This Day in UK Athletics History: McLaughlin Smashes NCAA Record (2018)

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Records galore went down as the Kentucky track and field teams concluded the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships on Sunday, May 14, 2018.
 
Sydney McLaughlin smashed the collegiate record in the 400-meter hurdles running 52.75 to win by more than three seconds. Teammate Jasmine Camacho-Quinn also won by a huge margin, and came within .01-seconds of the 100m hurdles collegiate record.
 
So after another championship meet, tales of Kentucky hurdling prowess have only grown in lore, but the Wildcats showed elite status across the track and field event spectrum over the past three days of competition in the nation’s best conference.

UK’s women’s 4x400m relay of Faith Ross, Camacho-Quinn, McLaughlin and Kayelle Clarke concluded the meet by winning gold, themselves with the 11th fastest time in collegiate history, 3:25.99. It was UK’s first mile-relay SEC gold, and the meet record by more than a second.

The performance was all the more impressive considering a momentum-reducing handoff bobble between the second and third legs.
 
The Kentucky women’s 4x100m relay of Celera Barnes, Camacho-Quinn, Clarke and Kianna Gray ran the fourth fastest time in NCAA history en route to SEC silver to start the day.

So in all for the weekend, Kentucky concluded the SEC Championships having made a whole lot of changes to the all-time collegiate lists.
 
McLaughlin lowered the 400m hurdles collegiate record by nearly half a second, Camacho-Quinn ran the second fastest 100m hurdles time by a collegian in history, UK turned in the fourth fastest 4x100m relay time in NCAA history and the 11th fastest mile relay.
 
McLaughlin, Camacho-Quinn and the mile relay each set the SEC Championships records.