Roberts’ Elite Win Highlights Strong Drake Relays for UKTF

DES MOINES, Iowa – Kentucky Track and Field junior Daniel Roberts won a world-class 110-meter hurdles showdown to cap a run of Wildcats current and alumni dominating the straight hurdles races at the Drake Relays on Saturday.
 
Wildcats won six more events on Saturday including the men’s and women’s 4x200m relays as the weather deteriorated and temperatures dropped throughout the afternoon. UK elected not to run the 4×100 and 4x400m relays with the onset of postseason competitions coming into view.
 
Kentucky finished sixth with 15 points in the men’s standings of the Drake Relays team competition that scores five relays. The UK women’s team – ranked No. 2 in this week’s USTFCCCA rankings – finished 13^thwith six points. The HyVee Cup scores the 4×100, 4×4, 4×7, sprint medley and distance medley relays.
 
Roberts, running as the lone collegian in the “Elite World Showdown” invitational section of the men’s 110m hurdles, bested a field highlighted by his former training partner – reigning Olympic and World Champion Omar McLeod. 
 
Roberts ran a slightly windy 13.28w (+2.3) to win in a time that throughout the collegiate ranks was only bettered on Saturday by his everlasting collegiate rival Grant Holloway (Florida) who ran 13.25 at home in Gainesville in warmer conditions. In any event, the two figure to run another historic race at the Southeastern Conference Championships in two weeks in Fayetteville Arkansas.
 
Faith Ross won the women’s collegiate 100m hurdles in 13.30w (+2.3). Tai Brown and Caleb Wilt went 1-2 in the men’s 110m hurdles collegiate final, running respective times of 13.98 and 14.10 (+2.0).
 
In the women’s 100m hurdles world showdown invitational, UK Class of 2015 alumna Kendra Harrison bettered UK Class of 2018 alumna Jasmine Camacho-Quinn 12.65w – 12.85w (+3.3) in a cold, rainy race that was called back to the starting line twice due to false starts.
 
Celera Barnes, Abby Steiner, Chloe Abbott and Kianna Gray won the women’s 4×2 in 1:33.70.
 
Dwight St. Hillaire, Jacob Smith, Roberts and Cameron Council won the men’s 4×2 in 1:23.90.
 
Marie-Josée Ebwea-Bile Excel won the women’s triple jump with a mark of 43’10.75″/13.38m (+0.7).
 
Ellen Ekholm claimed the women’s high jump for the third week in a row, clearing 5’9.25″/1.76m. Carly Hinkle was sixth.
 
Matt Peare was runner-up in the men’s collegiate pole vault, clearing 16’8.75″5.10m. Molly Leppelmeier was runner-up in the women’s hammer throw with a mark of 193’9″/59.70m.
 
Charles Lenford Jr. tossed a 3-foot, 2-inch personal best to place second in the men’s discus with a mark of 192’2″/58.58m, moving to No. 7 on the UK all-time performers’ list.
 
Friday report
Faith Ross picked up Kentucky’s first Drake Relays individual event win in 21 years, two 4×100-meter relays advanced to finals, seven Wildcats advanced to individual-event finals and a few more Wildcats turned in PRs during the first two days of the meet.
 
UK’s men’s 4x800m relay of Gabe Szalay, Brennan Fields, Matthew Thomas and Ben Young scored UK’s first five points of the meet’s team-relay competition with a fourth-place finish. The balance of the five scored relays will run on Saturday.

Ross won the women’s 400m hurdles with a time of 58.21. Masai Russell was third in 59.42. Ross became UK’s first event winner at the Drake Relays since UK Hall of Famer Sherri Hoover Bordner won the 1,500m in 1988 (as reported by veteran Iowa sports publicist Mike Mahon).
 
UK’s men’s and women’s 4x100m relay teams were each the top qualifiers out of the prelims. The women’s team of Celera Barnes, Abby Steiner, Faith Ross and Kianna Gray ran 44.13Q. The men’s team of Roberts, St. Hillaire, Smith and Council ran 39.90Q.
 
Jaci Bickett placed fourth in the women’s pole vault with a fourth-place clearance at 13’3.5″/4.05m, a PB, which moved her to No. 2 on the UK all-time outdoor performers’ list – only behind two-time defending NCAA Champion Oliva Gruver.
 
Nicole Fautsch tossed a shot-put PB for the third week in a row, placing third with a mark of 53’5.75″/16.30m improving her mark at No. 3 on the UK all-time outdoor list. Fautsch placed fourth in the women’s discus and Molly Leppelmeier was fifth.
 
Smith tied teammate St. Hillaire at No. 7 on the UK outdoor all-time list with a fourth-place 200m time of 20.76 (+0.3). St. Hillaire placed fifth in 20.82.

Janie O’Connor and Tatiana Aholou qualified out of the women’s 100m first round.
 
On Thursday, Mallory Liggett ran an eighth-place 3k steeplechase time of 10:45.38, a PB that improved her No. 8 mark on the UK all-time list.

The meet was UK’s last of the regular season, a fortnight before the SEC Championships.
 

—
For the most in-depth coverage of the UK cross country and track and field program follow the @KentuckyTrack social media channels on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook as well as on UKathletics.com.