UK women’s 4x400m relay team in school history. The women’s relay team qualified and simultaneously snapped their own school record two weekends ago at the SEC Indoor Championships with a NCAA provisional time of 3:35.40.
Senior thrower Ashley Muffet (N. Canton, Ohio) returns to her final NCAA Indoor Championships with an automatic qualification in the women’s shot put. Muffet’s school record toss of 17.46m (57 feet, 3.5 inches) notches her a current national ranking of second place.
The team held a pre-meet warm-up today at 12 Noon before championship activities got underway with press conferences and technical meetings. The team will join all of the competitors and coaches at an NCAA semi-formal banquet at 7p.m. this evening.
The men and women’s teams both rank in the USTFCCCA Top-25. The men stay ranked at 23rd for the second consecutive week while their highest indoor season ranking this year was at 17th. The women’s team breaks into the top 25 ranking for the first time this year at No. 25.
For all of your Kentucky track and field information visit www.UKathletics.com.
