Tickets// ON THE STARTING LINE
The University of Cincinnati track and field will return to action on the road this weekend as the Bearcats are set to take part in the 2018 War Eagle Invitational Friday and Saturday at Hutsell-Rosen Track on the Auburn campus. The meet will feature 20 different teams and will be the final multiple-day competition for the Bearcats ahead of the 2018 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships that UC will play host May 11-13.
// IN THE MEET
Along with host Auburn, the Bearcats will see competition from student-athletes representing Alabama, Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Ball State, Chattanooga, Cornell, Indiana, Jacksonville State, Manhattan, Middle Tennessee State, UMass-Lowell, Mississippi, South Alabama, Tiffin, Troy, Villanova, Virginia Tech and Yale.
// FOLLOW ALONG
Live results will be available online through the on-site timing company, Delta Timing. To view the heat sheets, start lists and results, visit results.deltatiming.com.
// BEING SOCIAL
GoBearcats.com is your one-stop destination for all things UC Athletics. Socially, the team can also be followed on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with all using the handle GoBearcatsTFXC. As always, fans are encouraged to join in the conversation using the hashtag #Bearcats.
// CRUNCH TIME
Following this week's action at Auburn, there will be just two more meets for the Bearcats to utilize as they prepare the championship season. After heading to Louisville and Lexington in consecutive weeks, the Bearcats will open the championship slate by playing host to the AAC Championships (May 11-13) at Gettler Stadium. After one week off, those that qualify will head to Tampa, Fla., for the 2018 NCAA East Preliminary Round meet (May 24-26) with those athletes that advance heading to Eugene, Ore., for the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Finals (June 6-9).
// ONE TEAM HONORS
The office of Student-Athlete Support Services (SASS) handed out several ONE Team honors this week at the mid-week baseball game between the Bearcats and visiting rival Xavier (UC won, 10-7), with two men earning awards. Alex Bloom was named the recipient of the Jimmy Nippert Award as the 'male student-athlete who has demonstrated academic achievement and outstanding contributions in their sport and community'. Also earning recognition was Adrian Valles, the male recipient of the Nancy Hamant Scholar-Athlete of the Year (Vanessa Gilles of women's soccer was the female recipient). The Hamant honor goes to 'one graduating male and one female student-athlete who has excelled in the classroom and has the highest cumulative GPA among all graduating student-athletes'.
// CATHERINE CLIMBING HIGHER
For the second week in a row, Brooke Catherine cleared a personal-best height in pole vault, this time climbing over the bar at 4.20m (13-09.25) to finish in a tie for fifth place in the invitational section of the event. After clearing a best of 4.05m last week in Arizona, Catherine opened her competition by easily clearing 3.90m before climbing over 4.05m on her first attempt at tying her outdoor career best. With the bar raised to 4.20m, she cleared on her second attempt before taking a crack at 4.30m (14-01.25), but was unsuccessful at adding to her big day. With her 4.20m clearance, she now ranks #3 all-time in UC history and becomes just the second UC woman to clear 4.20m or better both indoors and outdoors in a career, joining Mackenzie Fields, who cleared 4.25m indoors and 4.35m outdoors.
// TWO BOUNCE IN
The women's triple jump saw two Bearcats enter the field with both posting marks to rank themselves among the Top 10 all-time in program history as Irati Mitxelena and Kennedy Marable posted the #2 and #6 (tie) jumps in Bearcats history. Mitxelena placed seventh overall in the competition as she bounced her way to a best of 12.79m (41-11.50) to improve her outdoor PR by 1' 3.75" and better her #2 mark in program history. With her mark, she joins Rebecka Abrahamsson (2016) as the only two UC women to record marks of 41' or better in both the indoor and outdoor triple jump events. Joining Mitxelena in the Top 10 was true freshman Marable, who finished with a best of 11.55m (37-10.75) to move onto the all-time Top 10 chart for the first time in her career as she is now tied for sixth overall. Marable, who improved her career best by nearly one foot (11.25"), is now tied with Anastasia Tarpeh (2010) on the Top 10 ledger.
// NEED FOR SPEED
Tiona Lattimore and Haisha Bisiolu each lit it up on the track in the sprints for the women as each recorded a time that ranks in the program's Top 10 ledger with Bisiolu posting two. In the 100m dash, Bisiolu clocked in at 11.69 to lower her PR and move into sixth on the UC chart while Lattimore ran 11.62 one week after breaking the school record in the event (11.52). From there, Lattimore took part in the 400m dash and ran her first sub 54-second time in the open quarter, posting a time of 53.93, the #5 time in UC history. In the final sprint event of the day, Bisiolu was back on the track for the 200m dash and posted the #5 time in UC history as she ran 23.77.
// CRUSHING IT
The women were not the only runners putting up hot times in the short sprints with Austin Edwards running a PR in the event for the second time in as many weeks, this time running 10.44. His time not only placed him third all-time in program history, but also saw him run the fastest time at UC since 2004 when Kenny Wade ran 10.39. Edwards also took part in the long jump and placed seventh overall on the day with a best of 7.35m.
// MID-DISTANCE ADDS TO THE BOOKS
Two mid-distance events on the women's side saw the Bearcats post solid times as UC runners fared well in both the 800m and 1,500m events. In the 800m run, Alexis Anton raced to a time of 2:11.21 in her heat, just missing her PR of 2:10.87, the #4 mark in program history. One race later, Sammy Hentz took part in the 800m and ran a PR for the second week in a row, lowering her best of 2:12.80 to 2:11.34. After having just missed the all-time Top 10 last week with her PR, she jumped all the way to #6 with today's performance. Later in the day, the 1,500m run was contested with Madison Dunlap running a life time best of 4:40.41, lowering her personal best by one second and moved up to #9 all-time.
// LIGHTFOOT LIGHTS IT UP
To say Lightfoot had a career in the heptathlon Thursday would be an understatement as the sophomore recorded personal-best marks in all four of the individual events on the day to score a career-best 3,274 points for Day One, the third-best total in program history. Lightfoot opened the day in the 100m hurdles and raced to a time of 14.11 for 963 points and the second-fastest time of the day overall. Her time, which is a PR by 0.79 seconds in the heptathlon and 0.14 seconds all-time, ranks not only as the third-fastest time in UC heptathlon history, but also as the 10th-best time in the 100m hurdles event in UC history. Lightfoot then took part in the high jump and cleared a PR height of 1.67m (5-05.75) to tie for the win and add 818 points to her total. In the overall lead for the first time on the day following the seventh-best heptathlon high jump clearance in UC history, Lightfoot moved on to the shot put where she heaved the ball to 12.41m (40-08.75) for 688 points. That mark was a 7.25" PR for Lightfoot and also gave her the UC heptathlon shot put record that was set in 2015 by Kaitlyn Good, who held the mark at 12.24m (40-02.00), which was just 1cm ahead of Lightfoot's previous best. Finally, Lightfoot returned to the track and raced in the 200m dash. Her mark of 25.91, which was wind-aided with a tailwind of 3.9 meters per second, scored her 805 more points and placed her ninth on the program's all-time Top 10 heptathlon 200m list. Despite finishing eighth overall in the final event of the day, Lightfoot will head into the final three events Friday morning with a nine-point lead over Maya Neal of Tennessee, who sits second with 3,265 points. She finished the meet with one day later with a PR 4,782 points, the #9 total in program history.
// ONE HEP OF A HIGH JUMP
Lightfoot was not the only Bearcats heptathlete to have a strong showing in the high jump as all four women posted personal-best clearances in the event Thursday. Lightfoot joined Maggie Loeffler and Naomi Urbano in tying for the win as each woman was able to clear 1.67m (5-05.75) to score 818 points. That mark ties all three for the #7 position on the program's heptathlon high jump Top 10. Added to that list as well was Katie Straus, who cleared 1.64m (5-04.50) for 783 points and the #10 position on the Top 10 ledger.
// IF IT ENDED TODAY
If the season ended today, 13 Bearcats would have earned berths into the NCAA East Preliminary meet, the qualifying meet for the NCAA Outdoor Finals. The group, which holds 15 qualifying marks, is led by Tiona Lattimore, who is currently in the Top 48 (the qualifying standard) in three events, including the 400m (#34), 200m (#40) and 100m (#44), this week. Joining her on the list for the women are Loretta Blaut (#2 high jump), Brooke Catherine (#8 pole vault), Irati Mitxelena (#15 triple jump), Ashley Williams (#25 shot put), Kellsa Mbah (#38 long jump), Leah Heckaman (#38 shot put) and Alexis Gray (#43 discus). On the men's side, the five that would qualify for Tampa include Austin Edwards (#23 long jump), Adrian Valles (#26 pole vault), Marcus Abraham (#35 shot put), Alex Bloom (#36 high jump) and Sam Meece (#47 discus).
// TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADERS
Three weeks out from the AAC meet, three Bearcats women hold the top marks in their respective events with all three coming in field events. Loretta Blaut has the top high jump clearance at 1.82m as she looks to defend her outdoor crown won in Houston last year. Brooke Catherine recently cleared 4.20m at the Tennessee Relays to surge into the lead in the pole vault while Irati Mitxelena bounced her way to a mark of 12.79m at the Tennessee meet to take the top position in the triple jump standings this week.
// HONORS
The Cincinnati USA Women's Sports Association announced its annual award winners with two members of the program being honored this year as Loretta Blaut was selected as the College Sportswoman of the Year for Track & Field and Head Coach Susan Seaton was named the College Coach of the Year for the second year in a row. Blaut is now eligible for the 2018 College Sportswoman of the Year award (all sport winners are eligible for the overall award), which will be announced Monday, April 16, at the annual banquet. Blaut's honor marks the third year in a row a Bearcats track & field athlete has been honored with Annette Echikunwoke winning last year and Erika Hurd winning in 2016.
// UC HOSTING AAC OUTDOORS IN 2018
This season, the 2018 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be hosted by the Bearcats at Gettler Stadium and Coy Field. The three-day meet will take place May 11-13 on the UC campus and will mark the first AAC track & field meet the Bearcats have played host and the second AAC meet UC has hosted after holding the 2016 AAC Cross Country Championships at Voice of America MetroPark in West Chester. The last time the Bearcats played host to a conference meet came in 2010 when the BIG EAST meet was held at Gettler Stadium.
// UP NEXT
Next week, the Bearcats will travel south to Louisville for the Lyles/Wood Invitational on Saturday, May 28. The one-day meet will be the first of two-consecutive single-day meets for the Bearcats to close out the regular season with the Kentucky Relays taking place the following Saturday.
The University of Cincinnati track and field will return to action on the road this weekend as the Bearcats are set to take part in the 2018 War Eagle Invitational Friday and Saturday at Hutsell-Rosen Track on the Auburn campus. The meet will feature 20 different teams and will be the final multiple-day competition for the Bearcats ahead of the 2018 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships that UC will play host May 11-13.
// IN THE MEET
Along with host Auburn, the Bearcats will see competition from student-athletes representing Alabama, Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Ball State, Chattanooga, Cornell, Indiana, Jacksonville State, Manhattan, Middle Tennessee State, UMass-Lowell, Mississippi, South Alabama, Tiffin, Troy, Villanova, Virginia Tech and Yale.
// FOLLOW ALONG
Live results will be available online through the on-site timing company, Delta Timing. To view the heat sheets, start lists and results, visit results.deltatiming.com.
// BEING SOCIAL
GoBearcats.com is your one-stop destination for all things UC Athletics. Socially, the team can also be followed on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with all using the handle GoBearcatsTFXC. As always, fans are encouraged to join in the conversation using the hashtag #Bearcats.
// CRUNCH TIME
Following this week's action at Auburn, there will be just two more meets for the Bearcats to utilize as they prepare the championship season. After heading to Louisville and Lexington in consecutive weeks, the Bearcats will open the championship slate by playing host to the AAC Championships (May 11-13) at Gettler Stadium. After one week off, those that qualify will head to Tampa, Fla., for the 2018 NCAA East Preliminary Round meet (May 24-26) with those athletes that advance heading to Eugene, Ore., for the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Finals (June 6-9).
// ONE TEAM HONORS
The office of Student-Athlete Support Services (SASS) handed out several ONE Team honors this week at the mid-week baseball game between the Bearcats and visiting rival Xavier (UC won, 10-7), with two men earning awards. Alex Bloom was named the recipient of the Jimmy Nippert Award as the 'male student-athlete who has demonstrated academic achievement and outstanding contributions in their sport and community'. Also earning recognition was Adrian Valles, the male recipient of the Nancy Hamant Scholar-Athlete of the Year (Vanessa Gilles of women's soccer was the female recipient). The Hamant honor goes to 'one graduating male and one female student-athlete who has excelled in the classroom and has the highest cumulative GPA among all graduating student-athletes'.
// CATHERINE CLIMBING HIGHER
For the second week in a row, Brooke Catherine cleared a personal-best height in pole vault, this time climbing over the bar at 4.20m (13-09.25) to finish in a tie for fifth place in the invitational section of the event. After clearing a best of 4.05m last week in Arizona, Catherine opened her competition by easily clearing 3.90m before climbing over 4.05m on her first attempt at tying her outdoor career best. With the bar raised to 4.20m, she cleared on her second attempt before taking a crack at 4.30m (14-01.25), but was unsuccessful at adding to her big day. With her 4.20m clearance, she now ranks #3 all-time in UC history and becomes just the second UC woman to clear 4.20m or better both indoors and outdoors in a career, joining Mackenzie Fields, who cleared 4.25m indoors and 4.35m outdoors.
// TWO BOUNCE IN
The women's triple jump saw two Bearcats enter the field with both posting marks to rank themselves among the Top 10 all-time in program history as Irati Mitxelena and Kennedy Marable posted the #2 and #6 (tie) jumps in Bearcats history. Mitxelena placed seventh overall in the competition as she bounced her way to a best of 12.79m (41-11.50) to improve her outdoor PR by 1' 3.75" and better her #2 mark in program history. With her mark, she joins Rebecka Abrahamsson (2016) as the only two UC women to record marks of 41' or better in both the indoor and outdoor triple jump events. Joining Mitxelena in the Top 10 was true freshman Marable, who finished with a best of 11.55m (37-10.75) to move onto the all-time Top 10 chart for the first time in her career as she is now tied for sixth overall. Marable, who improved her career best by nearly one foot (11.25"), is now tied with Anastasia Tarpeh (2010) on the Top 10 ledger.
// NEED FOR SPEED
Tiona Lattimore and Haisha Bisiolu each lit it up on the track in the sprints for the women as each recorded a time that ranks in the program's Top 10 ledger with Bisiolu posting two. In the 100m dash, Bisiolu clocked in at 11.69 to lower her PR and move into sixth on the UC chart while Lattimore ran 11.62 one week after breaking the school record in the event (11.52). From there, Lattimore took part in the 400m dash and ran her first sub 54-second time in the open quarter, posting a time of 53.93, the #5 time in UC history. In the final sprint event of the day, Bisiolu was back on the track for the 200m dash and posted the #5 time in UC history as she ran 23.77.
// CRUSHING IT
The women were not the only runners putting up hot times in the short sprints with Austin Edwards running a PR in the event for the second time in as many weeks, this time running 10.44. His time not only placed him third all-time in program history, but also saw him run the fastest time at UC since 2004 when Kenny Wade ran 10.39. Edwards also took part in the long jump and placed seventh overall on the day with a best of 7.35m.
// MID-DISTANCE ADDS TO THE BOOKS
Two mid-distance events on the women's side saw the Bearcats post solid times as UC runners fared well in both the 800m and 1,500m events. In the 800m run, Alexis Anton raced to a time of 2:11.21 in her heat, just missing her PR of 2:10.87, the #4 mark in program history. One race later, Sammy Hentz took part in the 800m and ran a PR for the second week in a row, lowering her best of 2:12.80 to 2:11.34. After having just missed the all-time Top 10 last week with her PR, she jumped all the way to #6 with today's performance. Later in the day, the 1,500m run was contested with Madison Dunlap running a life time best of 4:40.41, lowering her personal best by one second and moved up to #9 all-time.
// LIGHTFOOT LIGHTS IT UP
To say Lightfoot had a career in the heptathlon Thursday would be an understatement as the sophomore recorded personal-best marks in all four of the individual events on the day to score a career-best 3,274 points for Day One, the third-best total in program history. Lightfoot opened the day in the 100m hurdles and raced to a time of 14.11 for 963 points and the second-fastest time of the day overall. Her time, which is a PR by 0.79 seconds in the heptathlon and 0.14 seconds all-time, ranks not only as the third-fastest time in UC heptathlon history, but also as the 10th-best time in the 100m hurdles event in UC history. Lightfoot then took part in the high jump and cleared a PR height of 1.67m (5-05.75) to tie for the win and add 818 points to her total. In the overall lead for the first time on the day following the seventh-best heptathlon high jump clearance in UC history, Lightfoot moved on to the shot put where she heaved the ball to 12.41m (40-08.75) for 688 points. That mark was a 7.25" PR for Lightfoot and also gave her the UC heptathlon shot put record that was set in 2015 by Kaitlyn Good, who held the mark at 12.24m (40-02.00), which was just 1cm ahead of Lightfoot's previous best. Finally, Lightfoot returned to the track and raced in the 200m dash. Her mark of 25.91, which was wind-aided with a tailwind of 3.9 meters per second, scored her 805 more points and placed her ninth on the program's all-time Top 10 heptathlon 200m list. Despite finishing eighth overall in the final event of the day, Lightfoot will head into the final three events Friday morning with a nine-point lead over Maya Neal of Tennessee, who sits second with 3,265 points. She finished the meet with one day later with a PR 4,782 points, the #9 total in program history.
// ONE HEP OF A HIGH JUMP
Lightfoot was not the only Bearcats heptathlete to have a strong showing in the high jump as all four women posted personal-best clearances in the event Thursday. Lightfoot joined Maggie Loeffler and Naomi Urbano in tying for the win as each woman was able to clear 1.67m (5-05.75) to score 818 points. That mark ties all three for the #7 position on the program's heptathlon high jump Top 10. Added to that list as well was Katie Straus, who cleared 1.64m (5-04.50) for 783 points and the #10 position on the Top 10 ledger.
// IF IT ENDED TODAY
If the season ended today, 13 Bearcats would have earned berths into the NCAA East Preliminary meet, the qualifying meet for the NCAA Outdoor Finals. The group, which holds 15 qualifying marks, is led by Tiona Lattimore, who is currently in the Top 48 (the qualifying standard) in three events, including the 400m (#34), 200m (#40) and 100m (#44), this week. Joining her on the list for the women are Loretta Blaut (#2 high jump), Brooke Catherine (#8 pole vault), Irati Mitxelena (#15 triple jump), Ashley Williams (#25 shot put), Kellsa Mbah (#38 long jump), Leah Heckaman (#38 shot put) and Alexis Gray (#43 discus). On the men's side, the five that would qualify for Tampa include Austin Edwards (#23 long jump), Adrian Valles (#26 pole vault), Marcus Abraham (#35 shot put), Alex Bloom (#36 high jump) and Sam Meece (#47 discus).
// TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADERS
Three weeks out from the AAC meet, three Bearcats women hold the top marks in their respective events with all three coming in field events. Loretta Blaut has the top high jump clearance at 1.82m as she looks to defend her outdoor crown won in Houston last year. Brooke Catherine recently cleared 4.20m at the Tennessee Relays to surge into the lead in the pole vault while Irati Mitxelena bounced her way to a mark of 12.79m at the Tennessee meet to take the top position in the triple jump standings this week.
// HONORS
The Cincinnati USA Women's Sports Association announced its annual award winners with two members of the program being honored this year as Loretta Blaut was selected as the College Sportswoman of the Year for Track & Field and Head Coach Susan Seaton was named the College Coach of the Year for the second year in a row. Blaut is now eligible for the 2018 College Sportswoman of the Year award (all sport winners are eligible for the overall award), which will be announced Monday, April 16, at the annual banquet. Blaut's honor marks the third year in a row a Bearcats track & field athlete has been honored with Annette Echikunwoke winning last year and Erika Hurd winning in 2016.
// UC HOSTING AAC OUTDOORS IN 2018
This season, the 2018 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be hosted by the Bearcats at Gettler Stadium and Coy Field. The three-day meet will take place May 11-13 on the UC campus and will mark the first AAC track & field meet the Bearcats have played host and the second AAC meet UC has hosted after holding the 2016 AAC Cross Country Championships at Voice of America MetroPark in West Chester. The last time the Bearcats played host to a conference meet came in 2010 when the BIG EAST meet was held at Gettler Stadium.
// UP NEXT
Next week, the Bearcats will travel south to Louisville for the Lyles/Wood Invitational on Saturday, May 28. The one-day meet will be the first of two-consecutive single-day meets for the Bearcats to close out the regular season with the Kentucky Relays taking place the following Saturday.