Wildcats Out West: UKTF Set for NCAA Championships

EUGENE, Ore. – The Kentucky track & field teams will conclude the 2022 season at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field from Wednesday through Saturday. 
 
Nineteen Wildcats qualified for the NCAA finals site by finishing in the top 12 of their respective individual and relay events at NCAA East Prelims in Bloomington, Indiana, over Memorial Day weekend. 
 
The UK women’s team goes into the meet No. 7 on USTFCCCA’s National Track and Field Ratings Index.  
 
Meet Information 
The UK men’s team will compete on Wednesday and Friday while the women’s competition will be held Thursday and Saturday. The first two days of the meet are prelim days for most of the running events plus prelims and finals for some distance track and field events. 
 
The meet begins at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT (local time in Oregon) on Wednesday. The first Wildcats to compete start at 7:32 p.m. ET/4:32 p.m. PT when the men’s 4x100m takes the track for prelims and day one wraps with the men’s 4x400m at 10:48 p.m. ET. The schedule of events for Friday is the same plus/minus a few field events, with the men’s 4x100m final starting at 9 p.m. and the 4x400m final finishing around 11:30 p.m. ET. 
 
On Thursday, the meet begins with the women’s hammer at 6 p.m. ET and ends with the women’s 4x400m at 11:48 p.m. ET. On Saturday, UKTF begins their day with the women’s 4x100m final at 5:32 p.m. ET., and just like on Thursday, ends with the 4x400m at 7:51 p.m. Three of Kentucky’s four field athletes compete in their respective event finals on the first two days of competition. 
 
The meet will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks and streaming platforms. The first two days will be shown on ESPNU while the men’s final day will be broadcast on ESPN2 and the women’s final day on ESPN. 
 
Start lists and results will be at flashresults.ncaa.com. 

Below is a list of Wildcats competing and what events they will be competing in. 

Women: 

• Shadajah Ballard – 4x100m 

• Perri Bockrath – 3,000m steeplechase 

• Karimah Davis – 200m, 4x100m, 4x400m 

• Sophie Galloway – triple jump 

• Jade Gates – hammer throw 

• Alexis Holmes – 400m, 4x400m 

• Dajour Miles – 4x400m 

• Megan Moss – 400m, 4x400m (alternate) 

• Masai Russell – 100m hurdles, 400m hurdles, 4x400m (alternate) 

• Abby Steiner – 100m, 200m, 4x100m, 4x400m 

Men 

• Keaton Daniel – pole vault 

• Brian Faust – 400m, 4x400m 

• Rodney Heath Jr. – 4x100m 

• Lance Lang – 200m, 4x100m, 4x400m 

• Kennedy Lightner – 200m, 4x400m 

• Jacob Smith – 4x100m, 4x400m (alternate) 

• Josh Sobota – shot put 

• Dwight St. Hillaire – 400m, 4x100m, 4x400m 

• Kenroy Williams – 400m hurdles 

Wildcats to Watch 
Men’s Team 
Pole vaulter Keaton Daniel, fresh off repeating as Southeastern Conference champion last month, will look to build on the NCAA silver he earned a year ago at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, which was his debut in the rebuilt Hayward Field. 
 
UK’s men’s 4x400m relay of Dwight St. Hillaire, Lance Lang, Kennedy Lightner and Brian Faust enter the NCAA Championships as one of the nation’s top teams having run a sub-three-minute relay at the SEC Championships (2:59.93). 

St. Hillaire and Faust will also compete in the 400m semifinal on Wednesday, qualifying for the meet with two sub-46 times. 
 
The men’s 4x100m featuring Heath Jr., Lang, Smith and St. Hillaire will kick off UK’s Wednesday in the semifinal heats.  
 
Kenroy Williams earned his second outdoor nationals-berth in a row in the 400m hurdles (50.96).  
 
Lang took the final qualifying spot at NCAAs in the 200m for the second year in a row. Josh Sobota qualified for the men’s shot put for the second season in a row. He placed fifth in the shot put last year and is coming off a recent outdoor personal best from NCAA East Prelims (65’9.75″/20.06m). 
 
Women’s Team  
UK’s women’x 4x400m relay of Karimah Davis, Megan Moss, Dajour Miles and Alexis Holmes, which set the collegiate record (3:21.93) en route to the Southeastern Conference title last month, earned the top qualifying spot out of East Prelims. 

Steiner also qualified in two individual events, running the top time of the 200m quarterfinal (22.01w, +2.1) in Bloomington. Steiner ran the second fastest time of 100m quarterfinals (11.04).  

The 4x100m featuring Steiner, Shadajah Ballard, Masai Russell and Davis was second fastest time of the first round (42.63). 

Russell qualified for NCAA Outdoors in the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles for the second year in a row with her 12.84 (-1.5) 100m hurdles at NCAA East Prelims and a personal best in the 400m hurdles (55.36). 
 
Holmes is in the midst of an impressive streak of sub-52-second times, and qualified for the NCAA 400m outdoors for the first time in her career. 
 
Perri Bockrath ran the school record in the 3k steeplechase of 9:52.00 at East Prelims to make the NCAA Championships for the first time in her career. Freshman Sophie Galloway is an NCAA qualfier in the triple jump. 
 
Davis earned a qualification spot in the 200m and Moss made the individual 400m field. Jade Gates also made NCAAs for the first time in the hammer throw. 
 
UKTF at the NCAA Championships 
A year ago, the Kentucky women’s team totaled 13 points to finish in 21st place, the seventh-straight time that the Wildcats have placed in the top 25. UK’s best NCAA Outdoor Championships finish was as national runner-up in 2015. 
 
The men’s team tied for 15th place – UK’s best showing in seven years – at the 2021 NCAA Championships. The UK men’s team’s best ever NCAA Outdoor finish was seventh in 1996 on 22 points. 

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