UK Track & Field’s NCAA Indoor Championships Squads Set
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky will send 12 entries – 10 women’s and two men’s – to the 2017 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in College Station, Texas, next week.
Kentucky doubled its entries on both the men’s and women’s sides from a year ago.
The top-16 declared entries, and top-12 declared relay teams from marks recorded this season qualified for the Championships.
Sha’Keela Saunders was a double qualifier making it in the long jump and triple jump for the third year in a row.
Saunders claimed the NCAA Silver Medal in the long jump each of the last two seasons, and came back to score in the triple jump the next day. She enters the 2017 Championships as the top seed in the long jump having produced the No. 6 mark in collegiate history to win the Southeastern Conference last weekend, and the No. 14-seed in the triple jump.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (60m hurdles and 200m) and Kianna Gray (60m and 200m) qualified in two events apiece also.
Camacho-Quinn qualified for her first NCAA Indoor Championships. She’s the reigning NCAA outdoor 100m hurdles champion, and is coming off the SEC title in the 60m hurdles after running a PR 8.02, which ranks her No. 6 nationally.
Camacho-Quinn scored in the 200m outdoors in 2016, and is ranked No. 10 in the country at that distance this season indoors (23.14). Kianna Gray is the No. 12 seed in the 200m (23.17) and the No. 13 seed in the 60m.
Javianne Oliver is the No. 2-seed in the 60 meters. She placed sixth in the 60m final last season.
Olivia Gruver is the No. 3 seed in the pole vault having cleared a PR 14’8.75”/4.49m to take bronze at SECs – the only two women to vault higher than Gruver this year are the top two seeds (Arkansas’ Alexis and Victoria Weeks).
Marie-Josée Ebwea-Bile is the No. 10-seed in the triple jump, and Destiny Carter is the No. 16-seed in the long jump.
Tim Duckworth will compete in the NCAA Championships heptathlon for the second year in a row. He’s ranked No. 3 in the nation in the heptathlon this season having recorded a British record 6,006 points last month.
Duckworth will be joined by SEC 60m hurdles bronze medalist Nick Anderson as he qualified as the No. 13 seed in his best indoor event. The senior made the NCAA Indoor Championships for the first time. He claimed NCAA silver in the 110m hurdles last spring.
The championships will be held March 10-11 at Texas A&M’s Gilliam Indoor facility.
ESPN3 will stream the meet live on March 10 starting at 6:25 p.m. ET and March 11 starting at 4:55 p.m. ET. A re-air of the championship will take place on Sunday, March 12 starting at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
The complete list of participants to the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships is available here.
The Kentucky women’s team placed 12th at the NCAA Indoor Championships last season, while the men did not earn a team score.
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Friday, March 10
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Time (ET) |
Event
|
UK Entry
|
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1 p.m.
|
Heptathlon |
Tim |
|
7 p.m.
|
Women’s 60m |
Javianne Oliver, Kianna Gray |
|
7:50 p.m.
|
Women’s |
Jasmine |
|
8 p.m.
|
Men’s 60H |
Nick Anderson |
|
8:10 p.m.
|
Women’s |
Sha’Keela |
|
8:30 p.m.
|
Women’s 200m |
Camacho-Quinn, Gray |
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Saturday, March 11
|
||
|
1 p.m.
|
Heptathlon |
Duckworth |
|
5 p.m.
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Women’s |
Olivia |
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5:20 p.m.
|
Women’s 60m |
TBD |
|
6 p.m.
|
Women’s |
TBD |
|
6 p.m.
|
Women’s TJ |
Marie-Josée Ebwea-Bile, Saunders |
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6:10 p.m.
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Men’s |
TBD |
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6:40 p.m.
|
Women’s 200m |
TBD |
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