UK Track & Field Concludes Successful Run as NCAA East Prelims Host with 23 Qualifiers

Saturday – really Kentucky’s whole three-day stint as host institution of the NCAA East Preliminary Championships — was a day for big numbers at the UK Outdoor Track and Field Complex.

Ten more Wildcats advanced to Eugene, Oregon where the NCAA Championships will conclude June 7-10. For the weekend, UK qualified 22 entries – 16 women’s, six men’s.

Tim Duckworth had already qualified in the decathlon, meaning UK will have 23 entries in Eugene.
Then, despite having to navigate pesky – but of course serious – electrical storms through the mid-afternoon into the evening, 4,721 people still came to the UK Track Complex on Saturday. That total brought the three-day figure for NCAA East Prelims to 10,072 at the track meet this weekend, reflecting by some measure Lexington’s status as a community with a growing total of track and field aficionados.
And those thousands were treated to the elite competition, and exciting performances, they were promised. Six facility records were broken on Saturday – highlighted by the second fastest 200 meters race in collegiate history – meaning NCAA athletes posted 12 changes to the facility records when the weekend was all said and done.

UK’s NCAA qualifiers
Sixteen of a possible 24 women, and six of a possible 20 men advanced to Eugene in addition to Duckworth in the decathlon.

UK advanced eight women’s entries – the 4×100 and 4x400m relays, Destiny Carter and Kianna Gray in the 200m, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn in the 100m hurdles and 200m, Jacklyn Howell in the 100m hurdles and Marie-Josee Ebwea-Bile in the triple jump on Saturday.

Nick Anderson lowered his school record to 13.53 to earn a return trip to Eugene where he’ll aim to do one better than his silver medal performance in the 110m hurdles from a year ago.

“The goal for this weekend was always go in, win the race and qualify for Nationals,” Anderson said. “I had nothing else but that as my goal. To achieve my main goals for the season I had to get there. Now I’ll take this next week and half and just work hard. I’ll fix some things, listen to Coach Flo and get ready for Nationals.”

The women’s 4x100m relay school record fell on Saturday as well. The team of Destiny Carter, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, Kayelle Clarke and Kianna Gray ran 42.79 to advance to Eugene with the second fastest time in the east. Collegiate record holder LSU qualified first.

Justin Kretchmer made his last East Preliminary Championships into the first iteration of said meet to see him advance to Eugene. The senior had placed 13th in 2015 – two weeks after he had won the Southeastern Conference Championship – on a jump off, missing nationals by about as narrow a margin as they come. So his clearance of 7’0.5”/2.15m to place sixth was likely all the more sweet.

Camacho-Quinn qualified No. 1 in the east to continue her NCAA 100m hurdles title defense in Eugene. She ran 12.80. She’ll be joined in Oregon by Jacklyn Howell, who was third in her heat giving her an automatic qualifying spot to NCAAs.

Three Wildcats advanced on to Eugene in the women’s 200m led by Kentucky’s Ms. Versatility: Destiny Carter. She booked her fourth entry into the Eugene field by qualifying third in the women’s 200m with a heat-winning time of 22.70. Carter also qualified in the long jump and 100m.

Not to be completely eclipsed in terms of quantity of events qualified in, Gray had the sixth fastest qualifying time 22.86 to get a big “Q” for automatic qualification, while Camacho-Quinn made NCAAs in the 200m for the second year in a row by running 22.88 – eighth best in the east.

Gray qualified in two relays, the 100m and 200m. Camacho-Quinn qualified in the 100m hurdles, 200m and 4x100m relay.

Ebwea-Bile had the fifth-best mark in the triple jump to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Ebwea-Bile’s jump of : 43’11.25”/13.39m was her personal record.

“I just wanted to qualify and get my ticket to Eugene,” Ebwea-Bile said.  “No matter what I placed, I just wanted to qualify. It’s a good personal record, but it’s not enough. “I had a lot of mistakes, but I’m going to work on it with my coach. I’m going to work on my approach because every time I get excited, I foul. And it’s kind of immature, so I’m going to try to be better and act like a professional.”
The UK women’s 4x400m relay of Saunders, Hitchcock, Clarke and Gray ran 3:35.72 to place second in heat two and get a Big “Q” to advance to the NCAA semifinals in Eugene.

Friday NCAA qualifiers
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 on Friday..

Thursday NCAA Finals Qualifiers
Seven Wildcats – four women’s entries and three men’s entries advanced to Eugene of the first day of the meet.

UK qualified Carter and Saunders in the long jump, Sarah Blake in the javelin and Olivia Gruver in the pole vault on the women’s side for day one. Jacob Thomson in the 10k, Ethan Shalaway in the javelin and Fred Dorsey in the long jump advanced for the UK men on Thursday.

UKTF NCAA Outdoor Championships Precedent

The UK women’s team advanced one fewer entries to Eugene, 16, than it did a year ago (17).

The UK men’s team advanced one more NCAA qualifier than it did a year ago.
The UK women’s team was 11th, and the men’s team was 22nd at 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championships.

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.

Primer
Nearly 2,000 of the best collegiate athletes in the country descended upon the UK Outdoor Track and Field Complex this weekend as Kentucky served 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 featured 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.

Kentucky was host institution 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.

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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