Mark Maloney on Kentucky sports

Rondel Sorrillo

Kentucky landed six athletes on the list, topped by three-event honoree Rondel Sorrillo. He won the NCAA 200-meter dash and was runner-up in the 100. Sorrillo, Sean Lange, Kwasi Obeng and Alex Williams all earned All-America status in the 4-by-100 relay. 

The Wildcats also were represented by Colin Boevers in the men’s discus and Ashley Muffet in the women’s discus and shot put.

Forty-nine SEC men earned 65 honors, while 34 women garnered 51 awards.

Florida led the men’s list with 11 individuals, while LSU was first among the women with eight individuals.

Sorrillo was one of two men to earn awards in three events. The other was South Carolina’s Johnny Dutch (110-meter hurdles, 400 hurdles, 4-by-400 relay).

Three women earned three-event honors: Auburn’s Joanna Atkins (400, 4-by-100, 4-by-400), Auburn’s Sheniqua Ferguson (100, 200, 4-by-100), LSU’s Samantha Henry (200, 4-by-100, 4-by-400) and LSU’s Takeia Pinckney (100, 200, 4-by-100).

Florida led SEC teams in the NCAA Championships, placing second in the men’s standings and third in the women’s standings. UK, with Sorrillo doing all the scoring, placed 13th in the men’s events. The UK women tied for 51st in the nation.

Bowerman candidate Lists of 10 announced

The USTFCCCA has released the lists of 10 men and 10 women that will be considered for The Bowerman Award. The Bowerman is college track and field’s version of football’s Heisman Trophy, presented to the top athlete in the sport on an annual basis.

The groups of 10 will be trimmed to three men and three women by a 10-member Bowerman Advisory Board. The board, chaired by Herman Frazier, senior associate athletics director for sports administration at Temple University, will release its selections July 12.

Then, Bowerman Voters — a group of about 100 national and regional media members, statisticians, administrators and presidents of affiliated organizations — will cast the final votes. Voters include this writer and last year’s winners: Galen Rupp and Jenny Barringer.

The winners will be announced at the USTFCCCA Convention, Dec. 13-16, at San Antonio Texas.

The top 10 lists, in alphabetical order, follow.

WOMEN

Semoy Hackett

Queen Harrison

Kylie Hutson

Semoy Hackett, Lincoln (Mo.) — Sophomore sprinter from Trinidad & Tobago won five NCAA Division II titles, setting three meet records.

Kylie Hutson, Indiana State — Senior from Terre Haute, Ind., swept NCAA pole-vault titles indoors and outdoors, setting a meet record outdoors, and was undefeated in collegiate competition.

Mariam Kevkhishvili

Lisa Koll

Porscha Lucas

Mariam Kevkhishvili, Florida — Senior from the nation of Georgia swept NCAA shot-put titles indoors and outdoors, was undefeated and surpassed 60 feet four times.

Lisa Koll, Iowa State — Senior from Fort Dodge, Iowa, won the NCAA 5,000 and 10,000 meters outdoors, 5,000 meters indoors and set a 10,000-meter collegiate record of 31:18.07.

Porscha Lucas, Texas A&M — Senior from Plano, Texas, won NCAA titles in the 200 and 4-by-100 relay, running the second leg on an undefeated relay, and placed second in the 100.

Francena McCorory

Blessing Okagbare

Francena McCorory, Hampton — Junior from Hampton, Va., won the indoor and outdoor 400-meter titles, setting an American indoor record of 50.54.

Blessing Okagbare, Texas-El Paso — Senior from Nigeria is the first woman to win the 100 meters and long jump in the same NCAA Championships; also swept 60 meters and long jump indoors.

Brianne Theisen

Phoebe Wright

Brianne Theisen, Oregon — Junior from Canada swept NCAA multi-event titles (pentathlon indoors, heptathlon outdoors) and led off the winning 4-by-400 relay.

Phoebe Wright, Tennessee — Senior from Signal Mountain, Tenn., swept NCAA 800 crowns, was undefeated at that distance, led off the NCAA Indoor-champion distance medley relay and ran on three Penn Relays championship teams.

MEN

Sam Chelanga

Johnny Dutch

Jeff Demps

Sam Chelanga, Liberty — Red-shirt junior from Kenya won the NCAA 10,000 meters and, earlier in the season, sliced 20 seconds off his own collegiate record in the event.

Jeff Demps, Florida — Frosh (indoors)/soph (outdoors) from Winter Garden, Fla., won NCAA sprint titles indoors at 60 meters and outdoors at 100, and anchored the winning 4-by-100 relay outdoors.

Johnny Dutch, South Carolina — Junior from Clayton, N.C., won the NCAA 400-meter hurdles, running the fourth-best time in the world (48.12) in the quarterfinals, and also was a finalist in the 110-meter hurdles and 4-by-400 relay.

Ashton Eaton

Kirani James

Walter Henning

Ashton Eaton, Oregon — Senior from Bend, Ore., won a second straight NCAA heptathlon title indoors, setting a world record in the process, and took his third straight decathlon championship outdoors.

Walter Henning, LSU — Junior from Kings Park, N.Y., won national crowns in the 35-pound weight throw indoors and in the hammer throw outdoors, the first such double since 2006.

Kirani James, Alabama — Freshman from Grenada, at 17, won the NCAA 400 meters in 45.01.

David McNeill

Christian Taylor

David McNeill, Northern Arizona — Senior from Australia swept NCAA 5,000-meter titles indoors and outdoors, clocking 13:25.63 in the latter.

Christian Taylor, Florida — Sophomore from Fayetteville, Ga., is the first to sweep NCAA triple jump titles, indoors and outdoors, since 2002, and also was runner-up in the long jump at both meets.

Ryan Whiting

Andrew Wheating

Andrew Wheating, Oregon — Senior from Norwich, Vt., is the first man to sweep the NCAA Outdoor 800 and 1,500 crowns since 1984; also anchored the Ducks’ first-place distance medley relay indoors.

Ryan Whiting, Arizona State — Senior from Harrisburg, Pa., won the NCAA shot put indoors and outdoors, recording eight puts beyond 70 feet, and added the discus crown outdoors.

Cally Macumber

Kentucky’s Cally Macumber is Female Freshman of the Week in Southeastern Conference track and field, while Eastern Kentucky’s Soufiane Bouchikhi and Kat Pagano have been honored by the Ohio Valley Conference. All three athletes competed at last weekend’s 116th Penn Relays.

Macumber, from Rochester Hills, Mich., lowered her personal best for 5,000 meters by more than 20 seconds, placing 14th in Penn’s college championship division with a time of 16:43.61. That boosts her to the top five in the SEC this season.

Soufiane Bouchikhi

Bouchikhi, a freshman from Antwerp, Belgium, is OVC Male Track Co-Athlete of the Week. Pagano, a junior from Hollis, Maine, is OVC Female Track Co-Athlete of the Week.

Bouchikhi placed second, nosed out at the finish by William and Mary’s Lewis Woodard, in the 5,000-meter run. Bouchikhi crossed the line in 14:01.71, two-hundredths of a second behind Woodard. That leads the OVC this season by nearly 40 seconds, trailed by teammate David Mutuse in 14:40.71.

Kat Pagano

Pagano set a school record of 36:06.00 for 10,000 meters, placing 14th. The time is the fastest of the season in the OVC by nearly two minutes. The former EKU record of 36:13.15 was set by Sarah Blossom in 1999.

Other SEC weekly award winners are: Tennessee senior Phoebe Wright (Female Runner); Florida senior Mariam Kevkhishvili (Female Field Athlete); LSU sophomore Barrett Nugent (Male Runner); LSU junior Walter Henning (Male Field Athlete), and Florida’s Omar Craddock (Male Freshman). All competed at the Penn Relays.

Wright (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) led Tennessee to wins in the distance medley (2:02.12 800-meter split), 4-by-1,500 (4:17.3 anchor) and 4-by-800 (meet-record 2:00.89 anchor) relays.

Kevkhishvili (Tbilisi, nation of Georgia) captured the shot put (59-7 1/2) with the third-best mark in meet history.

Nugent (Maurice, La.) won the 110-meter hurdles (13.58). His time is a personal best, fastest in the SEC this season and ranks third in the NCAA.

Henning (Kings Park, N.Y.) won his second straight Penn hammer throw (237-9) — by more than 22 feet — and was named College Men’s Individual Athlete of the Meet.

Craddock (Kileen, Texas) snared triple jump honors (53-3 1/2), defeating the nation’s top two ranked individuals (Alphonso Gordon of Georgia Tech and Zuheir Sharif of Texas A&M). 

Other OVC weekly award winners are Southeast Missouri seniors Chris Gill (Male Track Co-Athlete), Juli Koenegstein (Female Track Co-Athlete) and Brandon Colbert (Male Field Athlete), and Austin Peay senior Molly Bartkiewicz (Female Field Athlete).

Gill (O’Fallon, Mo.) placed first at 400 meters (OVC-leading 47.64) at the Southern Illinois-Edwardsville Twilight Meet.

Koenegstein (Chester, Ill.) placed ninth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (OVC-leading 10:48.93) at the Drake Relays.

Colbert (Troy, Mo.) had three top 20 finishes at Drake — second in the discus (OVC-leading 175-0), ninth in the shot put (53-7 3/4) and 18th in the hammer throw (181-6).

Bartkiewicz (Westlake, Ohio) placed third at Penn, clearing 12-10 in the pole vault.

Florida’s Mariam Kevkhishvili and Auburn’s Sheniqua Ferguson have won weekly Southeastern Conference track and field awards, based on their performances Satuday in the University of Kentucky Invitational.

Mariam Kevkhishvili

Kevkhishvili, from Tibilisi, Georgia, is Female Field Athlete of the Week for her personal-best 60-foot-7 1/4 shot-put victory at UK. Her mark set school, fieldhouse and national records, and also surpassed the automatic qualifying standard for the NCAA Championships. She is a three-time NCAA champion and two-time Olympian.

Sheniqua Ferguson

Ferguson, a junior from Nassau, Bahamas, is co-Female Runner of the Week. Her 60-meter dash victory, in 7.28 seconds, is an NCAA provisional qualifier, ranks fifth all-time at Auburn and equals the fastest time in the NCAA this season.

Sharing honors with Ferguson is South Carolina junior LaKya Brookins. The defending NCAA champion opened her season by winning the Virginia Tech Invitational 60 in the same time as Ferguson, 7.28.

Female Freshman of the Week is Regina George of Arkansas. The newcomer from Chicago won the 800 (2:09.42) and anchored the winning 4-by-400 relay (3:36.43, NCAA provisional qualifier). George’s time ranks second in the SEC this season, ninth in the NCAA and third by an NCAA freshman. The relay time leads the NCAA.

Weekly honors for SEC men go to Georgia’s John Freeman (Field), plus the Arkansas duo of Scott McPherson (Runner) and Cobi Hamilton (Freshman).

Freeman, a junior from Plano, Texas, set a personal best of 66-10 in the 35-pound weight throw at UK. He was the top collegiate finisher in the events, second overall, and the first Bulldog of the season to post an NCAA provisional qualifier.

McPherson, a senior and also from Plano, Texas, led a 1-2-3 Razorbacks sweep at 3,000 meters in the Arkansas-Texas dual. His time of 8:10.66 leads the SEC and ranks second in the NCAA.

Hamilton, from Texarkana, Texas, made his collegiate debut with a 21.25 victory at 200 meters. That is a personal best and ranks third in the SEC this season, fifth in the NCAA and first among NCAA freshmen. Arkansas placed 1-4-5 in the event. Hamilton’s race came 13 days after playing in the Liberty Bowl. He played in 13 football games for the Razorbacks, catching 19 passes for 347 yards and three touchdowns.

Eastern’s Forbes takes OVC award

Bianca Forbes

Eastern Kentucky freshman Bianca Forbes is Female Track Athlete of the Week in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Forbes won her heat at UK, placing 18th overall in a meet that was laden with Big Ten, Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Sun Belt and Big East conference teams.

The Bowerman ‘watch lists’ are here

Kevkhishvili is among 10 athletes on The Bowerman women’s watch. Another 10 athletes are on The Bowerman men’s watch.

The Bowerman, presented by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), is the sport’s version of the Heisman Trophy.

The women’s watch list, which will be updated Feb. 9, includes 2009 finalist Porscha Lucas of Texas A&M.

The full list, in alphabetical order: Joanna Atkins (jr., Auburn), sprints; Jessica Beard (jr., Texas A&M), sprints; Angela Bizzari (sr., Illinois), distances; Lacey Cramer (soph., Brigham Young), middle-distance; Semoy Hackett (soph., Lincoln (Mo.)), sprints; Kylie Hutson (sr. Indiana State), pole vault; Mariam Kevkhishvili (sr., Florida), throws; Porscha Lucas (sr., Texas A&M), sprints; Brianne Theisen (jr., Oregon), combined events; Kim Williams (jr., Florida State), jumps.

Others receiving mention: Marie Borner (sr., Bethel (Minn.)), distances; Kristi Castlin (sr., Virginia Tech), hurdles); Brenda Martinez (sr., Cal Riverside), middle-distance; Francena McCorory (jr., Hampton), sprints; Liz Patterson (sr., Arizona), high jump.

Ashton Eaton

The men’s list includes 2009 finalists Ashton Eaton of Oregon and German Fernandez of Oklahoma State.

The men’s watch list: Jeshua Anderson (Jr., Washington State), hurdles; Ronnie Ash (jr., Oklahoma), hurdles; Sam Chelanga (jr., Liberty), distances; Will Claye (soph., Oklahoma), jumps; Jason Colwick (sr., Rice), pole vault; Ashton Eaton (sr., Oregon), combined events; German Fernandez (soph., Oklahoma State (distances); Trindon Holliday (sr., LSU), sprints; Andrew Wheating (sr., Oregon), distances; Ryan Whiting (sr., Arizona State), throws.

Also mentioned: Charles Clark (sr., Florida State), sprints; Ramon Gittens (jr., St. Augustine’s), sprints; Ricky Flynn (sr., Lynchburg), distances; Tabarie Henry (jr., Texas A&M), sprints; Ngonidzashe Makusha (jr., Florida State), jumps.

What a way to start the University of Kentucky’s indoor track and field season.

Competition was simply outstanding in the Kentucky Invitational, with eight Southeastern Conference schools (UK, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Vanderbilt), two from the Big Ten (Michigan State, Ohio State), two from the Atlantic Coast Conference (Georgia Tech, Miami) and three in-state visitors (Louisville, Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky). Add to that post-collegiate Olympians such as Reese Hoffa, Perdita Felicien, Hazel Clark and Dee Dee Trotter, to name a few.

Hoffa, a world champion indoors and outdoors, as well as a two-time Olympian, blasted the Nutter Fieldhouse record in the shot put with a final-attempt distance of 69-6 3/4.

Nutter records also fell to Florida’s Mariam Kevkhishvili in the women’s shot and Western Kentucky’s Janet Jesang in the women’s 3,000 meters.

Don Weber

“An excellent field for an early season meet,” said Don Weber, UK head coach. “Obviously, very few if anybodyis where they want to be at this time of year, just coming back from Christmas break. To be competitive in a variety of events is certainly an encouraging start. So I feel pretty good about it, and when you look at some individual situations, (there has been) some significant development from one year to the next.”

Most noteworthy, he said, is Kristin Smith, who set a school record of 64-1 3/4 in Friday’s weight throw.

“She said, ‘as a freshman, rather than just focusing on me, I worried about how good everybody else was and that really was intimidating to me, and interfered with my development’,” Weber said.

No more, which is a lesson the coach hopes the rest of his team will get after a competition such as the one this weekend. Focus on improving your own performance rather than worry about what someone else.

Some event-by-event highlights from Saturday, with ladies first:

60-meter hurdles — Felicien (8.13) prevailed in a photo finish over Danielle Carruthers (8.1311) and Vonette Dixon (8.1391).

“I totally didn’t react to the gun,” said Felicien, the 2003 world champion, eight-time Canadian national champion and former University of Illinois standout. “I’m happy to come out with a win. First race of the season.”

Felicien was the Olympic gold-medal favorite going into the 100-meter hurdles finals at the 2004 Athens Olympics. However, she clobbered the first hurdle and fell. She missed the 2008 Beijing Olympics due to a foot injury.

“We don’t need to talk about that. That was six years ago,” Felicien said of her Athens mishap. “There’s always going to be motivation, but it’s been so many years and I’ve done well since then that I’m not using that as a centerpiece or focal point of my season or my career. Just race my race.”

Her light at the end of the tunnel this season is the Indoor World Championships, March 12-14 at Doha, Qatar.

“The plan is to go there, be ready for Doha, be on the podium,” Felicien said.

Danielle Carruthers

Carruthers, a former Kentucky high school (Paducah Tilghman) and Big Ten (Indiana) champion, is Felicien’s club teammate (Speed Dynamics) and training partner. Carruthers lives in Atlanta now, but spent the last week training at Naples, Fla., due to cold weather.

“We’ve been training really hard,” Carruthers said. “I had some great sessions before I came (up) here. … We did a lot for about a week and a half, every day — hard, hard, hard! Then I drove 10 hours back to Atlanta, had Thursday off, drove five hours here, and race the next day. I’m just trying to get in shape and get ready for Millrose.”

60 — Carruthers also competed in Saturday’s 60-meter dash, placing second in the consolation heat and ninth overall (7.53). 

Sheniqua Ferguson

Auburn junior Shaniqua Ferguson won in an NCAA provisional-qualifying 7.28, ahead of Speed Dynamics’ Ebonie Floyd-Broadnax (7.34).

Janet Jesang

3,000 — WKU’s Jesang, a senior from Uganda, blazed to an NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 9:11.09. New Balance’s Sarah Bowman, who won the NCAA mile title for Tennessee last March, was a distant second in 9:28.63.

4-by-400 relay — Kentucky got its lone win of the day from the foursome of Jenna Martin, Jazmyn Shorter, Brittany Cabbler and Precious Nwokey, 3:39.94 to Florida’s 3:39.96. All are juniors except for Nwokey, a sophomore from Houston. 

Precious Nwokey

Nwokey had the Wildcats’ fastest split, 54-flat, and was recognized by Weber as someone who has made “dramatic improvement” since last season.

High jump — Chaunte Howard, a 2004 Olympian out of Georgia Tech, topped former Auburn star Raevan Harris, 6-2 to 6-0 3/4. Howard barely missed at 6-4, which would have tied the fieldhouse record. 

Mariam Kevkhishvili

Shot put — Florida’s Kevkhishvili, with a put of 60-7 1/4, won by exactly six feet over Tennessee’s Annie Alexander. Kevkhishvili also set a national record for the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. (No, not the Bulldogs.) UK had a good showing as Ashley Muffet and Jennifer Svoboda placed 4-5, just ahead of Louisville’s Jere’ Summers.

Long jump — Miami (Fla.) got its only win from Deandra Doyler (20-4 1/4). Rachel Gehret, who placed fourth in the high jump, and Louisville teammate Amaka Omenyinma placed 2-3 at 19-10 1/4 and 19-8 1/4.

                            MEN’S EVENTS
60 hurdles — Eric Mitchum (7.72), an all-American out of Oregon, bested former Tennessee standout Karl Jennings (7.85).

D'Angelo Cherry

60 — This was an SEC trifecta. Mississippi State sophomore D’Angelo Cherry zipped to the win (6.65), trailed by Alabama senior Ray Jadusingh (6.69) and Auburn sophmore Harry Adams (6.73). After Miami’s Cory Nelms in fourth, SEC sprinters from six schools took the next nine spots.
200 — More SEC domination of the sprints here. Ex-Seton Hall blazer Obra Hogans, fourth in 21.44, was the only non-SEC runner to crack the top eight. Georgia sophomore Torrin Lawrence ruled in 21.29, followed by Tennessee senior Evander Wells in 21.20. Both are provisional qualifying marks.

800 — Things got crazy here when a photographer strayed onto the track near the finish line with a lap left, triggering a collision that knocked out a pair of runners. Kentucky junior Sharif Webb, a junior college transfer, avoided the pileup and went on to win the first heat in 1:51.07.

Sharif Webb

Mile — Former Tennessee performer Andrew Dawsom (4:11.52) won out over a pair of Michigan State runners, freshman Isaiah VanDoorne (4:12.12) and Spencer Beatty (4:12.35).

3,000 — One of the more exciting finishes came with Louisville junior Matt Bruce (8:13.50) holding off UK sophomore Luis Orta (8:14.11).

4-by-400 relay — Florida led from the second exchange on and finished in 3:06.40, fourth-best in Gators history. Mississippi State (3:09.80) rallied for second, followed by UK (3:11.64). A dropped baton on the final straightaway cost Alabama a chance to hold off Mississippi State.

Shot put — Hoffa led all the way despite a worthy challenger in Shore Athletic Club’s Rhuben Williams, the runner-upat 65-11. Georgia senior Israel Machovec was third (58-1 1/4), followed by UK junior Colin Boevers (57-6 1/2).

Colin Boevers

“It was a good opener. I threw well,” Boevers said. Doug Reynolds, UK throws coach, “told us to execute what we do in practice, and I feel like I did it pretty well. I didn’t quite connect on any throws, so I know there’s more in the tank.”

Boevers was impressed by Hoffa, a two-time Olympian and a world champion indoors and outdoors.

“Reese Hoffa, he’s really a hero in this sport and he’s incredible to watch,” Boevers said. “This is my first time competing with him. I was kind of jittery at first, but I settled in. I did my thing and he ended up with a great throw, and it was an honor to compete with him.”

Reese Hoffa

Hoffa would like to add a World Championships indoor gold to the one he won in 2006. (He won silver medals in 2004 and 2008.)
“World Indoors in Doha, that’s where my eye’s on right now,” said Hoffa, who represents the New York Athletic Club.

Hoffa says he’s better equipped now than he was in 2008, when he won the U.S. Olympic Trials but finished seventh at the Beijing Olympics.

“I think I’m more comfortable being in a limelight position,” Hoffa said. “Beijing, although I had had some success, it was nothing like having everybody have their eye on you. And, if you’re not used to that, there’s no way to prepare for that. You’ve just got to experience it, live through it and learn from it.”

Long jump — How about a 1-2-3-5 finish for Louisville? Wesley Smith, a sophomore, led the pack at 25-4 1/2. Tone Belt, who won Friday’s high jump, was second (25-2 1/2), followed by Rudon Bastian (25-1 1/4), UK’s Keenon Hall (24-7 1/4) and Friday’s runner-up in the triple jump, Andre Black (24-3 1/2).

“It was pretty good. That’s our second meet,” said Jake Jacoby, U of L’s jumps coach. “We’re still working on things and they’re dialing in fairly well. I was very happy with the way we performed tonight.”

Daily competition in practice keeps Jacoby’s group sharp.

“They’re jawing all the time,” he said. “It’s a day-to-day thing. They challenge each other in the weight room and on the track, and it makes for a good, solid corps.”

Pole vault — Florida junior Eric Foran won in a jumpoff, clearing 16-2 3/4 after tying with Georgia sophomore Allen Brandon at 16-0 3/4. Third-place Logan Lynch of Michigan State also cleared 16-0 3/4, but had one more miss.