Five More UK Track & Field Athletes on to Eugene on NCAATF East Prelims Day Two

Kentucky improved its total of Wildcats qualified to the NCAA Championships finals site by five on Friday, moving to 12 overall through two days of the NCAA East Preliminary Championships at the UK Outdoor Track and Field Complex.

Four women – Destiny Carter and Kianna Gray in the 100 meters, Ellen Ekholm in the high jump and Katy Kunc in the 3,000m steeplechase – and one man – Nikolas Huffman in the shot put – added their names to the flight manifest for the trip to Eugene, Oregon next weekend.

Carter continued a so far ideal Preliminary Championships by advancing to the NCAA Championships – which will be held in 12 days’ time – in a second event. After making it out on Thursday in the long jump on Friday she advanced in the 100m with the seventh fastest time: 11.41 (-3.7). Kianna Gray booked a return trip to NCAAs in the 100m as she was fifth fastest of qualifying in 11.39 (-1.4).

Carter then ran the 200m first round in a personal best 22.61 to become the second best performer in school history – behind two-time NCAA 200m Champion Dezerea Bryant.

Freshman Ellen Ekholm soared over the high jump standard at 5’11.5”/1.82m to earn her place in the NCAA field with a fourth-place finish in east qualifying.

To cap the night, Southeastern Conference 3k steeplechase Champion Katy Kunc ran 10:03.95 to advance to Eugene on time as she was fourth in her heat, ninth overall.

Nikolas Huffman tossed the shot 61’0.75”/18.61m to place 11th and advance to the NCAA Championships finals site for the first time in his career.
“This preliminary meet it’s not about PRs or what you’ve done during the season,” Huffman said. “You just have to be top 12 on the day to move on. I’m really happy to advance to Oregon. Tough meet today just like it’s been a challenging season with some lingering injuries so I’m really happy to be heading to nationals.”

The 4,247 people at the track on Friday were treated to a picture perfect day and plenty of scintillating track and field. A two-day total of 5,351 people have passed through the track gates so far.

Six facility records were broken on Friday bringing the meet total of new track records to 12 with more action to come on Saturday.

Friday advancers to Saturday quarterfinals
Kentucky finished Friday with 100-percent qualifying records in the 100m and 110m hurdles and the women’s 200m.

Defending NCAA Champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn cruised to the top first-round time: 12.79Q (+0.2). Jacklyn Howell ran a season best 13.00Q (+1.7) to advance to the Saturdayquarterfinal with the third fastest performance.

Nick Anderson lowered his 110m hurdles school record to 13.56Q (-0.8). The time was .03 faster than his previous PB, and second fastest of qualifying. Freshman Daniel Roberts was 23rd overall, moving on to the quarterfinals with a time of 14.05Q (-0.1), which was good for third in his heat and an automatic qualification to Saturday.

Kentucky also advanced all five entries in the women’s 200m to the Saturday quarterfinals.

Carter’s aforementioned PB was second fastest of the prelims, while Camacho-Quinn ran a season best 22.88Q into a slight -0.1 headwind. Gray got the same time as Camacho-Quinn, while Kayelle Clarke’s season best 23.19q moved her up to seventh-best performer in school history in the event. Precious Hitchcock advanced with an automatic-qualifying time of 23.23 (+0.2).

Four of the five Kentucky women’s 200m NCAA quarterfinalists will be in heat one together, where the top 3 advance automatically with an addition three fastest times from three heats also moving on. Clarke, Camacho-Quinn, Carter and Hitchcock are in heat one – with Camacho-Quinn and Carter drawn in preferred lanes. Gray is in heat three.

Saturday outlook
The final day of the meet will begin Saturday at 1 p.m. ET with the men’s triple jump having been pushed up. The men’s high jump start was changed to 3 p.m. – that’ll be the first Saturday event featuring Wildcats. The women’s triple jump is now scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.

The first track events will be the 4x100m relays at 6 p.m.

The format
The name of the game at the preliminary championships is advancing to the national championships finals site.

Twelve performers from each event at the preliminary round sites advance to the NCAA Championships – hosted for the fifth-consecutive year as part of a run that is scheduled to continue through 2021 at Oregon’s Hayward Field – June 7-10.

The NCAA East Preliminary Championships continue Friday and Saturday.

Thursday NCAA Finals Qualifiers
Olivia Gruver bounced back from a disappointing Southeastern Conference Championships by advancing to the NCAA Championships with a perfect performance needing to clear just two heights.

Fred Dorsey made it to Eugene in the men’s long jump, while Sha’Keela Saunders and Carter got out of the women’s long jump.

Ethan Shalaway advanced in the men’s javelin, and Sarah Blake made it out of the women’s javelin for the second year in a row.

And then Jacob Thomson moved on to Eugene in the only track event where that was on offer for Wildcats on Thursday. He cruised to fourth in the men’s 10k with a time of 29:58.08.

Primer
Nearly 2,000 of the best collegiate athletes in the country have descended upon the UK Outdoor Track and Field Complex this weekend as Kentucky serves as host for the NCAA East Preliminary Championships Thursday through Saturday.

The name of the game at the preliminary championships is advancing to the national championships finals site.

Twelve performers from each event at the preliminary round sites advance to the NCAA Championships – hosted for the fifth-consecutive year as part of a run that is scheduled to continue through 2021 at Oregon’s Hayward Field – June 7-10.

The meet features 1824 individual entries (1,728 in individual events and 96 spots for four-person relays). Accounting for individual athletes entered in multiple events 1,695 athletes have converged upon Lexington to compete this weekend.

Sixteen Rio Olympians, including Kentucky’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn who was a semifinalist in the 100m  hurdles for Puerto Rico at The Games last August, are slated to compete at NCAA East Prelims (Nine women, seven men).

Kentucky is host site for the NCAA East Preliminary Championships for the first time. UK was the host school on the reconfigured UK outdoor track for the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships in 2014. UK has hosted the SEC Indoor Championships inside Nutter Field House seven times, most recently in 2015.

Tickets
Gates will open at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Pre-purchased tickets must be exchanged for a wristband at the ticket windows prior to entering the complex each day.
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Single-session tickets

Single-session tickets will be available for Saturday.

Broadcast
The meet will be streamed live on SEC Network+ via WatchESPN/ESPN3. Olympic broadcast veteran Bill Spaulding will call the action.

The coverage windows are set up to broadcast the quarterfinal and semifinal races on the track. The broadcast times were determined to cover the competitions where the advancers move on to the NCAA finals site, and then will also try to show the field events that occurred before the broadcast window opened.

The Saturday broadcast starts at 6 p.m.

The format
The East and West regions are comprised of all Division I institutions in 25 states apiece for each of the two regions. The East and West Preliminary Championship are being held with parallel schedules at two sites this weekend. Texas’ Mike A. Myers Stadium is host site for the West Preliminary Championships.
For each individual event contested at each of the preliminary sites, the top 48 declared student-athletes were accepted into the competition.  For each relay event, the top 24 declared relay teams were accepted into the competition.  Combined events (Heptathlon and Decathlon), are not contested at the preliminary sites.

For the heptathlon and decathlon, the top 24 declared student-athletes in each event based on their position on the national descending-order list were accepted into the Championships. Heptahlon and decathlon are not contested at preliminary championships sites.

UKTF outlook
Kentucky already has its first qualifiers for the NCAA National Championships — Tim Duckworth was named to the NCAA Championships decathlon field, which will be contested the first two days of NCAAs.

The seventh-ranked UK women’s team had 24 qualifiers entered into East Preliminary Championships this season. UK had a school-record 31 entries last year, and 25 in 2014 and 2015.
Kentucky has the seventh most women’s preliminary championships entries in the nation (24). Kentucky has the third most women’s entries in the East Region behind LSU (28) and Florida (26).
The men’s team has 20 entries, two more than a year ago, into the East Preliminary Championships. Kentucky’s 20 entries ranks tied for the 15th most in the country.

UKTF NCAA Outdoor Championships Precedent

The UK women’s team advanced 17 of a possible 31 entries to Eugene out of East Prelims last season.

The UK men’s team advanced four from a possible 18, in addition to two decathlon qualifiers in 2016
The UK women’s team was 11th, and the men’s team was 22nd at 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championships

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• All Field Events: Single round, three attempts. Advance top-12 placers from final to Eugene. No ties

‑ GO CATS –
Jake Most