Five Things to Watch Saturday at the Kentucky Invitational

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky Invitational indoor track and field meet kicked off inside Nutter Field House on Friday, but the action will ramp up on Saturday with some truly world-class athletics on offer.

Of course everyone will be focused on UK’s freshman Olympian Sydney McLaughlin’s scheduled home debut, and rightfully so given her spectacular collegiate introduction last month in addition to her already historic curriculum vitae, but the meet has even more notable, and exciting track and field on offer.

We break down some of the must-see storylines below.
 
1. The World Champions!
Kentucky track and field was well represented at the IAAF World Championships in London last summer, and the UK staffers who train under Coach Flo in Lexington begin their indoor season in Lexington this weekend.

That includes hurdles non-UK alumni, but current Kentucky volunteer assistant coaches Omar McLeod (Arkansas) and Kori Carter (Stanford).
 
McLeod, the reigning Olympic and World 110-meter hurdles Champion Omar McLeod, is entered in the 60m hurdles with prelims at noon and the final an hour later. It will be his first 60m hurdles of the season, and the undisputed No. 1 hurdler in the world will have his eyes on retaining his world indoor title later this winter in Birmingham, England.
 
Carter, fresh off a 400m hurdles world title in London, which came as a slight upset to many – but perhaps not those who follow the Kentucky track and field program and those familiar with Coach Flo training regime and the results it consistently generated – will also run in the 60m hurdles.

Notably, she ran the 60m hurdles and 100m hurdles a year ago, developing hurdling technique and quickness before opening up in the 400m hurdles later in the outdoor season en route to gold in London.
 
2. NCAA Champion in the pole vault returns home!
Olivia Gruver finished 2017 as NCAA Outdoor Champion in the pole vault, and on Saturday she’ll compete at home for the first time since that triumph.

Enough said? Sure.
 
To boot, Gruver has shown tremendous form this season, and opened up well last month. Her 14’1.25″/4.30m clearance to win the Hoosier Open is the current NCAA leader.
 
3. That women’s 60m hurdles field, though.
Carter, the reigning world-champion in the 400m hurdles, isn’t the headliner. At the Kentucky Invitational, one could argue the headliner is Kentucky junior and reigning SEC 60m hurdles Champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn. Indeed, she’s the NCAA leader in the early season having run 8.04 last month.

But then Kendra Harrison, now in her third year as a professional training in Lexington after a stellar Wildcat collegiate career, is in the field.

The last time she ran a competitive race in Nutter Field House – last January for the McCravy Memorial – she – set the facility record of 7.75, three hundredths of a second away from the American record, the third-fastest time in national history.
 
4. An early look at the NCAA heptathlon favorite
Based on last year’s NCAA finish, as well as point total, Kentucky senior Tim Duckworth is the favorite in the NCAA heptathlon.

And while Duckworth’s heptathlon debut will come later on this season, he is entered in the high jump and pole vault, two events in which he scores a great deal of his multi-event points.

Duckworth scored a British and Kentucky school record 6165 in the NCAA heptathlon, finishing an agonizing 12 points behind the NCAA Champion, Devon Williams, now graduated from Georgia. That was the highest ever point total not to win NCAA.
 
5. Of course, Sydney McLaughlin’s home opener
This one needs no explanation and the city of Lexington, indeed the track and field public at large have been waiting for this one.

UK’s freshman Phenom making her debut on home mondo wearing the blue and white.

She’s scheduled to race in the 400m at 2:10 p.m. ET, and could also feature in the meet finale 4x400m relay. (Post-publication note – she ended up only running the 4x400m relay), but split an impressive 51.9.

Some numbers to consider?

Who knows what McLaughlin and Floreal are targeting for Saturday’s runs, but given McLaughlin’s track record plenty of records are in play.

Her 400m PR is 51.61 is the High School indoor record. The UK freshman record is Jenna Martin’s 53.44, seemingly very much in play. The UK school record is Martin’s 52.32, which also seems plenty within reach.

The Field House record is 51.13, and perhaps more lofty (for now) the collegiate indoor 400m record is Phyllis Francis’ 50.46.

We only bring that up because McLaughlin did set the American collegiate record in the relatively sparsely run 300m in her first collegiate race: 36.12 last month.  

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So Saturday will be a characteristically busy day of track and field inside Nutter Field House.

And @KentuckyTrack will live stream some of the most anticipated events on twitter, so tune in.