Hazlewood’s SP Silver Highlights UKTF Friday at SEC Indoors

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.  – Kentucky track and field senior transfer Micaela Hazlewood took home the Southeastern Conference shot put silver medal as the highlight of the Wildcats’ Friday at the SEC Indoor Championships inside Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Indoor Center.
 
Hazlewood, who transferred to UK from Purdue in January for her final indoor season of eligibility, took second place in her last collegiate shot put competition with a personal best 54’2″/16.51m to score eight points and move to No. 2 on the Kentucky all-time indoor performers’ list. Hazlewood is entered in the weight throw on Saturday.
 
Nicole Fautsch scored three more points in the women’s shot put with a 52’2″/15.90m toss that was a big season best.
 
The UK women’s distance medley relay of Perri Bockrath, Faith Ross, Emily Akin and Rachel Boice scored two points with a seventh-place time of 11:42.26.
 
The UK women’s team is in a three-way tie for seventh place (13 points) after five of 17 events have been scored. Alabama leads Arkansas 35-30 after day one on the women’s side.
 
The UK women’s team qualified four entries from Friday prelims into Saturday track finals. UK will have 15 scoring opportunities on Saturday.
 
Live coverage of the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships will air on SECN+ at 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.

UK’s Saturday will start with Charles Lenford Jr. in the men’s weight throw at 2 p.m. ET, and UK’s track schedule will begin at 4:10 p.m. with the men’s mile final.
 

Friday men’s team report
The UK men’s team got field points from Matt Peare – with a school record pole vault, after Noah Castle and Charles Lenford Jr. combined to start off UK’s total in the shot put.
 
The UK men’s team is in 10th place on eight points with six of 17 events complete. Alabama leads LSU by two on 38 points in the men’s team standings.

The UK men’s team qualified four entries out of Friday prelims and into Saturday track finals. The UK men will have 12 more scoring chances on Saturday.
 
Peare bettered his previous pole vault PB by 4.5 inches, clearing 17’6.25″/5.34m to place fourth and score five points.

Castle (seventh, 60’7.75″/18.48m) and Charles Lenford Jr. (eighth | 60’5.25″/18.42m) got Kentucky on the SEC scoreboard with a combined three points in the men’s shot put. Freshman Josh Sobota just missed scoring, placing ninth, 2.25 inches behind Lenford Jr.’s best mark.
 
Daniel Roberts qualified for the final in both the men’s 60m dash and hurdles, running 6.69 for the eight best dash qualifying time, and 7.61 for the second best hurdles qualifying time. He’ll have lane five alongside collegiate record holder Grant Holloway (Florida) in the hurdles final on Saturday in a showdown between two of the top-10 60m hurdlers in collegiate history. Roberts will also be in an outside lane in the 60m final – in which Holloway was top qualifier.
 

Matt Peare

Ben Young and Brennan Fields qualified for the men’s mile final with q times of 4:08.85 (No. 4q) and 4:09.05 (No. 5q).

Friday UKTF women’s team qualifiers
Faith Ross and Masai Russell ran well to make the 60m hurdles final. Ross ran a PB 8.06q, which moved her to No. 3 on the UK all-time list behind multiple NCAA and SEC Champions Kendra Harrison and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn. Russell ran 8.20q, sixth fastest of the heats.
 
Abby Steiner, recovered from a slightly disappointing SEC indoor debut in the 60m earlier in the evening, by running 23.19q, sixth fastest of the prelims to make the final. Steiner entered the meet as the SEC leader in the event.

Kianna Gray made the 60m final running a season-best tying 7.30q (seventh).
 
Friday notables
Gray ran a solid 23.32 to win her 200m heat, but missed the final on time by a miniscule .002 seconds.
 
Rahman Minor placed 11th in a quality high jump competition clearing 6’11″/2.11m on his first attempt at the height. He couldn’t get over 7’1″/2.16m (his season best is 7’3″/2.21m) though, and in fact two men who did clear that height didn’t score (top eight). The winning height was 7’5.75″/2.28m.

Freshman Jacob Smith ran personal bests in the 60m (6.78) and 200m (21.02 – No. 7 on UK indoor all-time list) but didn’t qualify for either final.
 
Caleb Wilt just missed the 60m hurdles final, running a PB 7.84 to move to No. 5 on the UK all-time list. Freshman Tai Brown ran 7.87 the 10th fastest time of the prelims.

Chloe Abbott ran 53.35 to place 11th in qualifying and miss the 400m final.
 
Meet primer
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.
 

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