Three Wildcats Advance to Eugene on NCAA East Prelims Thursday

TAMPA, Fla. – – The first three Wildcats earned the top-12 finishes at the NCAA East Preliminary Championships required to qualify to the NCAA Outdoor Championships finals site on Thursday. 

Fred Dorsey, Ellen Ekholm and Jacob Thomson all booked return trips to Eugene, Oregon where the NCAA Championships will be held June 6-9 with their performances on Thursday in Tampa, Florida.

And then six more Wildcats from first-round track prelims on Thursday into quarterfinals where trips to Eugene will be on the line on Friday.

Additionally, UK will have four athletes competing in the last round of their event in Tampa on Friday – three in the field (two discus throwers and a pole vaulter) plus Katy Kunc in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
 

Jacob Thomson, photo by his uncle, Chet White, UK Athletics

Wildcats moving on to Eugene on Thursday
For the second year in a row, Fred Dorsey III dropped a big long jump from one of the first two flights – from which the low seeds based on season-best marks compete – to qualify to the NCAA finals site in the long jump.
 
The senior advanced to the NCAA Championships long jump for the third year in a row, using a mark of 25’1.25″/7.65m (+1.0).
 
Sophomore Ellen Ekholm needed to clear just two bars to book her trip to Eugene for the second year in a row. After clearing the first bar on her first try, she needed two attempts to get over 5’10.75″/1.80m, and that was all she needed.

Jacob Thomson concluded the night on the track, running a relatively solid 10k to advance comfortably with at fifth-place time of 29:22.27. He qualified for the NCAA 10k final for the third year in a row, having placed top five in each of those East semifinals.

Wildcats who advanced to quarterfinals on Thursday
Kentucky women’s 400m hurdlers looked smooth as could be in the first event on the track on Thursday. Coming off her collegiate record 52.75 to win the Southeastern Conference Championship two weeks ago, Sydney McLaughlin was top qualifier, running 54.78 to win her heat by nearly four seconds.
 
Faith Ross ran a big personal best 57.36 to advance to the Friday quarterfinal and move to No. 5 on the UK all-time list.
 
Freshman Dwight St. Hillaire was top qualifier from the men’s 400m first round, running 45.08q. The quarterfinal will be Friday at 1 p.m. ET.
 
Dorsey used qualifying for the quarterfinals in the 100m as a springboard to advancing to the NCAA Championships finals site in the long jump. Moments before going off in the long jump, he ran a 100m PB 10.29q (+1.3), moving to No. 9 on the UK all-time list. He’ll look to qualify to Eugene in a second event on Friday at 1:30 p.m.
 
Kianna Gray and Celera Barnes both posted PBs in the women’s 100m first round. Gray ran the eighth-fastest qualifying time, 11.18Q (+1.2), improving her No. 5 mark on the UK all-time list. Barnes was 21st fastest of the prelims in 11.34q (+0.6), moving to No 7 on the UK all-time list.

Close call of the day
David Cline placed 14th in the men’s hammer throw with a mark of 216’7″/66.02m, two spots measured as 2’1″ shy of advancing to Eugene. Perhaps even more heartbreaking for the senior, his mark would have earned him fourth place and clear qualification had it been recorded at the West Prelims on Thursday.

The primer
The name of the game this weekend will be qualifying on to Eugene, Oregon. The Wildcats are competing at the NCAA East Preliminary Championships hosted by the University of South Florida running Thursday through Saturday.
 
UK has 40 entries at this week’s NCAA East Preliminary Championships.
 
The UK men’s team qualified 21 entries, while the UK women’s team qualified 19.
 
Additionally, Tim Duckworth – NCAA decathlon leader – became the first Wildcat to book his trip to the NCAA Championships finals site as the multi-events won’t be contested at the preliminary championships.

The format
The East and West regions are comprised of all Division I institutions in 25 states apiece for each of the two regions.
 
Twelve performers from each preliminary site advance to the NCAA Championships – hosted for the sixth straight year at Oregon’s Hayward Field – June 6-9. 
 
The East and West Preliminary Championship intended to have parallel schedules, although expected inclement weather in the late-May Florida afternoons this weekend have resulted in the meet program moving up earlier each day.
 
California State University, Sacramento will host NCAA West Prelims the same days.
 
For each individual event contested at each of the preliminary sites, the top 48 declared student-athletes were accepted into the competition.  For each relay event, the top 24 declared relay teams were accepted into the competition.
 
For the heptathlon and decathlon, the top 24 declared student-athletes in each event based on their position on the national descending-order list were accepted into the Championships. Heptathlon and decathlon are not contested at preliminary championships sites.
 
But as it relates to the NCAA Championships, qualifying entries into the preliminary championships is less significant than the number of entries who make it through prelims and advance to Eugene for the NCAA Championships.
 
Precedent
A year ago, UK qualified 22 entries – 16 women’s and six men’s – out of the NCAA East Preliminary Championships, which it served as host institution for.
 
How to watch
NCAA track and field fans can watch a live stream of the NCAA Division I East and/or West Preliminary Championships as FloTrack Pro subscribers. The subscription will include access to all FloTrack live broadcasts, video on-demand from all events, documentaries, technique videos and more. Coverage of the preliminary competitions will be available May 24 – 26 at www.FloTrack.com. 

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