UK Track & Field’s Carter Advances to 100m Semis at USATF Outdoor Championships

Kentucky track and field senior Destiny Carter continued the momentum she built earlier this month in running the leadoff leg of UK’s NCAA Champion 4×100-meter relay by advancing to the 100m semifinals to begin the USATF Outdoor Championships on Thursday.

Carter placed fifth, stumbling a bit as she approached the finish line, in the first preliminary heat with a quick time of 11.12q (+1.4). That result held up for a qualification on time as she had the third and final little “q” advancement, 14th overall.

She’ll run in the semifinals at 8:16 p.m. ET on Friday, with the final scheduled for 10:52 p.m.

Carter has run as fast as 11.05 this season, in late April at the Southeastern Conference Relays in Baton Rouge. She was fifth in the SEC 100m final (11.25) and placed 10th in the NCAA semifinals (11.38) two weeks ago.

Also on Thursday, sophomore Sarah Blake placed 16th in her first USATF senior javelin competition with a mark of 141’4″/43.08m.

At the Jamaica Championships in the 400m hurdles, UK volunteer assistant, 2016 Olympic Finalist, 2015 NCAA bronze medalist and Class of 2015 alumna Leah Nugent advanced out of the preliminary round with a third place time of 54.90Q. She was .02 off her season best. The final is scheduled for Friday.

A look ahead to Friday
Friday will see UK’s junior (under-20-years old) entries begin their accounts with Charles Lenford Jr. competing in the shot put at 3:45 p.m. ET, and Nicole Fautsch in the women’s shot put at 6:20 p.m. ET.

Then UK’s alumnus world record holder will begin her pursuit of a first USATF outdoor title in the 100m hurdles at 7:50 p.m. ET.

Carter’s semifinal is scheduled to start approximately one hour before UK volunteer assistant Kori Carter, and signee Sydney McLaughlin begin the 400m hurdles at 9:15 p.m. ET.

UK Class of 2014 alumna and two-time Southeastern Conference Champion Cally Macumber will run the 5k at 11:46 p.m. ET. 

Meet primer

The Kentucky track and field season will continue under the California Central Valley’s scorching sun this weekend at the USATF Outdoor Championships, held for the fourth time since 2000 at Sacramento State’s Hornet Stadium.

The USATF Senior and Junior Championships will each be contested concurrently this weekend in Sacramento.

The USATF Outdoor Championships will be contested June 22-25 and serve as the selection competition (trials) the Team USATF that will travel to the World Championships, to be held August 4-13 at London’s 2012 Olympic Stadium (now named the London Stadium).

USATF.org will provide live results at separate sites for the senior and junior championships.

Television coverage of USATF Outdoor Championships will be available on NBCSN June 23, with a 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET window, and on NBC June 24-25 from 4-6 p.m. ET. Coverage outside the linear broadcast windows will air on NBC Sports’ streaming platform: NBC Sports Gold.

Live coverage of USATF Junior Outdoor Championships will be usatf.tv.

The stadium was host site for the 2014 USATF Outdoor Championships – with no major international championship scheduled that year, and prior to that the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Trials. Hornet Stadium also hosted multiple NCAA Championships in the mid-2000s.

Seven members of the current UK women’s team – which placed fourth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships earlier this month – and two more members of the UK men’s team – including 2016 NCAA 110m hurdles semifinalist and Olympic Trials semifinalist Nick Anderson – are competing at “USAs.”

Additionally, multiple UK alumni and elite professionals who serve on the UK staff under UK head coach Edrick Floréal’s tutelage will look to qualify for the IAAF World Championships this weekend.

Each country is permitted as many as three entries per World Championship event, with the IAAF allowing a fourth “wildcard” to athletes who are defending World Outdoor or Diamond League champions. So the top three finishers in each event, who have the standard time/mark this season as designated by the IAAF, will earn spots on the Team USA World Championships team.

American “wildcard” nominees must compete in at least one round of competition at the USATF Outdoor Championships to claim their wildcard spot, although not necessarily in their wildcard qualifying event.

Notably, Kentucky Class of 2015 alumnna and current volunteer assistant coach Kendra Harrison has a 100m hurdles wildcard. She’s entered in the 100m hurdles, and the current world leader (12.56) although she’s not competed since early last month after a hand injury before winning a Diamond League meet.

Temperatures in Sacramento have topped 108 degrees on Thursday, and are forecasted to reach 101 degrees on Friday, 100 degrees on Saturday and 97 degrees for the meet finale on Sunday.

Sacramento State previously hosted USATF Outdoor Championships in 2014, and the U.S. Olympic Trials for Track & Field in 2000 and 2004. Sacramento was also recently announced as a finalist city for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials – Track & Field, along with Eugene, Oregon and Walnut, California.

UK assistant coach Toby Stevenson qualified for the Olympic Games in Sacramento in 2004. He’d go on to claim the silver medal in the pole vault in Athens later that summer. Stevenson, who works directly with the vertical jumpers and multi-event athletes at UK coached Olivia Gruver to the NCAA Championship in the pole vault two weeks ago. He also coached Tim Duckworth to NCAA silver in the men’s indoor heptathlon in March. Stevenson coached reigning Olympic pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi to the NCAA title in 2012.

Plenty more athletes with Kentucky connections will compete at National Championships across the globe this weekend as well as in the coming weeks.

For example this weekend 2016 Olympic finalist and 2015 NCAA 400m hurdles bronze medalist for UK Leah Nugent will run at Jamaica Trials, while current UK assistant coach, three-time Olympian and NCAA 200m Champion at UK as a collegian Rondel Sorrillo will run at the Trinidad and Tobago Championships.

Information for this report was obtained via USATF.

UK at 2017 USATF Outdoor Championships

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The most up-to-date coverage of the UK track and field program is available via @KentuckyTrack handles on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

‑ GO CATS –
Jake Most