Mark Maloney on Kentucky sports

Luis Orta

Kentucky junior Luis Orta is Southeastern Conference Cross Country Male Athlete of the Week.

Competing in the Wildcats’ season opener, on a course that stretched through San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Orta claimed the individual championship and led UK to a second-place finish in the San Francisco Invitational.

Orta, from Caracas, Venezuela, covered the 8,000-meter course in 24 minutes, 25 seconds to win by one second.

San Francisco topped UK for team honors, 33-54, with California third (80) in the eight-team field.

After Orta, UK came in with Walter Lutrell in fifth place (25:06), Josh Nadzam in 13th (25:24) and Stacey Eden in 15th (25:27).

The UK women also placed second at San Franciso, paced by Chelsea Oswald, who covered 5,000 meters in 17:26 to place second only to Cal’s Chelsea Reilly. Cal edged UK 37-39 for team honors, followed by San Francisco (49).

Following for the Wildcats were freshmen Taylor Wendler in seventh and Anna Bostrom in eighth, then sophomore Cally Macumber in ninth.

Other SEC weekly award winners are Georgia junior Kristie Krueger (Female Athlete), Arkansas’ Stephanie Brown (Female Freshman) and Mississippi State’s Nick Perkins (Male Freshman).

Rondel Sorrillo

Kentucky senior Rondel Sorrillo is Male Runner of the Week in the Southeastern Conference.

A 2008 Olympian from Trinidad and Tobago, won the 200-meter dash at UK’s Rod McCravy Memorial Track and Field Meet. His time of 20.77 seconds makes him an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championships, ranks first in the SEC this season and second in the nation. Sorrillo also ran a 47.5 split in the 4-by-400 relay.

This week’s other SEC track and field award winners:

Male Field Athlete: Walter Henning — The LSU junior, who placed fourth in the 35-pound weight throw at last year’s NCAAs, shattered personal and school records at the New Mexico Invitational with an NCAA-leading throw of 75 feet, 8 inches. His previous best was 74-5 1/2.

Male Freshman: Jeremy Postin — The Florida weight-thrower placed third at the Texas A&M Challenge, reaching a personal best of 59-6 3/4 in his second collegiate meet. That also ranks fifth on the Gators’ all-time list.

Female Runner: Jackie Areson — The Tennessee senior broke a 19-year-old school record and automatically qualified for the NCAAs by clocking 9:07.27 for 3,000 meters at the Penn State Invitational. Her time leads the SEC, ranks second in the NCAA and clipped 2 1/2 seconds off the Vols record set by Patty Wiegand.

Female Field: Shara Proctor – The Florida senior from Anguilla won the Texas A&M Challenge long jump with a collegiate-leading 21-8, adding four inches to her school record. Her NCAA-automatic mark ties for eighth-best in the world this season.

Stephanie Brown

Female Freshman: Stephanie Brown — Brown clocked a 2:07.62 split on the 800-meter leg to help Arkansas record an NCAA-provisional time of 11:15.70 in the distance medley relay at Texas A&M. That is the second-best mark in the NCAA thus far. Brown also placed second in the mile with a provisional qualifying time of 4:46.40. That ranks 13th in the NCAA this season, No. 2 among freshmen. 

EKU’s Rengifo takes OVC award

Eastern Kentucky senior Chris Rengifo is the Ohio Valley Conference’s Male Track Athlete of the Week.

Competing at the Rod McCravy Memorial meet, Rengifo ran the second-fastest mile (4:16.26) and third-fastest 800 (1:54.01) by an OVC athlete this season.

A native Canadian (Woodbridge, Ontario), Rengifo is a two-time first-team All-OVC cross country performer. He ran on the Colonels’ winning distance medley relay at last year’s OVC Indoor Championships, and also ran on the school-record four-mile relay at the 2008 Penn Relays.

Texas A&M No. 1 in both team rankings

Texas A&M holds the top spot in both the men’s and women’s weekly rankings of NCAA Division I programs, compiled by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

The A&M men notched three world-leading marks at its Texas A&M Challenge, climbing from fourth in the rankings. The Aggies already topped the women’s rankings.

The Aggies with world-leading marks: Curtis Mitchell, 20.69 for 200 meters; Tabrarie Henry, 45.81 for 400; and a 3:04.86 4-by-400 relay team of Bryan Miller, Tran Howell, Henry and Demetrius Pinder.

Kentucky’s men dropped two spots to No. 21, while Louisville’s women maintained the No. 14 spot.

The SEC leads the men’s rankings with seven teams among the top 25. The Big 12 and Pac-10 have six teams each.

The SEC also tops the women’s list with six teams. The Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference are next with four teams each.

Men’s rankings

    School (points)                     Previous rank
 1. Texas A&M                                          4
 2. Florida State                                       1
 3. Oregon                                               2
 4. LSU                                                     6
 5. Florida                                                 3
 6. Nebraska                                            5
 7. Arkansas                                             7
 8. Arizona State                                      8
 9. Oklahoma                                           9
10. Stanford                                           17
11. Indiana                                            16
12. Baylor                                              10
13. Minnesota                                        12
14. Penn State                                        –
15. Texas Tech                                       11
16. California                                         22
17. Virginia Tech                                    13
18. South Carolina                                15
19. New Mexico                                     –
20. Auburn                                            18
21. KENTUCKY                                   19
22. Georgia                                          14
23. Arizona                                          20
24. Oklahoma State                             24
25. Washington State                          21

Women’s rankings

 1. Texas A&M                                       1
 2. Oregon                                            2
 3. Brigham Young                                 3
 4. LSU                                                  4
 5. Tennessee                                       8
 6. Florida State                                    5
 7. Clemson                                           7
 8. Penn State                                       6
 9. Florida                                              9
10. South Carolina                               11
11. Arkansas                                        10
12. Villanova                                         –
13. Nebraska                                        12
14. LOUISVILLE                                 14
15. Oklahoma                                      15
16. Arizona                                          17
17. Auburn                                           19
18. Washington                                   13
19. Baylor                                            16
20. Virginia Tech                                  18
21. Indiana State                                22
22. Southern Illinois                            20
23. Connecticut                                   21
24. Texas-El Paso                                25
25. North Carolina                                –

Arkansas athletes took three of the six weekly Southeastern Conference Track and Field awards.

Tina Sutej is the SEC women’s Field Athlete of the Week and Stephanie Brown is women’s Freshman of the Week.

Tina Sutej

The Razorbacks also have the male Freshman of the Week in Drew Butler.

Also taking weekly honors are Tennessee’s Phoebe Wright (Female Runner of the Week) and the Georgia men’s tandem of Torrin Lawrence (Runner) and Tommy Barrineau (Field).

Kentucky, off last weekend, resumes action Friday and Saturday when it hosts the annual Rod McCravy Memorial.

Stephanie Brown

* Sutej, a sophomore from Ljubljana, Slovenia, placed second overall and first among collegians with a personal best of 14 feet, 2 inches in the Razorback Invitational. That is a Slovenian national record, second-best in the NCAA this season and third-best all-time at Arkansas. She has added to the Slovenian record in all three of her competitions this season. Razorbacks placed 2-3-5-7 in the event.

* Brown, from Downs, Ill., won the Razorback Invitational 800 meters. Her time of 2:05.08 is a personal best, an NCAA provisional qualifier, and ranks third in the NCAA, No. 1 among NCAA freshmen.

Drew Butler

* Completing the Arkansas triple is Butler, from The Woodlands, Texas. He led off the Razorbacks’ first-place distance medley relay with a 1,200-meter split of 2:59.91, helping the team to its best time of the season, 9:55.75. That leads the SEC by more than 15 seconds and ranks sixth in the NCAA. In addition, Butler placed second at 800 meters with a personal best and NCAA provisional qualifier of 1:50.15. That ranks fifth in the NCAA and No. 1 among freshmen.

Phoebe Wright

* Tennessee’s Wright, a senior from Signal Mountain, Tenn., won the 800-meter run at the (Virginia Tech) Hokie Invitational. Her time of 2:04.00 is an NCAA automatic qualifier and is the national leader this season.  Wright already had the national lead in the mile. Teammate Channelle Price also hit the automatic qualifying standard, clocking 2:04.72, and was the only finisher within four seconds of defending SEC champion and NCAA runner-up Wright. … Wright also helped the Lady Vols to a two-second improvement on its best 4-by-400 relay of the young season, the unit placing fourth in 3:42.80.

Torrin Lawrence

Thomas Barrineau

* Georgia’s Lawrence, a sophomore from Jacksonville, Fla., won the Hokie Invitational 300-meter run in a collegiate-record 32.32. The old record of 32.67, set by Mississippi State’s Lorenzo Daniel, had stood since 1987. Lawrence’s time is No. 5 all-time in the world. He also ran on the winning 4-by-400 relay, which finished in 3:11.01.

* Barrineau, a junior from Burke, Va., won his first collegiate heptathlon, scoring an NCAA provisional qualifier of 5,608 points at the Razorback Invitational. That leads the season list and adds 277 points to his school record. Barrineau set indoor personal bests in four of the seven disciplines: 8.45 in the 60-meter hurdles, 6-6 1/4 in the high jump, 15-11 in the pole vault and 22-2 1/4 in the long jump.