UK Track & Field’s Abbott, Ebwea-Excel Medal as UKTF Women Finish 14th at NCAAs

Chloe Abbott claimed the 400-meter Silver Medal and Marie-Josee Ebwea-Bile Excel repeated her triple jump Bronze leading the Kentucky women’s track and field team to a 14th-place finish with 19.5 points at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships on Saturday at Mike A. Myers Stadium.

Abbott’s silver scored eight points, Ebwea-Bile Excel’s bronze earned six, Ellen Ekholm tied for sixth in the high jump to tally 2.5 and the 4x400m relay of Faith Ross, Abby Steiner, Masai Russell and Abbott finished the meet with a sixth-place finish for three points.

The UK men’s team placed tied for 34th via the eight points derived from Daniel Roberts’ historic 110m hurdles silver medal.

“Chloe was the spark that we needed coming into the day when she made the final,” UK first-year head coach Lonnie Greene said. “For her to get second in the quarter mile, very close to winning it and for M-J to jump as well as she jumped in her final national championship, Elen to support that and then the 4×4 running a season’s best, 3:29 in a very fast race I was just so blessed by it.

“To have Daniel Roberts cap it all off with the performance he had,” Greene said. “I don’t think people understand the magnitude of that performance – what they witnessed. By my estimation by research it’s the fourth fastest race in track and field history. To see D-Rob run 13-flat, to see his rise from the fall to now – I couldn’t ask for a better first year. This was a great first year. Transition first years are always hard, but I tell you this: we’re going to be in this conversation next year. I know that’s a bold statement to make, but we are. Help is on the way. We’ve got some quality and I’m thankful to the lord for that.”

Saturday medalists
Abbott executed a brilliant close to finish a smart trip throughout and break 51 seconds for the first time in her career. The junior’s second-place time of 50.98 was a .34 personal best to improve her No. 2 time on the UK all-time list. She placed fifth in the NCAA final a year ago while competing for Purdue.

Ebwea-Bile Excel medaled in the NCAA outdoor triple jump for the third year in a row, and fourth time of her career. She claimed silver in 2017, bronze last year and this year indoors to go along with four career Southeastern Conference medals.

Her season-best 45’6.25”/13.87m (+0.5) triple jump on her fifth attempt moved her into a tie for the lead with her compatriot Yanis David (Florida).

Ebwea-Bile Excel could not improve on that mark in the last round, while David leapt 2.25” further. Kansas State senior Shardia Lawrence nearly reached 14m (45’10.75”/13.99m +0.2) to take the crown with a clutch final jump.

Saturday scorers
SEC Champion Ellen Ekholm scored the first 2.5 points of her NCAA Championships career after three previous appearances (each of the past two years indoors and this season indoors) clearing 5’11.25”/1.81m to tie for sixth place (sixth and seventh place points added up and divided evenly amongst the two athletes who tied).

UK’s women’s 4x400m relay was the last team into the final on time after another squad was disqualified in the semifinals on Thursday, and they took advantage of their chance on Saturday. Ross, Steiner, Russell and Abbott ran 3:29.13, a SB by more than a second, to place sixth. 

They became the third fastest lineup in school history with the fifth quickest time.

Men’s team Saturday report
Junior Daniel Roberts claimed a historic 110m hurdles silver on Friday running 13.00, which tied the previous collegiate record now No. 2 on the all-time collegiate list.

Rival junior Grant Holloway of Florida won in 12.98, which broke the NCAA record Renaldo Nehemiah set in 1979 running for Maryland.

Roberts earned the second NCAA Silver of his career (60H indoors earlier this year). The eight points he scored amounted to all of the Kentucky men’s team’s 2019 haul at outdoor nationals as the Wildcats finished in a two-way tie for 34th.

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 entered the Championships with 11 event entries, tied for fifth most. The No. 18 UK men’s team had 11 event entries, tied for sixth most at the Championships.

The men’s competition was held Wednesday and Friday with just the men’s decathlon concluding on Thursday.
 
The women’s competition took 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.

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.

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