19 Wildcats Qualify for NCAA Indoor Championship
LEXINGTON, Ky. — The NCAA has announced that 19 Wildcats of Kentucky track & field, 11 women and eight men, have qualified to compete in the upcoming NCAA Indoor Championship meet this weekend from Friday, March 11 to Saturday, March 12 in Birmingham, Alabama.
The top 16 competitors in each individual event qualify for NCAA Championships while each of the four relay events will have 12 teams competing.
Below is a list of who has qualified and in which event(s).
Women:
60m – Abby Steiner
200m – Abby Steiner, Karimah Davis
400m – Alexis Holmes
3000m – Tori Herman
60m Hurdles – Masai Russell
4x400m Relay – Megan Moss, Dajour Miles, Karimah Davis, Alexis Holmes, Abby Steiner, Masai Russell
Distance Medley Relay – Megan Moss, Dajour Miles, Jenna Schwinghamer, Jenna Gearing, Bryanna Lucas, DeAnna Martin, Tori Herman
Men:
60m – Lance Lang
200m – Lance Lang, Kennedy Lightner
400m – Dwight St. Hillaire
Pole Vault – Keaton Daniel
Triple Jump – Luke Brown
4x400m Relay – Brian Faust, Kenroy Williams, Jacob Smith, Dwight St. Hillaire, Lance Lang, Kennedy Lightner
The Wildcats are coming off an impressive SEC Championships where the women finished third and the men finished fourth. It was the men’s best finish since 1996 and the women’s team’s highest point total since 1989.
The most notable qualifier for UKTF is Steiner, who qualified in three events. She wowed the world on February 26 when she ran the fastest indoor 200m in American history and second fastest in world history at 22.09 seconds to earn her the SEC gold. This was her third year in a row winning the 200m SEC gold medal and third time breaking the collegiate record.
She also won bronze in the 60m (7.19), but her top time in the 60m came at the Tiger Paw Invitational in February when she tied the school record of 7.12.
Steiner will look to defend her 200m NCAA title from 2021, when she tied the then-collegiate record of 22.38, which she has now broken twice since then.
UKTF will choose four student-athletes to run in the 4x400m relay, with Steiner, Moss, Miles, Davis, Holmes and Russell to choose from. The fastest 4x400m relay of the season for the Wildcats came at SEC Championships, where the team of Steiner, Holmes, Davis and Moss ran 3:25.89, the third fastest time in collegiate history. Miles and Russell have ran in the second and third fastest 4x400m relays in school history this season.
Lang is also a qualifier in the same three events as Steiner, but on the men’s side.
He won gold in the 200m at SEC Championships with a school record time of 20.32, making him the second fastest in the event in the NCAA this year. He also earned bronze in the 60m (6.69), but grabbed the last NCAA qualifying spot in the event with his 6.61 run at the Tiger Paw Invitational.
Lang will also be one of four to compete in the 4x400m at NCAA Indoor Championships. The team’s best relay of the season is their 3:04.04 mark from SEC Championships with the team of Faust, Lightner, St. Hillaire and Lang.
Six student-athletes qualified in one individual event and one relay: Holmes, Davis, Herman, Russell, Lightner and St. Hillaire.
Holmes is the current collegiate leader in the 400m with a time of 50.77 that won her the SEC title and is slated for a big performance at NCAAs.
Davis ran a personal best 22.79 at SEC Championships for the 200m bronze medal and is going into NCAAs ranked fifth in the event in the collegiate rankings.
Lightner is the second fastest Wildcat and fourth fastest in the NCAA this season in the men’s 200m from his 20.45 run from the Tiger Paw Invitational. He’s also coming off a bronze medal performance at SEC Championships in the same race.
St. Hillaire is currently the eighth fastest in the NCAA this season in the 400m with his time of 45.90 from the Tiger Paw Invitational. He placed fourth in the 400m at SEC Championships.
Russell earned a bronze medal for Kentucky in the 60m hurdles with a time of 7.95 but her best time of season, which was also a personal best and second fastest for UK all-time, was a 7.93 run at the Tiger Paw Invitational.
Russell is the sixth fastest in the NCAA this season from that Clemson performance.
As a sophomore, Herman is already headed to her second NCAA Indoor Championship, but this time in the 3000m after qualifying in the mile in 2021. She won the 3000m silver medal at SEC Championships with a time of 9:00.60, which grabbed her the final qualifying spot for NCAAs.
Herman will be among seven Wildcats to choose from to compete in the DMR, which has run the two fastest times in program history this season with different combinations of runners.
The current DMR school record sits at 10:58.81 from the JDL DMR Invite in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in February. Miles, Gearing, Schwinghamer and Herman were on that team.
Moss and Miles qualified for NCAA Indoor Championships on both the DMR and 4x400m relay. Moss was on Kentucky’s 4x400m school record relay while Miles was on the DMR school record relay.
Williams, Faust and Smith qualified for NCAAs in the 4x400m and are three of six Wildcats to qualify in the event. Only four will compete in the relay.
Brown, a freshman, will be competing at his first NCAA Indoor Championship in the triple jump, in which he is currently ranked 12th in the NCAA with his school record jump of 53’5″/16.28m from the Tiger Paw Invitational. It was Brown’s third time breaking the school record in the event this season.
Brown finished fourth in the triple jump at SEC Championships and earned a spot on the All-SEC Freshman Team as the top freshman finisher in the event.
Daniel, another school record holder, will be competing in the pole vault at NCAAs and is currently ranked ninth in the NCAA this season. He earned that spot through tying the school record in the indoor pole vault at the Jim Green Invitational (18’0.5″/5.50m).
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