Jade Gates Earns Hammer Throw Silver on Day One of SEC Championships

OXFORD, Miss. – Kentucky track & field senior thrower Jade Gates threw for a silver medal in the hammer throw with a school record mark on the first day of the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships at the University of Mississippi at the Ole Miss Track and Field Facility. 

UKTF earned seven total personal bests and had eight finals qualifiers to conclude the evening. 

The first event for the Wildcats on Friday will be at 5:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. CT. 

Day One 

Gates was the star of day one for UKTF, earning silver in the hammer throw with a school record mark of 219’11″/67.05m. The previous school record, which also belonged to Gates, was 219’1″/ from the Kentucky Invitational. 

The senior from St. Louis is now ranked 14th in the NCAA this season and will make the trip to NCAA regionals in Bloomington in two weeks’ time. 

Steiner took the second fastest time in the 200m prelims with a time of 22.38Q, running under the then-facility record of 22.41, and will compete in Saturday’s final. 

Masai Russell took the third fastest time in the 400m hurdles prelim (56.32Q) and second fastest in her heat. She will return to the event final on Saturday after earning bronze at last year’s SEC Outdoor Championships. 

Reigning SEC indoor 200m gold medalist Lance Lang ran the fourth fastest time in the 200m prelims (20.55) and won his heat to automatically qualify for Saturday’s final. He will be joined by teammate Jacob Smith, who ran a personal best 20.65 for the final qualifying spot. 

Three Wildcats are set to compete in 800m finals on Saturday after running impressive times in prelims. Jenna Schwinghamer was the sixth fastest qualifier with a time of 2:04.93, Jenna Gearing was seventh (2:05.03) and Deanna Martin was the final qualifier in ninth (2:05.56). 

Kenroy Williams will run to the 400m hurdles final for the second year in a row, automatically qualifying with a second-place finish in his heat (50.59). Williams finished fifth in the event last year. 

Junior Michael Browning made it to finals in the hammer throw and finished ninth (197’9″/60.28m), tying his personal best. 

Meet Information 

UKTF brought 53 student-athletes to face 13 SEC teams and compete for the men’s and women’s titles. 

The first two days of competition consist of running prelims, field events, the heptathlon/decathlon, and some distance event finals. All relay events, finals for races 1,500m and under and some field events will take place on Saturday. 

Live results can be found on Delta Timing and the meet will be streamed live on SEC Network +. 

Tickets for the championships may be purchased from the Ole Miss Ticket Office by visiting OleMissTix.com. 

The ticket office is open Monday – Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets will be available for purchase at Gates 1 and 7 two hours prior to the first scheduled event on each day of the championship. 

All seating for the SEC Championships will be general admission. Children who are 12 months of age and older will require a ticket for entry into the facility. 

The ticket price for an all-session adult ticket is 40 dollars and single-day tickets are 15 dollars for adults. 

Ole Miss Athletics and the Southeastern Conference (SEC) have a clear bag policy regulating the size and type of bag that may be carried into all venues. 

General fan parking will be located where available in the South Lot, the north end of the Jeanette Phillips Commuter Lot, in the SJB Pavilion Parking Garage, and both the Tad Smith South and Tad Smith Valley lots. ADA parking is available in front of the track offices off of Hill Drive before Manning Way. 

On Friday, running events start at 7 p.m. and end at 10:30 p.m., field events last from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. and the decathlon/heptathlon last from 2:45 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. 

Saturday’s running events go from 6:05 p.m. to 10 p.m. and field events from 1:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

Track Season Recap 

The Wildcats entered SEC Championships ranked seventh (women) and 15th (men), with 22 performances ranked in the 2022 NCAA top 50 for the women and 15 for the men. 

The women’s and men’s teams also combine for 21 NCAA top 20 performances for the 2022 outdoor season. 

The women’s team is coming off a relay cup win at the Drake Relays. 

Abby Steiner, appearing in four of those 21 performances, gave the Big Blue Nation a taste of #SteinerSpeed, in the lone home meet of the outdoor season. The senior smashed the facility record in the 200-meter dash running an outdoor personal best of 22.05 seconds, the third fastest time in collegiate history and second fastest in the NCAA this season.  

She also ran the fifth fastest wind legal 100m in collegiate history at the Joe May Invitational at LSU in April, clocking 10.92 for the fastest wind legal time of the 2022 NCAA outdoor season. 

The women’s 4x100m is also top ranked, sitting at No. 2 in the nation this season with a time of 42.46 from the Joe May Invite featuring Steiner, Shadajah Ballard, Masai Russell and Davis. 

The women’s 4×400-meter relay of Karimah Davis, Steiner, Dajour Miles and Alexis Holmes broke the school and track records at the Kentucky Invitational with a time of 3:25.79 that ranks No. 3 in the nation this season. 

Also ranked third in the nation this season is Russell in the 400m hurdles. She ran a personal best 55.41 at Florida Relays in late March, notching the fourth all-time spot for UK in the process. She also has the No. 6 100m hurdles time in the nation this season from when she earned a personal best 12.71 at the Kentucky Invitational, which was a facility record and third all-time for UK. 

The men’s 4x400m earned the third fastest time in UKTF history and fourth fastest in the NCAA this season at 3:02.21 from the Florida Relays. The team featured Dwight St. Hillaire, Lance Lang, Kennedy Lightner and Brian Faust. 

The highest ranked men’s individual performance this season is Lang’s wind-assisted 10.06 (2.4) personal best from the Kentucky Invitational that ranks sixth in the NCAA this season and faster than the UKTF school record. His 200m time of 20.30 is ranked 10th in the NCAA this season. 

Also ranked sixth in the nation is Alexis Holmes in the 400m with her outdoor personal best of 51.54 from the Kentucky Invitational. 

Olympian St. Hillaire is the top Wildcat in the men’s 200m and 400m with times of 20.24w (3.0) and 45.41, respectively. His 200m time is ranked eighth in the nation and 400m time is ranked 10th. 

Tori Herman is the Wildcats’ top ranked distance runner, currently ranking 13th in the NCAA this season in the 1,500m with a time of 4:14.12, which is a school record from the Kentucky Invitational. 

Tai Brown leads the Cats in the 110m hurdles, also ranking 13th in the NCAA, with a time of 13.49w (2.8). 

The men’s 4x100m is the 17th fastest in the NCAA this season with a time of 39.18 from the Kentucky Invitational, featuring Lang, St. Hillaire, Smith and Lightner. 

The final runner ranked in the NCAA top 20 is Kenroy Williams in the 400m hurdles, ranked 18th with a time of 50.30. 

Field Season Recap 

Leading all field event specialists on the men’s and women’s teams are Keaton Daniel, Rahman Minor, Jade Gates and Josh Sobota. 

Daniel is ranked 11th in the NCAA this season in pole vault with his season best vault of 18’0.5″/5.50m, closely followed by teammate and fellow school record-holder Matt Peare at 19th (17’7″/5.36m) 

Minor is ranked 12th in the high jump with a height of 7’2.25″/2.19m, which was his best jump in over two years. He has jumped over seven feet in each of UKTF’s five outdoor meets this season and has yet to place outside the top two. 

Gates was the No. 15 ranked hammer thrower in the NCAA this season with her school record throw of 219’1″/66.77m from the Kentucky Invitational until earning SEC silver and getting a new school record 

Sobota is ranked high in both the shot put and discus, ranking 14th in the shot put with his outdoor personal best of 65’2.25″/19.87m from the Joe May Invitational and 22nd in discus (191’9″/58.44m). His shot put was second all-time in UKTF history and discus throw was ninth all-time for UK. 

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