Hurdles Wins, Relay Close Calls Bookend National Relays Friday

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Kentucky track and field teams  dominated the hurdles, picked up some field wins and came out the wrong end of a couple of photo finishes despite school-record times on Friday at  the Arkansas National Relays meet.

Friday wins
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn began the day for Kentucky by on the track by winning the 100-meteer hurdles. Her wind-aided time of 12.53w (+2.6) is the fastest on the TFRRS NCAA Preliminary Championships qualifying list this season (accepts times with tail winds slower than 4 meters/second). It was the fourth-fastest wind-aided (wind greater than 2.0 m/s) and the eighth-fastest all-conditions time in history. Camacho-Quinn came back to place second in the women’s 200m with a PB of 22.69 (+1.6), which ranks No. 4 on the UK all-time list.

Then Daniel Roberts won the men’s 110m hurdles in a PB 13.53 (+1.4), which ranks No. 2 on the UK all-time list and No. 5 in the NCAA this season.
 
In perhaps the most anticipated event debut in collegiate history Sydney McLaughlin delivered, as she has all year, lowering her world junior record to 53.60 in the 400m hurdles. It was the fastest time ever by a collegiate underclassman, and No. 4 on the collegiate all-time list. Faith Ross won the heat prior in a season best 58.28.

Ellen Ekholm tied her personal best clearing 6’0″/1.83m to win the high jump with the best mark of the sophomore’s collegiate career. That mark ranks No. 7 in the NCAA this year, and No. 2 on the UK all-time performers’ list.

UK Class of 2017 alumna Sha’Keela Saunders won the invitational women’s long jump with a season-opening mark of 21’7.5″/6.59m. Marie-Josee Ebwea Bile placed fourth with a mark of 20’7.75″/6.29m.
 

The Friday Relay breakdown
Kentucky’s men’s 4×1,500m relay of Brennan Fields, Jacob Thomson, Matthew Thomas and Ben Young) ran a school-record 15:14.38, 18th fastest in collegiate history, but the home Razorbacks were able to catch Young on the final straightaway at the line to take the 10 points.

Then in the men’s sprint medley relay (1,600m), Tim Duckworth (200m), Fred Dorsey III (200m), Dwight St. Hillaire (400m) and Ian Jones (800m) caught Florida just at the line, but lost out on the photo again, this time with the timers having to go to the thousandths of a second. UK’s time of 3:16.94 was again a school record and No. 22 on the all-time collegiate list.

UK’s 16 points on the men’s side has the Wildcats tied with Arkansas in the relays standings. The meet awards points in relay events only on the traditional NCAA 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis with the team with the most points at the end of the meet winning.
 
UK’s women’s 4x1500m relay of Kunc, Crawford, Bussjager and Shepard scored six points with a third-place time of 18:22.51.

The UK women’s 1,600m SMR of Clarke, Howell, Ross and McKinney placed fourth with a time of 3:47.93 to score five points.

The UK women’s team has 11 points, and leads Stanford in the women’s standings with two of seven relays scored.
 

Other UK results
Dwight St. Hillaire placed second in the men’s 400m, lowering his school record to 45.48 and moving to No. 7 on the NCAA list this season.

UK Class of 2017 alumna Javianne Oliver placed third in the women’s 100m in 11.28 (+1.6). Kianna Gray was seventh.
 
Elijah Marta began the day for UK by placing third in the men’s javelin with a PB 221’9″/67.60m. Ethan Shalaway placed fourth with a toss of 220’4″/67.16m.

Latavia Coombs placed second in the women’s long jump open section with a mark of 19’4″/5.89m (+1.7).
 
Mohammed Abubakar placed third in the men’s long jump with a mark of 24’8.75″/7.84mW (+2.7).
 
Pre-meet notables
The Wildcats will compete at home at the Kentucky Relays to conclude the regular season on May 5.
 
The postseason will begin May 12-13 with the Southeastern Conference Championships, hosted by Tennessee.

SEC Network+ will stream the relay events only on Friday and Saturday, and it will be broadcast live on the Network on Saturday from 8-10 p.m. ET on Saturday, and re-aired on Sunday. At present, field events won’t make the broadcast.
 
The field is made up of Arkansas, Baylor, Florida, Florida State, Kansas, Kentucky, Miami, Michigan, Minnesota (Men only), Oklahoma State, Stanford, TCU, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia Tech and Wisconsin.
 
Kentucky has sent 37 athletes (18 women and 19 men) to the National Relays this weekend.
 
The meet begins at 11 a.m. ET on Friday, with running events starting at 3:40 p.m., and 11 a.m. on Saturday. Field action starts at 11 a.m. ET, with a more robust program of relays starting at 8 p.m. ET.

This weekend – a fortnight before most conference championships are held – traditionally features meets that highlight relay events – notably the Penn and Drake Relays. The Arkansas National Relays is being held for the first time, on the heels of last year’s “SEC Relays” at LSU.
 
The UK women’s team is ranked No. 6, and the men’s team is ranked No. 22 in this week’s USTFCCCA Computer rankings.
 

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