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Ekholm, Peare Qualify Day One at NCAA East Prelims

Posted at 12:02 AM, May 24, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-24 00:02:31-04
Photo by Chet White – UK Athletics

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Southeastern Conference High Jump Champion Ellen Ekholm as well as Matt Peare advanced to the NCAA Finals site as banner carriers for the Kentucky Track and Field Teams on Thursday, the first of the three-day NCAA East Preliminary Championships.

Six more Wildcats advanced from the first round into quarterfinal races that will run Friday at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium.

Ekholm earned one of the East Prelims’ 12 available places in the NCAA Outdoor Championships (finals site) high jump field in Austin, Texas. She cleared at 5’10.75”/1.80m on her second attempt after getting over on first tries at 5’7” and 5’8.75”. At that point she was tied for fourth and the field was already whittled down to the 12 who earned their trips to NCAAs so they stopped jumping.

The junior made the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the third year in a row.

Peare cleared an outdoor PB 17’5”/5.31m on his second attempt, which was enough be amoung the 12 men’s pole vaulters remaining and stop jumping while tied for seventh with just one miss on his first attempt at that height. The sophomore made the NCAA Championships for the first time.

He moved to No. 2 on the UK outdoor all-time PV list, a half an inch from the outdoor school record. His indoor PB is 2.75” higher, achieved at the SEC Indoor Championships earlier this year, is the absolute (indoor/outdoor) school record.

Thursday qualifiers into quarterfinal races

Faith Ross and Masai Russell started the day on the track for UK by getting big “Q” automatic qualifying places out of the first round and into the 400m hurdles quarterfinals. Ross ran 57.77Q, second fastest of the 24 qualifiers, and Russell ran 58.38Q, seventh best.

SEC Silver Medalist Kianna Gray cruised to the fourth-best women’s 100m big Q, running 11.34Q (-0.9) to win her heat, and Celera Barnes advanced, 11th fastest in 11.44Q (-0.4).

Chloe Abbott scorched her heat running a personal best 51.44Q to improve her No. 2 mark on the UK outdoor all-time 400m list and advance to the Friday quarterfinal with the top time.

SEC Silver Medalist Dwight St. Hillaire ran 45.94Q, seventh best of the first round, to move on to the quarterfinal, where 12 spots in the NCAA Championships field will be up for grabs.

 

Pre-meet primer
Kentucky entered 45 spots in the NCAA East Preliminary Championships.

The UK women’s entered 25 and the men’s team sent 20 entries to the meet.

The UK women’s team is ranked No. 4 [nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] and the Wildcat men are No. 21 [nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] in the latest edition of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association computer rankings.

The format 
The East and West regions are comprised of all Division I institutions in 25 states apiece for each of the two regions.

Twelve performers from each preliminary site advance to the NCAA Championships – hosted at Texas’ Mike A. Myers Stadium June 5-8 in Austin, Texas.

The East and West Preliminary Championship intended to have parallel schedules. California State University, Sacramento will host NCAA West Prelims the same days.

For each individual event contested at each of the preliminary sites, the top 48 declared student-athletes were accepted into the competition.  For each relay event, the top 24 declared relay teams were accepted into the competition.

For the heptathlon and decathlon, the top 24 declared student-athletes in each event based on their position on the national descending-order list were accepted into the Championships. Heptathlon and decathlon are not contested at preliminary championships sites.

But as it relates to the NCAA Championships, qualifying entries into the preliminary championships is less significant than the number of entries who make it through prelims and advance to Eugene for the NCAA Championships.

How to watch
NCAA track and field fans can watch a live stream of the NCAA Division I East and/or West Preliminary Championships as FloTrack Pro subscribers. The subscription will include access to all FloTrack live broadcasts, video on-demand from all events, documentaries, technique videos and more. Coverage of the preliminary competitions will be available May 23 – 25 at www.flotrack.org [nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com].

NCAA East Preliminary Round

Hodges Stadium — Jacksonville, FL | May 23-25, 2019

https://dt8v5llb2dwhs.cloudfront.net/East/NCAA_E_OTF19.png

Thursday Track

Time

Thursday Running Events

Round

Start List

Women 400 M Hurdles

First Round

2. Faith Ross: 57.77Q

7. Masai Russell: 58.38Q

Men 1500 M

First Round

30. Ben Young: 3:55.26

37. Kendall Muhammad: 3:56.83

Women 100 M

First Round

4. Kianna Gray: 11.34Q (-0.9)

11. Celera Barnes: 11.44Q (-0.4)

Women 400 M

First Round

1. Chloe Abbott: 51.44Q | PB, improves No. 2 mark on UK all-time list

Men 400 M

First Round

6 heats

7. Dwight St. Hillaire: 45.94Q

Thursday Field

Thursday Field Events

Round

Start List

Women High Jump

First Round

2 Flights

T-4. Ellen Ekholm: 5’10.75”/1.80m Q

21. Carly Hinkle: 5’7”/1.70m

Women Hammer

First Round

3 flights

36. Molly Leppelmeier: 184’4”/56.18m

Men Pole Vault

First Round

2 flights

T-7. Matt Peare: 17’5”/ 5.31m Q | Outdoor PB, No. 2 on UK outdoor all-time list

Women Long Jump

First Round

4 flights

19. Tatiana Aholou: 19’6.26”/5.95m (+0.2)

23. Zhane Smith: 19’5.5”/5.93m (+0.1)

30. Marie-Josee Ebwea-Bile Excel: 
19’4.25”/ 5.90m (+0.7)

Friday Track Events

 

Time

Friday Running Events

Round

Start List

4:30 PM

Women 100 M Hurdles

First Round

6 heats

24 Advance: Top 3 Each Heat + Next 6 Best Times to QF

Ht. 3 | Ln. 3: Masai Russell

Ht. 4 |Ln. 8: Faith Ross

5 PM

Men 110 M Hurdles

First Round

6 heats

24 Advance: Top 3 Each Heat + Next 6 Best Times to QF

Ht. 1 | Ln. 5: Tai Brown

Ht. 3 | Ln. 2: Daniel Roberts

Ht. 4 | Ln. 4: Caleb WIlt

5:30 PM

Women 400 M

Quarterfinal

3 heats

12 Advance: Top 3 Each Heat + Next 3 Best Times to Austin

Ht. 1 | Ln. 5: Chloe Abbott

5:45 PM

Men 400 M

Quarterfinal

3 heats

12 Advance: Top 3 Each Heat + Next 3 Best Times to Austin

Ht. 3 | Ln. 3: Dwight St. Hillaire

6 PM

Women 100 M

Quarterfinal

3 heats

12 Advance: Top 3 Each Heat + Next 3 Best Times to Austin

Ht. 3 | Ln. 8: Celera Barnes
Ht. 3 | Ln. 5: Kianna Gray

6:15 PM

Men 100 M

Quarterfinal

6:30 PM

Women 800 M

Quarterfinal

6:45 PM

Men 800 M

Quarterfinal

7 PM

Women 400 M Hurdles

Quarterfinal

3 heats

12 Advance: Top 3 Each Heat + Next 3 Best Times to Austin

Ht. 1 | Ln. 6: Masai Russell

Ht. 3 | Ln. 4: Faith Ross

7:15 PM

Men 400 M Hurdles

Quarterfinal

7:30 PM

Women 200 M

First Round

6 heats

24 Advance: Top 3 Each Heat + Next 6 Best Times to QF

Ht. 1 | Ln. 7: Abby Steiner

Ht. 2 | Ln. 7: Celera Barnes

Ht. 3 | Ln. 4: Chloe Abbott

Ht. 4 | Ln. 4: Kianna Gray

7:55 PM

Men 200 M

First Round

6 heats

Ht. 5 | Ln. 9: Jacob Smith

8:20 PM

Women 3k Steeplechase

Quarterfinal

9 PM

Men 3k

Steeplechase

Quarterfinal

3 heats

Ht. 1 | Ln. 12: Matthew Thomas

Ht. 3 | Ln. 15: Brennan Fields

Friday Field Events

Time

Friday Field Events

Round

Start List

Noon

Women Discus

First Round

3 flights

Fl. 2 | #14: Molly Leppelmeier

Fl. 3 | #2: Nicole Fautsch

Noon

Men Javelin

First Round

3 flights

Fl. 3 | #12 Elijah Marta

4 PM

Men Discus

First Round

3 flights

Fl. 2 | #4. Josh Sobota, #6. Noah Castle

Fl. 3 | #9. Charles Lenford Jr.

5 PM

Women Pole Vault

First Round

2 flights

Fl. 2 | #4. Jaci Bickett

Saturday Track Events

Time

Saturday Running Events

Round

Start List

6:00 PM

Women 4×100 M Relay

Quarterfinal

3 heats

12 Advance: Top 3 Each Heat + Next 3 Best Times to Austin

Ht. 1 | Ln. 3: UK

6:15 PM

Men 4×100 M Relay

Quarterfinal

3 heats

12 Advance: Top 3 Each Heat + Next 3 Best Times to Austin

Ht. 2 | Ln. 3: UK

6:30 PM

Women 1500 M

Quarterfinal

6:45 PM

Men 1500 M

Quarterfinal

7:05 PM

Women 100 M Hurdles

Quarterfinal

TBD

7:20 PM

Men 110 M Hurdles

Quarterfinal

TBD

7:35 PM

Women 200 M

Quarterfinal

TBD

7:50 PM

Men 200 M

Quarterfinal

TBD

8:05 PM

Women 5000 M

Semifinal

8:45 PM

Men 5000 M

Semifinal

9:25 PM

Women 4×400 M Relay

Quarterfinal

3 heats

12 Advance: Top 3 Each Heat + Next 3 Best Times to Austin

Ht. 2 | Ln. 4: UK

9:45 PM

Men 4×400 M Relay

Quarterfinal

3 heats

12 Advance: Top 3 Each Heat + Next 3 Best Times to Austin

Ht. 1 | Ln. 4: UK

Saturday Field Events

Time

Saturday Field Events

Round

Start List

2:45 PM

Men Shot Put

First Round

4 flights

Fl. 3 | #2. Josh Sobota

Fl. 4 | #9. Charles Lenford Jr., #11. Noah Castle

3:00 PM

Women Triple Jump

First Round

4 flights

Fl. 4 | #11. Marie-Josee Ebwea-Bile Excel

4:00 PM

Men High Jump

First Round

2 flights

Fl. 2 | #17. Rahman Minor

5:15 PM

Women Shot Put

First Round

4 flights

Fl. 2 | #9. Molly Leppelmeier

Fl. 4 | #1. Nicole Fautsch

6:30 PM

Men Triple Jump

First Round