UK Track & Field’s Chloe Abbott, 4×4 Advance for Kentucky Thursday at NCAATF

Kentucky track and field qualified two track entries – Chloe Abbott in the 400 meters and the 4x400m relay of Faith Ross, Abbott, Abby Steiner and Masai Russell – into NCAA Track and Field Finals on Thursday, the second day of the National Championships at Mike A. Myers Stadium.

Abbott cruised back into the women’s 400m final getting a “big Q” automatic qualification place running 51.59Q, second fastest of the semifinals.

The 400m final will run Saturday at 7:32 p.m. ET. The junior was fifth in the NCAA final last year competing for Purdue.

The women’s 4×4 ran 3:32.20q, seventh fastest of the semifinals. They will conclude the meet at 8:51 p.m. ET on Saturday in a field that is made up of six Southeastern Conference teams plus Southern California and Baylor.

Other Thursday results
UK’s women’s 4x100m relay of Celera Barnes, Abby Steiner, Janie O’Connor and Kianna Gray) ran 43.53 and finished 11th in the semifinals where eight teams advanced.

Steiner placed 10th in the women’s 200m semifinal running 23.00 (+1.3), which was .35 out off that last little q spot.

Faith Ross was ninth in the women’s 400m hurdles semifinal, running 57.46 for third in heat one where the top two got big Qs. Her time was faster than the slowest big Q, which was in heat three, but .43 off the last little q.

Russell was 13th in 57.76. Ross false started in the women’s 100m hurdles semis.

Barnes was 17th and Gray was 23rd in the women’s 100m semifinals.

Men’s team outlook
Friday’s action will be the UK men’s team in action exclusively.

Junior Daniel Roberts will be in the spotlight after he set the NCAA Championships 110-meter hurdles record in his semifinal race on Wednesday running an impressively smooth time of 13.06.

He took sole possession of second place in collegiate history. Roberts entered the meet tied with rival Grant Holloway of Florida for that spot on the all-time chart at 13.07. The pair ran those times at the SEC Championships last month on different days (Holloway in the prelims on Friday; Roberts to win the final on Saturday).

Roberts lowered his PB by .01 seconds and moved within .06 seconds of tying one of the oldest collegiate records in athletics: Renaldo Nehemiah’s 13.00 that he clocked back in 1979.

Per USTFCCCA notes, Roberts has notched three of the top-10 marks in collegiate history this season alone: No. 2, t-No. 3, No. 7.

Roberts will line up next to Holloway and the rest of an extremely strong collegiate field in the final Friday at 9:12 pm ET.

Three Wildcats will compete in field events with Rahman Minor in the men’s high jump at 8 p.m. ET, and Noah Castle and Charles Lenford Jr. set to discus throw starting at 8:05 p.m.

All field events will have online broadcasts via ESPN3.

The format
Points are scored at the NCAA Championships by individuals or relay teams finishing top-eight in respective events. Points are awarded on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis with 10 going to the winner and one going to eight place. The team with the most points at the end of the meet wins the team title.
 
Athletes qualified to the NCAA Championships finals site by finishing top-12 at two regional meets 10 days ago. The East and West Preliminary Championships. Athletes qualified there based on having top-48 marks in respective events recorded during the season.

 
Meet primer

The No. 9-ranked Kentucky women’s team has 11 event entries, tied for fifth most. The No. 18 UK men’s team has 11 event entries, tied for sixth most at the Championships.

The men’s competition will be held Wednesday and Friday with just the men’s decathlon concluding on Thursday.
 
The women’s competition will take place Thursday and Saturday, with the heptathlon starting on Friday.

The multi-events cross over because they have to be held in two consecutive days.

The precedent
The UK women’s team has finished in the top five at NCAA outdoors three of the last four years and was fourth with 46 points last year. UK’s best-ever NCAA Outdoor finish was second on 50 points in 2015.

Senior Marie-Josée Ebwea-Bile Excel medaled at NCAA outdoors in the triple jump the past two years.

The UK men’s team finished tied-16th with 16 points last year at NCAA Outdoors. UK’s best NCAA outdoor finish was ninth in 2008 on 25 points.

Broadcast / Field Event Streaming Information

• Friday TV – 8:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)
  • Men’s High Jump – 8 p.m. ET (ESPN3)
  • Men’s Discus – 8:05 p.m. ET (ESPN3)
• Saturday TV – 6:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
  • Women’s High Jump – 6 p.m. ET
  • Women’s Triple Jump [Flight 1] – 6:40 p.m. ET (ESPN3)
  • Women’s Triple Jump [Flight 2] – 6:40 p.m. ET (ESPN3)