Kentucky's Keaton Daniel wins bronze in pole vault at NCAA Championships

Kentucky Track and Field is already winning medals in Eugene. Last night, Keaton Daniel took home bronze in the pole vault. Daniel, the two-time defending SEC outdoor champion in the event, won silver at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last season. This year, he cleared a season-best 18’6.5″/5.65 meters after making each of his previous three attempts of the series.

The bronze medal jump! 🥉

Keaton Daniel earns third in the pole vault with a season best height of 18’6.5/5.65m!#UKTF x #NCAATF pic.twitter.com/pR6a3iaDEf

— UK Track & Field (@KentuckyTrack) June 9, 2022

Daniel earned six points, which puts Kentucky into a four-way tie for 16th place with six of 21 events scored. 

“It’s a good feeling,” Daniel said, via UK Athletics. “I definitely know I have more in me though. I went through clean, it was a good competition, and I came out with the bronze. All good. 
 
“It was a long competition. We were vaulting for about three hours, 30 minutes so I had to be strategic on when I was warming up and staying loose. Ultimately, we handled it well. Ended up clean throughout the competition and just got out a little bit too early.” 

Kentucky’s men’s 4x400m relay of Dwight St. Hillaire, Lance Lang, Kennedy Lightner, and Brian Faust earned a “little q” time qualification place for the NCAA final with the fifth-fastest time of the semifinals, 3:01.68. They will race in the NCAA final on Friday at 8:21 p.m. PT/11:21 ET. 

Women’s Team begins competition today

The women take center stage today in prelims for most of the running events plus prelims and finals for some distance track and field events. Masai Russell (100m hurdles, 400m hurdles) and Abby Steiner (100m, 200m) will compete in the prelims along with Kentucky’s 4x400m (Karimah Davis, Megan Moss, Dajour Miles, and Alexis Holmes) and 4x100m (Steiner, Shadajah Ballard, Russell, and Davis) relays. The 4x400m relay set the collegiate record (3:21.93) en route to the SEC title last month and earned the top qualifying spot out of East Prelims. The women’s finals take place on Saturday.

Here’s today’s schedule of events (all times PT). You can stream each event on ESPN3 or watch it in primetime on ESPNU. Friday and Saturday’s events will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Start (PT)	Thursday Events	Rnd	Status
3:00 PM	Women Hammer	Finals	Fl. 1 of 2, #8: Jade Gates
5:32 PM	Women 4×100 M Relay	Semis	9 Advance: Top 2 Each Heat plus Next 3 Best Times Ht. 2 of 3, Ln. 6: UK
5:46 PM	Women 1500 M	Semis
6:00 PM	Women Pole Vault	Final
6:02 PM	Women 3000 M Steeplechase	Semis	12 Advance: Top 5 Each Heat plus Next 2 Best Times Ht. 2 of 2, Ln. 6: Perri Bockrath
6:32 PM	Women 100 M Hurdles	Semis	9 Advance: Top 2 Each Heat plus Next 3 Best Times Ht. 2 of 3, Ln. 6: Masai Russell
6:45 PM	Women Javelin	Finals
6:46 PM	Women 100 M	Semis	9 Advance: Top 2 Each Heat plus Next 3 Best Times Ht. 2 of 3, Ln. 6: Abby Steiner
7:00 PM	Women Long Jump	Finals	9 Advance: Top 2 Each Heat plus Next 3 Best Times Ht. 1 of 3, Ln. 4: Megan Moss Ht. 3 of 3, Ln. 6: Alexis Holmes
7:00 PM	Women 400 M	Semis
7:14 PM	Women 800 M	Semis
7:30 PM	Women 400 M Hurdles	Semis	9 Advance: Top 2 Each Heat plus Next 3 Best Times Ht. 1 of 3, Ln. 6: Masai Russell
7:40 PM	Women Shot Put	Finals
7:44 PM	Women 200 M	Semis	9 Advance: Top 2 Each Heat plus Next 3 Best Times Ht. 3 of 3, Ln. 3: Karimah Davis Ht. 3 of 3, Ln. 6: Abby Steiner
8:08 PM	Women 10000 M	Final
8:48 PM	Women 4×400 M Relay	Semis	Ht. 9 Advance: Top 2 Each Heat plus Next 3 Best Times Ht. 3 of 3, Ln. 6: UK