Women’s DMR Wins to Begin Kentucky Invitational

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky’s women’s distance medley relay of Caroline McCaslin, Tia Robinson, Jill Weston and Katy Kunc won the first race of the Kentucky Invitational in 11:39.53 to highlight the first night of track action in Nutter Field House this season.

With few teams having run early this indoor season, and all results not yet reported from this weekend’s meets, Kentucky’s time leads the nation currently.

Kunc, who earned All-America status for the first time last November in cross country anchored the winning team over the final mile.

Michelle McKinney, Devynn Miller, Sarah Crawford and Avery Bussjager ran as another relay team, and placed fifth in 12:06.99.

David Cline placed third in the weight throw with a mark of 54-feet, 7 inches/19.68 meters. Logan Bryer was fifth and freshman Charles Lenford placed ninth.

Brandi Walker placed fifth in the women’s weigh throw with a mark of 60’7.25”/18.47m.

The men’s distance medley concluded the evening’s competition on the track with Ohio State winning. Brennan Fields, Will Walker, Matthew Thomas and Ben Young placed third in 9:55.56, while UK fielded another team comprised of Kendall Muhammad, Ian Jones, Alex Carrabre and Gabe Harm, which placed fourth.

Notable times
The Kentucky Invitational will conclude Saturday. Field events will begin at 9 a.m. and running events start at noon with the meet scheduled to conclude with the 4×400-meter relays just after 5 p.m.

Meet information
The Kentucky Invitational will not be broadcast although parking and admission are free. UK will show the following Saturday’s McCravy Memorial on SEC Network+.

Parking is available for free in the green lot in front of Nutter Field House.

Twenty-two teams, most of them from Kentucky or bordering states, will compete at the Kentucky Invitational.

UKTF 2017 outlook
Kentucky’s women’s team will begin the season ranked No. 8 beginning the year in the preseason top-10 for the fourth season in a row. Kentucky is preseason No. 8 for the second year in a row, after starting ranked sixth the two seasons prior.

The Wildcats return plenty of established national scorers for the 2017 season.

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn enters her sophomore season as one of the nation’s most heralded athletes. Said assertion was confirmed by her place on the Bowerman Award Preseason Watch List, announced last week.

Perhaps flying more under the radar Sha’Keela Saunders, a four-time NCAA medalist – also appears poised for a quality season as she produced the best December indoor long jump in collegiate history last month.

The likes of Javianne Oliver, Destiny Carter, Kianna Gray, Jacklyn Howell, Marie-Josée Ebwea-Bile and countless more, in diverse events, also have marks contributing to this season’s strong early ranking with plenty of more Wildcats currently or potentially able to score at the NCAA meet.

Kentucky’s men’s team enters 2017 likely to be led by senior Nick Anderson and junior Jacob Thomson.

Anderson was SEC 110m hurdles bronze medalist, and NCAA silver medalist last year. Thomson claimed a SEC bronze indoors before going on to win the league 5k and 10k outdoors.

Kentucky will begin 2017 at home with two-day meets each of the next two weeks. Next week the Wildcats will play host to one of the nation’s most stacked fields for the 2017 McCravy Memorial, which will be shown streaming live on SEC Network+ via ESPN3 and WatchESPN.

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