UKTF Opens Outdoor Season at UCF’s Black and Gold Invite

ORLANDO, Fla. — Kentucky track & field is set to begin their first outdoor meet of the season at the University of Central Florida’s Black and Gold Invitational on Friday and Saturday at the UCF Soccer & Track Complex. 

The meet will be split up into a field event session and running event session each day. On Friday, the field events begin at 11 a.m. with the women’s pole vault and end around 6 p.m. with the men’s high jump. Running events start at 5:30 p.m. with the women’s 400-meter hurdles and end at 9:10 p.m. with the men’s 5000m. 

The women’s hammer throw kicks off Saturday’s events at 10 a.m. and the final field event is the men’s triple jump around noon. 

The first running event on Saturday is the women’s 4x100m relay at noon while the men’s 4x400m relay closes out the meet at 3:35 p.m. 

Live results can be found on Half-Mile Timing. There will be no live stream. 

The teams that will be competing are Alabama State, Albany, Bethune-Cookman, Connecticut, Dartmouth, Embry-Riddle, Flagler, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida Memorial, Florida Tech, Kentucky, Marshall, Mercer, Michigan, Minnesota, NC State, North Florida, NYU, Rhode Island, Rutgers, Saint Leo, Southeastern U., Stetson, Tampa, Temple, UCF, UMass Amherst, University of The Bahamas, Vanderbilt and VCU. 

The 2022 Indoor Season 

In total, the Wildcats broke nine school records in the indoor season:  

• Women’s 60m – Abby Steiner, 7.10 

• Women’s 200m – Abby Steiner, 22.09, American record, collegiate record 

• Women’s 300m – Abby Steiner, 35.80, collegiate record 

• Women’s 4x400m – Megan Moss, Abby Steiner, Karimah Davis, Alexis Holmes, 3:25.89 

• Women’s DMR – Jenna Gearing, Dajour Miles, Jenna Schwinghamer, Tori Herman, 10:58.81c 

• Men’s 200m – Lance Lang, 20.32 

• Men’s 300m – Dwight St. Hillaire, 32.70 

• Men’s pole vault – Keaton Daniel, 18’0.5″/5.50m 

• Men’s triple jump – Luke Brown, 53’5″/16.28m 

Some of the season’s highlights were Steiner’s 200m American indoor record run at SEC Championships, Steiner’s second NCAA title in the 200m and silver effort in the 60m, Holmes’ collegiate-leading 50.77 in the 400m, the women’s 4x400m third fastest time in collegiate history (3:25.89), Masai Russell’s silver effort in the 60H at NCAA Championships, Lang’s school record (20.32) and SEC gold in the 200m and Brown breaking the triple jump school record three times in one season as a freshman, being named the SEC Men’s Freshman Field Athlete of the Year. 

Steiner notched three USTFCCCA National Women’s Athlete of the Week awards, two SEC Women’s Runner of the Week awards, SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and SEC Women’s Runner of the Year. 

At SEC Championships, the women’s team finished third with 79 points while the men’s team finished fourth with 64 points. The women earned their highest point total at SEC Indoor Championships in team history. 

At NCAA Championships, the women’s team finished third with 44 points, tying the program’s highest finish indoors ever, while the men placed 21st with 10 points. 

As a result, the Wildcats earned 23 All-American honors, 18 first-team honors and five second-team, between 15 student-athletes. 

The Cats Last Meet: NCAA Indoor Championships 

Abby Steiner defended her 200-meter National Championship, breaking her meet record in the process, and leading the Kentucky women’s track and field team to a school-record 44 points and third place as a team at the 2022 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, equaling the best team finish at the competition in school history. 

UK’s men’s team finished tied for 21st with 10 points. 

Steiner won gold in the 200m, a silver in the 60m, and Masai Russell took silver in the 60m hurdles. UK’s women’s 4x400m relay of Alexis Holmes, Steiner, Davis and Miles, plus the men’s 4×4 of Dwight St. Hillaire, Lance Lang, Brian Faust and Jacob Smith each took bronze medals. 

Steiner won the 200m in 22.16, breaking the meet record she tied last year (broke the tie with Harvard’s Gabby Thomas – now a two-time Olympic medalist) en route to the title a year ago.  

Her run was also the second fastest collegiate run ever, trailing her own collegiate and American record by only .07 that was set at 2022 SEC Championships. 

Steiner scored 10 points in the 200m, and another eight in the 60m, followed by being part of the bronze 4x400m relay that scored six points. 

Steiner claimed the 60m silver with a school record and personal best time of 7.10. 

Russell earned her first individual NCAA medal, a silver, in the 60m hurdles with a time of 7.95. 

Kentucky’s women’s 4x400m relay ran 3:28.77 to earn bronze in the meet-concluding race, clinching the third place for the team. 

Holmes scored five points with a fourth-place finish in the women’s 400m (51.50) . She tied her best NCAA Championship finish from when she finished fourth in the same race as a freshman at Penn State. 

Davis added three points to the 10 Steiner scored in the 200m, running 23.23 for her highest finish at NCAA Championships in her career. 

The Kentucky track and field women’s distance medley relay of Jenna Gearing, Megan Moss, Jenna Schwinghamer and Tori Herman scored four points, placing fifth with a time of 11:02.41 to highlight UK’s first night of the NCAA Indoor Championships. 
 
The DMR earned the Wildcats’ best NCAA finish in the event since 2013. The team ran their third fastest time this season and second fastest when not taking conversions into account. 

Tori Herman made her 3000m NCAA Championship debut with a 9:13.70 run in finals for 16th place. 
 
Lance Lang placed fifth in the men’s 200m with a 20.87 time to score four points.  

UK’s men’s 4x400m of Dwight St. Hillaire, Lang, Brian Faust and Jacob Smith earned six points with a bronze-medal run that clocked in at 3:04.64. 

Field athletes Keaton Daniel and Luke Brown placed 12th and 16th in the pole vault (18’0.5″/5.50m) and triple jump (53’5″/16.28m), respectively. 

The men’s team finished 21st overall with 10 points scored. 

The 2021 Outdoor Season 

Kentucky finished strong in their last outdoor season. The men’s team finished fifth at NCAA outdoor championships, highlighted by a pole vault silver medal from Keaton Daniel (18’2.5″/5.55m), fifth place finish in the shotput (65’0.5″/19.82m) by Josh Sobota and Dwight St. Hillaire running for fifth in the 400m (45.20). 

Daniel’s silver medal was the first men’s NCAA pole vault medal in UK history. 

The women’s team finished 21st at NCAA outdoor championships, highlighted by Masai Russell’s fourth-place finish in the 400m hurdles (56.18) and sixth-place result in the 100m hurdles (12.97). The women’s 4x400m relay finished eighth. 

It was the seventh-straight year the Kentucky women finished in the top-25 at NCAAs. 

The Wildcats earned 26 All-America honors for the outdoor season. 

Kentucky track & field also boasts two current members on the team who ran in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. St. Hillaire ran the 400m and 4x400m relay for Trinidad & Tobago while Moss ran the 4x400m relay for the Bahamas. 

Follow Kentucky Track and Field and Cross Country on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and at UKathletics.com.