The Kentucky track and field program began the 2018 season by sweeping the men’s and women’s distance medley relays on Friday at the Kentucky Invitational inside Nutter Field House.
Kentucky ran two men’s DMRs and went 1-2 with the team of Ben Young (1,200 meters), William Walker (400m), Ian Jones (800m) and Brennan Fields (1,600m) winning in 9:49.16. Kendall Muhammad, Jelani Walker, Matthew Thomas and Jacob Thomson placed second in 9:49.95 with Thomson making up some ground to overtake Indiana on the anchor leg.
Cross country and outdoor steeplechase All-American Katy Kunc anchored a women’s DMR that also included Michelle McKinney, 4x100m relay NCAA Champion Kianna Gray and Sarah Crawford to the win in 11:37.33.
David Cline was UK’s top finisher in the weight throw, tossing a best of 67’3.5”/20.51m, five inches off his personal best. Logan Bryer was fourth in 65’9.75”/20.06m, while Charles Lenford Jr. tossed an eighth-place mark of 56’2”/17.12m.
Nicole Fautsch was UK’s top finisher in the women’s weight throw, tossing a 16th-place mark of 50’8.25”/15.45m, and Kennedy Krieg placed 23rd with a mark of 46’7.5”/14.21m.
Logistics
Saturday’s schedule will begin with the high jumps at 9 a.m. ET. The first running event will be the men’s 60m hurdles prelims at noon.
With winter weather expected, UK’s top-class indoor track facility will provide warm refuge and exciting track and field action. @KentuckyTrack social media accounts will provide updates throughout the day if the meet is affected by weather, although UK had staged many indoor meets unaltered by significant winter storms over the past few years.
Kentucky will provide live results.
Admission is free. Parking will be available in the Green Lot adjacent to Nutter Field House and Kroger Field.
Promotions
UK will distribute the 2018 Kentucky Track & Field four-edition poster series at the entrance to Nutter Field House throughout the meet.
Coverage
The Kentucky Invitational will not be broadcast although parking and admission are free. UK will show the next month’s McCravy Memorial on SEC Network+.
Fans can follow the meet via @KentuckyTrack social media channels on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook as well as on UKathletics.com.
UKTF 2018 outlook
The Kentucky women’s team begins the 2018 indoor season ranked No. 9 in the nation. The UK men’s team is ranked No. 18.
Freshman Sydney McLaughlin was named to the indoor preseason watch list for The Bowerman Award in early January following her historic collegiate debut last month.
The winner of collegiate track & field’s highest individual honor will be named next December at the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Convention.
McLaughlin won the Hoosier Open 300 meters in 36.12 seconds in December. That was the American junior record, the second fastest time in American history, second fastest in collegiate indoor history and seventh fastest in world history.
As USTFCCCA noted, historic and McLaughlin go in the same sentence quite a bit. Just in 2016, McLaughlin became the youngest athlete to make the U.S. Olympic Track & Field team since Carol Lewis and Denean Howard qualified for the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, which the Americans boycotted.
McLaughlin joins a 2018 Kentucky track and field team that returns plenty of accomplishments.
Leading the way are returners like Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, Olivia Gruver as well as Kianna Gray and Kayelle Clarke. Camacho-Quinn now a junior was NCAA 100-meter hurdles champion in 2016 as a freshman. She swept the Southeastern Conference titles in the short hurdles indoors and outdoors a year ago.
Gruver broke through during the 2017 outdoor season winning the NCAA pole vault title outdoors in June as a sophomore.
Two days later Camacho-Quinn, Gray and Kayelle Clarke combined with then-senior Destiny Carter to win the NCAA 4x100m relay team, sparking Kentucky to a run to the NCAA team fourth-place trophy.
Marie-Josee Ebwea-Bile also made a breakthrough claiming NCAA silver in the triple jump last June.
On the men’s side, Tim Duckworth returns for his senior season looking to do better than the NCAA silver medal he claimed in the heptathlon last year. Duckworth scored a British and Kentucky school record 6165 in the NCAA heptathlon, finishing an agonizing 12 points behind the NCAA Champion, Devon Williams, now graduated from Georgia.
Jacob Thomson leads UK’s distance corps looking for his best indoor season yet. Thomson’s most success has occurred outdoors as he was 2016 SEC Champion in the 5k and 10k.
UK also has a strong group of sprinters and jumpers, led by 110m hurdles school freshman record holder Daniel Roberts who will look to take a leap forward now in his sophomore season.
| Participating Teams | |
| Arkansas State | |
| Ball State | |
| Bellarmine | |
| Berea | |
| Cincinnati | |
| Dayton (women’s team only) | |
| EKU | |
| Indiana | |
| IUPUI | |
| James Madison | |
| Kentucky | |
| Louisville | |
| Miami | |
| Ohio State | |
| Spalding | |
| Xavier (Ohio) | |
2018 Kentucky Invitational | UK entries
| Friday, Jan. 12 | ||
| Field Events | ||
| Event | UK entry | |
| Men’s Weight Throw | 3. David Cline: 67’3.5”/20.51m | 5 inches shy of PR
4. Logan Bryer: 65’9.75”/20.06m 8. CJ Lenford: 56’2”/17.12m |
|
| Women’s Weight Throw | 16. Nicole Fautsch: 50’8.25”/15.45m
23. Kennedy Krieg: 46’7.5”/14.21m |
|
| Running Events | ||
| Men’s DMR | 1. UK (A – Young, W. Walker, Jones, Fields): 9:49.16
2. UK (B – Muhammad, J. Walker, Thomas, Thomson): : 9:49.95 |
|
| Women’s DMR | 1. UK (McKinney, Gray, Crawford, Kunc): 11:37.33 | |
| Friday, Jan. 12 | ||
| Field Events | ||
| Time | Event | UK entry |
| 3:30 p.m. | Men’s Weight Throw | Fl. 2 of 2 | CJ Lenford, Logan Bryer, David Cline |
| 5:30 p.m. | Women’s Weight Throw | Fl. 2 of 3| Kennedy Krieg, Nicole Fautsch |
| Running Events | ||
| 7:00 p.m. | Men’s DMR | Two UK teams |
| 7:15 p.m. | Women’s DMR | UK |
| Saturday, Jan. 13 | |||
| Field Events | |||
| Time | Event | UK entry | |
| 9 a.m. | Women’s High Jump | Carly Hinkle | |
| 9 a.m. | Men’s High Jump | Tim Duckworth | |
| 10:30 a.m. | Women’s Long Jump (3 flights) | Fl 3 of 3| 9. M-J Ebwea-Bile | |
| 10:30 a.m. | Men’s Long Jump (2 flights) | Fl 2 of 2 | 12. Saahir Bethea, 13. Mohammed Abubakar | |
| 10:30 a.m. | Men’s Shot Put (2 flights) | Fl 1 of 2 | 13. David Cline
Fl 2 of 2 | 2. Logan Bryer 10. Charles Lenford 11. Noah Castle |
|
| 10:30 a.m. | Women’s Pole Vault | Riley Caudill, Alison D’Alessandro, Nicole Bagby, Olivia Gruver | |
| 2 p.m. | Men’s Pole Vault | Matthew Peare, Tim Duckworth | |
| 2 p.m. | Women’ Shot Put (3 flights) | Fl. 3 of 3 | 7. Nicole Fautsch | |
| 2:30 p.m. | Women’s Triple Jump (2 flights) | Fl 2 of 2 | 12. Latavia Coombs | |
| 2:30 p.m. | Men’s Triple Jump (2 flights) | ||
| Running Events | |||
| Noon | Men’s 60H prelims (4 heats) | Ht 2 of 4 | Ln. 4: Daniel Roberts
Ht 3 of 4 | Ln. 5: Caleb Wilt |
|
| 12:12 p.m. | Women’s 60H prelims (6 heats) | Ht. 2 of 6 | Ln. 3: Faith Ross
Ht. 3 of 6 | Ln. 7: Jacklyn Howell Ht. 5 of 6 | Ln. 6: Jasmine Camacho-Quinn Ht. 6 of 6 | Ln. 9: Latavia Coombs |
|
| 12:30 p.m. | Men’s 60m prelims (7 heats) | Ht. 1 of 7 | Ln. 7: Fred Dorsey
Ht. 4 of 7 | Ln. 6: EJ Floreal |
|
| 12:45 p.m. | Women’s 60m prelims (6 heats) | Ht. 1 of 6 | Ln. 5: Kayelle Clarke
Ht. 6 of 6 | Ln. 3: Celera Barnes |
|
| 1 p.m. | Men’s 60H final | TBD | |
| 1:05 p.m. | Women’s 60H final | TBD | |
| 1:10 p.m. | Men’s 60m final | TBD | |
| 1:15 p.m. | Women’s 60m final | TBD | |
| 1:20 p.m. | Men’s Mile (2 sections) | Sec. 1 of 2 | Matthew Thomas Sec. 2 of 2 | Cole Dowdy |
|
| 1:32 p.m. | Women’s Mile (3 sections) | Sec. 2 of 3 | Avery Bussjager
Sec. 3 of 3 | Sarah Crawford |
|
| 1:52 p.m. | Men’s 400m (7 sections) | Sec. 1 of 7 | Ln. 5: Dwight St. Hillaire | |
| 2:10 p.m. | Women’s 400m (9 sections) | Sec. 1 of 9 | Ln. 5: Sydney McLaughlin
Sec. 2 of 9 | Ln. 5: Faith Ross Sec. 3 of 9 | Ln. 4: Janie O’Connor |
|
| 2:35 p.m. | Men’s 800m (3 sections) | Sec. 1 of 3 | Ln. 3: Ian Jones | |
| 2:45 p.m. | Women’s 800m (3 sections) | ||
| 2:55 p.m. | Men’s 200m (10-11 sections) | ||
| 3:20 p.m. | Women’s 200m (11-12 sections) | ||
| 3:45 p.m. | Men’s 3k | Daniel Southard, Tanner Dowdy, Alex Mortimer, Kendall Muhammad | |
| 4 p.m. | Women’s 3k (2 sections) | ||
| 4:25 p.m. | Men’s 4x400m (2 sections) | ||
| 4:35 p.m. | Women’s 4x400m (3 sections) | ||
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For the most in-depth coverage of the UK cross country and track and field program follow the @KentuckyTrack social media channels on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook as well as on UKathletics.com.
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For more information contact:
Jake Most
