Kentucky Track & Field to Compete in NCAA Indoor Championships

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — University of Kentucky track & field is set to compete in NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Alabama at the Birmingham CrossPlex from Friday, March 11 to Saturday March 12. 

Nineteen Wildcats qualified for NCAAs and traveled to the meet. 

Competition begins at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. CT on Friday with the men’s heptathlon, but UKTF’s first event is the men’s pole vault at 4 p.m. ET. The final event on Friday is the women’s distance medley relay at 9:45 p.m., in which one team of Wildcats will be competing. 

Saturday’s events begin with the men’s heptathlon 60-meter hurdles at 11:30 a.m., while the first Wildcat will be competing at 4:45 p.m. in the triple jump. The meet’s last event is the women’s 4x400m relay at 9:20 p.m., in which Kentucky is poised for a podium finish. 

Live results can be found at flashresults.com. 

The meet can be streamed live on ESPN3 beginning at 11 a.m. ET on Friday and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday and ending when each day’s events end. There will be a highlight show on ESPNU at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 13. 

Be mindful that there is a different stream link for different times of the day/different sessions, so be sure to refer to the Kentucky track & field schedule page for all streaming links. 

The venue is open to the public with the purchase of a ticket and masks are required. Ticket information can be found at ncaatickets.com/sport/indoor-track-and-field. 

Kentucky NCAA Indoor Championship History 

At 2021 NCAA Indoor Championships, the Kentucky women placed 13th with a total of 17 points while the men tied for 14th with 12 points.  

The women’s team’s best finish in UKTF history was third in 2018 when they scored 34 points featuring now-Olympic gold medalists Sydney McLaughlin and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn. 

The men’s finish in 2021 was the highest team finish in 25 years after the men placed seventh with 22 points in 1996. 

Nine of the 19 Wildcats that qualified for this year’s indoor championship meet also competed in last year’s indoor NCAAs, which featured five podium finishes in the men’s 200m, men’s 400m, men’s 4x400m, women’s 200m and women’s 4x400m. 

Lance Lang finished sixth in the 200m, Dwight St. Hillaire placed eighth in the 400m, and both ran in the NCAA silver medal-winning 4x400m relay alongside Kennedy Lightner and Jacob Smith. 

Abby Steiner won the 200m with a then-collegiate record-tying time of 22.38 and the women’s 4x400m relay of Steiner, Megan Moss, Dajour Miles and Masai Russell placed fifth. 

Six Wildcats will be making their NCAA Indoor Championships debut on Friday and Saturday, including Jenna Gearing, Jenna Schwinghamer, DeAnna Martin, Bryanna Lucas, Keaton Daniel, Luke Brown, and Karimah Davis. 

The Competing Wildcats 

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 competitor for UKTF is Steiner, who will run in the 60m, 200m and 4x400m. 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 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, Karimah Davis, Alexis 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 run in the second and third fastest 4x400m relays in school history this season. 

Lang will also compete 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 the SEC title and is slated for a big performance at NCAAs. Holmes also won the 2020 SEC 400m gold and ran in the 400m at 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships as a freshman at Penn State. 

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 in the 60m hurdles this season from that Clemson performance. 

As a sophomore, Tori 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 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. 

Kenroy Williams, Brian 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 from Jamaica, 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). 

Daniel is also the outdoor pole vault school record holder and earned a silver medal at 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships. 

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