UKTF Primed For SEC Indoor Championships

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.  – The Kentucky track and field teams will start the indoor postseason with the Southeastern Conference Championships this weekend inside Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Track Center.
 
The meet begins at noon ET on Friday and 11:45 a.m. ET on Saturday.
 
Live coverage of the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships will air on SECN+ at 4:30 p.m. ET on Friday and 3:55 p.m. ET on Saturday. The broadcast talent includes Dwight Stones, Jill Montgomery and John Anderson. A tape-delayed broadcast of the Championship will air on the SEC Network Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
 
The UK women’s track and field team has placed third at the SEC Indoor Championships the past two years, tying the program’s best ever finish at the meet UK scored 74 points last season, and their best point total ever at the meet was 92 points in 1989.

The UK men’s team was sixth with 45 points at the SEC Indoor Championships last year. The UK men’s team’s best ever finish at SEC Indoors was second, twice in 1960 and 1971.
 
A total of 15 Southeastern Conference men’s and women’s track and field programs are included in the top-25 – with the UK women’s team at No. 6 — of the latest NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field National Rating Index released Monday.
 
Eight SEC women’s programs are ranked in the top-25, including four in the top-seven.
 
A nation-leading seven SEC programs are ranked in the men’s top-25.
 
SEC men’s and women’s track and field athletes lead the nation in 12 individual events entering this weekend’s SEC Indoor Championships.
 
The defending SEC Indoor men’s champion is Alabama. The defending SEC Indoor women’s champion is Arkansas, which has won eight overall and four in a row.
 
Randal Tyson Indoor Track Center is playing host to the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships for the ninth time. The venue also hosted the SEC Indoor Championships in 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2016.
 
Tickets for the SEC Indoor Championships range from $15-$25 for General Admission, to $35 for reserved seats and can be purchased online at ArkansasRazorbacks.com.
 
The name of the game at the Championships will be scoring points by virtue of top-eight finishes. First place scores 10 points in each event, and the point correlations reduce down to one point for eight place.

The team that’s accrued the most points at the end of the meet wins.
 
Peripherally, this weekend also serves as the last chance for individuals and relay teams to record marks that will rank inside NCAA Championships-qualifying positions on individual-event Division I rankings lists (top-16 for individuals and top-12 for relay teams that will qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships in two weeks.
 
UK’s SEC top marks entering the Championship
The Wildcats enter the weekend with 15 SEC top-five marks so far this season (eight men’s marks and seven women’s marks).
 
Marie-Josée Ebwea-Bile Excel leads the nation and conference in the women’s triple jump by more than a foot, 45’2.5″/13.78m.
 
Freshman sprinter Abby Steiner’s 22.97, recorded on the Tyson Track on Jan. 25 is the SEC leader in the 200m.
 
Ellen Ekholm leads the SEC in the women’s high jump this year with her school-record tying 6’0″/1.83m, which she recorded at Tyson Indoor in late January. Carly Hinkle’s PB from the same meet, 5’10.75″/1.80m is third best in the conference.
 
Noah Castle is ranked third in the conference with a shot put season best 63’11.75″/19.50m. Micaela Hazlewood ranks third in the SEC in the women’s shot put with a season best 53’9.25″/16.39m.

Daniel Roberts’ school record in the 60m hurdles, 7.52, ranks second in the nation and conference, to Florida’s Grant Holloway who has the collegiate record.

The UK men’s distance medley relay of Brennan Fields, Jacob Smith, Kendall Muhammad and Ben Young have the third best time in the SEC this year, 9:44.40.

Faith Ross and Masai Russell’s women’s 60m hurdle season best 8.18 rank tied for fourth best in the conference.
 
Chloe Abbott’s 52.98 400m season best ranks fourth in the conference.
 
Ben Young’s converted season best mile time 4:01.04 is fifth best in the conference.
 
Molly Leppelmeier is fifth in the SEC women’s weight throw with a season best 64’5.75″/19.65m.

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