By Jacob Most
March 4, 2013 –
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky track and field teams qualified five athletes (four women, one man) for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, the NCAA announced Monday. The NCAA Championships will be held March 8-9 in Fayetteville, Ark.
Competitors must have registered a time/mark, which ranked inside the top 16 in individual events or in the top 12 this season in relays to qualify for NCAAs, which will be held in the Randal Tyson Track Center on the Arkansas campus. Athletes must have then declared their intention to compete to be accepted into the field.
Cally Macumber and Chelsea Oswald enter field as the Nos. 3 and 10 seeds respectively in the women’s 3,000 meters. They also qualified as part of a relay team, meaning the women’s team will have three scoring opportunities.
Macumber’s national qualifying time of 8:59.89 is a school record, and it places her among just three collegiate competitors to break nine minutes at 3K this season. Macumber also claimed the 2013 SEC Championship in the event.
Chelsea Oswald’s qualifying time of 9:05.74 is third-fastest in Kentucky history.
Keith Hayes posted a qualifying 60-meter hurdles time of 7.73 in his last chance qualifying meet this past weekend. That mark ranks No. 9 in the nation, and also registers as a new school record.
Hayes was not the only Wildcat to rewrite the Kentucky record book this weekend or this season as the women’s distance medley relay team also set a new program-best time.
The Wildcat relay team of Macumber, Morganne Phillips, Allison Peare and Oswald recorded a time of 11:00.33 last Friday at the Notre Dame Alex Wilson Invitational.
That performance smashed the previous school record by more than 17 seconds. The time also ranks sixth in the nation.
Kentucky sent one competitor, senior high jumper Terri Ann Grant, to the NCAA Indoor Championships last season.
The NCAA Indoor Championships will begin Friday, March 8 at approximately 1:30 p.m. ET.
The 60-meter hurdles semifinal will begin at 7:15 p.m. ET, and the women’s distance medley relay final will get under way at 9:45.
On Saturday, March 8 the 60-meter hurdles final is slated to start at 7:30 p.m., and the women’s 3K final will go at 8:40.
WatchESPN and ESPN3.com with broadcast the meet with Dwight Stones (play-by-play), Larry Rawson (color) and Lewis Johnson (sideline) on the call. Flashresults.com will provide live results.
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#NCAAD1: NCAA has released official entry lists into the DI Indoor Championships … rtspt.com/ncaa/d1indoor1…
— USTFCCCA (@USTFCCCA) March 5, 2013
