Jan. 11, 2016// AT THE STARTING LINE The University of Cincinnati track and field program opens its 2016 indoor campaign this weekend when it travels to the UK Invitational in Lexington, Ky., January 15-16. The event will take place inside Nutter Field House on the Kentucky campus and will be the first of two consecutive weeks that UC competes at UK.
// THE COMPETITION This weekend’s meet will feature athletes from 23 schools in the non-team scored event. Several familiar faces will be among the list of participating schools, including conference foe UCF and regional foes Dayton, Louisville, Miami (Ohio) and Northern Kentucky. The women’s team from Kentucky is the lone squad in the meet that holds a ranking in the USTFCCCA National Top 25 (No. 8).
// THE EVENTS This weekend’s meet features 15 of the 18 events contested at the NCAA Championships with the lone exceptions being the 5,000m run and the multi-events (pentathlon & heptathlon). Two events will be held on Friday with the weight throw opening the meet at 4pm while the distance medley relay is the first track event of the weekend at 7pm. On Saturday, the high jump competitions open the day at 9am while the semifinals of the 60m hurdles are the first events on the track at noon. Live results will be available at UKAthletics.com.
// LAST TIME: 2015 UK INVITATIONAL The Bearcats are no strangers to the Nutter Field House having competed in several UK events each indoor season. Last year, 12 student-athletes posted Top 5 finishes in their respective events with
Erika Hurd winning the women’s high jump for UC’s lone win in the meet. Five marks recorded ranked among the program’s all-time Top 10, including
Je’Rica Sanders, who clocked in at 8.47 in the 60m hurdles for the second-fastest time in school history.
// RECORD SHOP The 2015 indoor season saw eight school records fall on numerous occasions, including six on the women’s side. For the women, records were broken in the 300m dash, 400m dash, 4x400m relay, 1,000m run, triple jump and shot put while the men’s pole vault and shot put records also fell. Of the seven women that had a hand in the records, all but two return for the 2016 campaign while both men’s record setters are back.
// YES, SHE KEN(YA)Kenya Woodall turned in an impressive indoor campaign in 2015 that saw her earn USTFCCCA All-American Honorable Mention in the 400m dash and a pair of all-conference honors from The American (400m dash & 4x400m relay). During that indoor season, Woodall took down a pair of school records, running 38.60 in the 300m dash and 53.73 in the 400m dash. She also was part of the record 4x400m relay (
Javette Lee,
Jalisa Jarrett and
Jada Grant). In all, Woodall’s top time recorded in four individual events ranked among the program’s all-time Top 10 with her times in the 200m dash (24.67) and 600m run (1:35.08) ranking fourth and fifth, respectively, at UC.
// UP AND OVER Adrian Valles’ first year of action for UC was extremely fruitful as the Spaniard not only secured USTFCCCA All-America First Team honors in the indoor and outdoor pole vault, he also took over the top spot in the Bearcats’ record book in the event. Indoors, Valles cleared 5.48m (17-11.25) to break Chris Smith’s 10-year reign at the top (5.41m/17-09.00 in 2005) before claiming gold at the conference meet. Overall, five of his marks rank among the Top 10 all-time in program history. It was a similar story outdoors as he cleared 5.65m (18-06.50) to set the school mark and record his all-time best clearance regardless of season.
// THEY’RE BIG SHOTS The records in the men’s and women’s shot put fell in 2015 and both came with performances that put a UC student-athlete into uncharted territory.
Macklin Tudor, who is back for 2016, not only became the school record holder in the event with his toss of 18.10m (59-04.75), he also became the first Bearcat to surpass the 18-meter mark and move past the 57’ mark. On the women’s side,
Frida Akerstrom capped her UC career as the first Bearcat women to surpass the 16-meter mark as she hit exactly 16.00m (52-06.00) to win the conference crown.
// JUMPING INRebecka Abrahamsson, who opened her collegiate career last year by winning her first three triple jump competitions, recorded five of the Top 6 marks in program history during the indoor season, including a school-record mark of 12.65m (41-06.00) during the conference meet. Overall, Abrahamsson posted the Top 2 marks in program history to surpass Shintara Carpenter’s 2005 mark of 12.55m (40-10.25). A USTFCCCA All-America Second Team honoree during the outdoor season, she is the only UC woman to post 41-foot marks in the event.
// RECAP: 2015 INTRASQUAD MEET Team Red and Team Black split the team wins in the 36th intrasquad meet on December 4, but Team Black came out on top in the annual event by a score of 107-92 inside the Armory Fieldhouse on campus. The men’s portion of meet saw Red pull out a one-point victory (51-50) while the women captured the win with a 57-41 score. Seven total intrasquad records fell in the event.
Jimmy Brooks (55m/6.1),
Alex Bloom (high jump/2.09m/6-10.50),
Erika Hurd (high jump/1.79m/5-10.50) and
Annette Echikunwoke (weight throw/18.53m/60-09.75) broke records competing for Black while
Josh Province (weight throw/18.53m/60-09.75)
Kenya Woodall (200m/25.0) and
Rebecka Abrahamsson (triple jump/12.23m/40-01.50) set new standards while competing for Red.
// RECAP: NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS Two Bearcats competed in the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championships with both garnering USTFCCCA All-America honors. One of only two freshmen to qualify for the national meet in the pole vault,
Adrian Valles finished sixth nationally with a clearance of 5.45m (17-10.50), which equalled the highest finish at the national meet for a male student-athlete, tying David Payne (100m hurdles/2004). For the women,
Erika Hurd took part in the high jump, where she finished in a tie for 15th place to earn All-America second team honors. Hurd’s highest clearance in the competition was 1.72m (5-08.00).
// WELCOME BACK: ALL-AMERICAN EDITION Four Bearcats garnered USTFCCCA All-America honors based on their performances at the 2015 NCAA championship events, including
Adrian Valles, would earned first-team honors in the indoor and outdoor pole vault competitions. On the women’s side,
Erika Hurd was named to the second-team indoors and first team outdoors for her efforts in the high jump,
Rebecka Abrahamsson earned second-team honors in the outdoor triple jump and
Kenya Woodall earned honorable mention for the outdoor 400m dash.
// RECAP: THE AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS Both teams placed fourth at the American Athletic Conference Championships last year with the women claiming a pair of individual championship crowns with the men adding one. For the women,
Erika Hurd won the high jump and
Frida Akerstrom won the shot put while
Adrian Valles captured the men’s pole vault. Sixteen different women and 11 men scored team points in the meet with 12 and eight, respectively, returning in 2016. Individually, five women and five men each were named the all-conference teams with four each returning this season.
// CROSSING BORDERS While both rosters carry an abundant number of products from the state of Ohio with 26 (of 43) men and 31 (of 48) women hailing from the Buckeye State, the Bearcats also boast a roster of eight international student-athletes set to compete in 2016. Both rosters house four internationals, including a pair of returning All-Americans in
Rebecka Abrahamsson (Sweden) in the triple jump and
Adrian Valles (Spain) in the pole vault. Joining Abrahamsson on the women’s roster are a pair of Canadians in
Alanna Hendricks and
Juliana Puopolo while
Naomi Urbano (multi-events) hails from Mexico. Valles and fellow compatriot Sergio Acera (jumps) join distance runner
Toby Loveridge (England) and sprinter Tevin-Llyod Thompson (Jamaica) on the men’s roster.
// HELLO, MY NAME IS: With the start of a new season comes the addition of student-athletes to the roster. This year, the UC program will welcome a total of 22 freshmen, including 13 women and 9 men. The newest competitors are not the only rookies to the program this year as
Lara Crofford was hired to join the coaching staff as an assistant for distance running and cross country. Crofford began her time with the program earlier this academic year with the cross country team.
// MORE ADDITIONS In November, Director of Track & Field
Susan Seaton announced a 10-person signing class that will join the program in time for the 2016-17 season. The class includes eight women and two men with five incoming Bearcats hailing from Ohio. Two international student-athletes are also among this signing class.
// UP NEXT Next up the Bearcats is a return trip to Lexington to compete in the Rod McCravy Memorial on the Kentucky campus. The meet runs January 22-23.
Ekaterini Stefanidi () © Copyright courtesy IAAF 
