UK Track & Field’s Gray, Ebwea-Excel & Roberts Take Silver on SECTF Indoor Saturday

Kianna Gray, Marie-Josée Ebwea-Bile and Daniel Roberts took individual silvers and Ellen Ekholm added a bronze for the Kentucky track and field teams as the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships concluded on Saturday inside Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Track Center.

The UK women’s team finished sixth in the team standings with 51 points.

The UK men’s team finished ninth on 31 points.

The Wildcats picked up five individual medals for the meet – four women’s (three silvers – the two on Saturday plus Micaela Hazlewood’s shot put on Friday – and a bronze) and one men’s.

The No. 3-ranked Florida men’s team and the No. 1-ranked Arkansas women’s team claimed the team titles.

Saturday medalists

Men
Daniel Roberts took SEC 60m hurdles silver in a time that made him the fourth fastest collegian ever in the event (sixth fastest time).

Roberts’ performance is believed to be the fastest non-race-winning time in collegiate history. Collegiate record holder Grant Holloway (Florida) won in a meet record 7.44, .02 off the CR. Roberts’ time would’ve broken his former training partner, and reigning Olympic Gold Medalist Omar McLeod’s previous SEC Championships record.

Women (Saturday medalists)

Kianna Gray picked up the first SEC medal of her career with an inspired 60m run for silver out of lane one (7.27).

Marie-Josée Ebwea-Bile Excel took silver in the women’s triple jump with her best mark of the calendar year: 44’8.75”/13.63m.

Ellen Ekholm claimed her first SEC medal, a bronze, with a high jump clearance of 5’9.75”/1.77m

Saturday scorers

Men
Ben Young and Brennan Fields combined to put up seven points for Kentucky in the men’s mile, which started the Saturday action on the track. Young finished fifth in 4:04.95 to score four and Fields placed sixth in 4:06.18 to tally three more.

The UK men’s 4x400m relay of Cameron Council, Dwight St. Hillaire, Daniel Roberts and Jacob Smith scored three points with a sixth-place time of 3:11.54.

Women
Abby Steiner was the top freshman finisher in the women’s 200m, running 23.19 to score five points.

Faith Ross and Masai Russell scored a combined six points in the women’s 60m hurdles with Ross running 8.28 to place fifth and score four and Russell finishing in 8.32 for seventh to score two.

Carly Hinkle added a point to the six Ellen Ekholm scored in the high jump, finishing in a six-way tie for sixth after clearing 5’7.75”/1.72m.

The UK women’s 4x400m relay of Faith Ross, Chloe Abbott, Masai Russell and Abby Steiner placed sixth with a time of 3:32.43 that was their second best of the season, and ranks No. 7 on the UK indoor all-time list.

Molly Leppelmeier added a point in the women’s weight throw with a mark of 61’4.25”/18.70m.

Friday report

Senior transfer Micaela Hazlewood took home the shot put silver medal as the highlight of the Wildcats’ Friday.

Hazlewood, who transferred to UK from Purdue in January for her final indoor season of eligibility, took second place in her last collegiate shot put competition with a personal best 54’2”/16.51m to score eight points and move to No. 2 on the Kentucky all-time indoor performers’ list. Hazlewood is entered in the weight throw on Saturday.

Nicole Fautsch scored three more points in the women’s shot put with a 52’2”/15.90m toss that was a big season best.

The UK women’s distance medley relay of Perri Bockrath, Faith Ross, Emily Akin and Rachel Boice scored two points with a seventh-place time of 11:42.26.

The UK men’s team got field points from Matt Peare – with a school record pole vault, after Noah Castle and Charles Lenford Jr. combined to start off UK’s total in the shot put.

Peare bettered his previous pole vault PB by 4.5 inches, clearing 17’6.25”/5.34m to place fourth and score five points.

Castle (seventh, 60’7.75”/18.48m) and Charles Lenford Jr. (eighth | 60’5.25”/18.42m) got Kentucky on the SEC scoreboard with a combined three points in the men’s shot put. Freshman Josh Sobota just missed scoring, placing ninth, 2.25 inches behind Lenford Jr.’s best mark.

Meet primer

The UK women’s track and field team placed third at the SEC Indoor Championships in 2017 and 2018, tying the program’s best ever finish at the meet UK scored 74 points last season, and their best point total ever at the meet was 92 points in 1989.

The UK men’s team was sixth with 45 points at the SEC Indoor Championships last year. The UK men’s team’s best ever finish at SEC Indoors was second, twice in 1960 and 1971.

A total of 15 Southeastern Conference men’s and women’s track and field programs were included in the top-25 – with the UK women’s team at No. 6 — of the latest NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field National Rating Index released last Monday.

Eight SEC women’s programs were ranked in the top-25, including four in the top-seven.

A nation-leading seven SEC programs were ranked in the men’s top-25.

Randal Tyson Indoor Track Center played host to the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships for the ninth time. The venue also hosted the SEC Indoor Championships in 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2016.

Meet format

The name of the game at the Championships was scoring points by virtue of top-eight finishes. First place scores 10 points in each event, and the point correlations reduce down to one point for eight place.

The team that’s accrued the most points at the end of the meet wins.

Peripherally, this weekend served as the last chance for individuals and relay teams to record marks that will rank inside NCAA Championships-qualifying positions on individual-event Division I rankings lists (top-16 for individuals and top-12 for relay teams that will qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships in two weeks.

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