I’m a little late on this, but it’s never too late to congratulate a national champion.

Senior track star Rondel Sorrillo capped off a brilliant track and field career at Kentucky on Saturday by capturing the national championship in the 200-meter dash at Saturday’s NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore.

It is the school’s first national championship in the 200m and the second-fastest time of Sorrillo’s career.

“It really hasn’t hit me that I am the 200m champ,” Sorrillo said. “The cold weather played a major part in the race, I believe this race could have been a lot faster if the conditions had been favorable. I am just glad to get the victory.”

Sorrillo stands second all-time at Kentucky with eight All-America honors and has reached that mark in two years, faster than anyone in UK history. The senior stands just behind Olympian Tim Harden who captured 10 in four years from 1993 to 1996. Sorrillo is also the first Southeastern Conference athlete to win the 200m dash since Wallace Spearmon of Arkansas in 2005.

“Rondel bounced back pretty well from what happened in the 4×1 and didn’t let it affect his 200,” UK assistant coach of sprints Erin Tucker said. “He didn’t have the greatest start of the 200 but into the turn he didn’t feel like anyone was running with him. Rondel transitioned really well in and out of the curve and with 80 meters left the race was pretty much over. We wanted to improve on last year and the only way to do that was win, after a second-place finish last year and that’s what happened.”

Thanks to Sorrillo’s performance, the men’s team finished in 13th place overall. Read the full details from Sean Hilen on our home page here.