Tickets// ON THE STARTING LINE
With the regular season behind them, the University of Cincinnati track and field program has turned its sights to capturing conference titles as the Bearcats are set to play host to the 2018 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships this Friday through Sunday (May 11-13) at Gettler Stadium in Cincinnati. The meet, which is the final time athletes can post marks that qualify for the NCAA regional meets, will see team, individual and relay champions crowned all three days with much of the action taking place at Gettler Stadium while the hammer and javelin events will be held at Coy Field.
// IN THE MEET
The AAC Championships will have 12 institutions represented this weekend. All 12 of the league schools will be on hand, including Cincinnati, ECU, Houston, Memphis, SMU, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa, UCF, USF and newcomer Wichita State with only SMU, Temple and UCF fielding a women's team only.
// INFORMATION CENTRAL
• Results: live results will be available at Live.FinishTiming.com
• Heat Sheets: are available on the AAC web site at TheAmerican.org/TrackField
• Social: be sure to follow @GoBearcatsTFXC and @AmericanXCTrack for all the latest on the meet and use the hashtags #Bearcats and #AmericanOTF to join the conversation
• Streaming: The American Digital Network will stream coverage of the meet all three days and fans can watch live on Facebook.com/AmericanConf. The streams will begin at 12:30 p.m. Friday, 10:30 a.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday.
// TICKETS REQUIRED
Unlike regular home meets at Gettler Stadium, the AAC meet is a ticketed event. Tickets will be on sale at the main gate to Gettler and will cost $10 for all three days or $5 per day for adults and $6 for all three days or $3 per day for youth/seniors. Children under the age of 2 and students with valid college identification cards will be permitted free entry. No tickets are needed for Coy Field.
// QUICK STARTS
• UC is playing host to the conference outdoor track & field meet for the fifth time in program history and will be welcoming its fifth different conference to town
• Cincinnati last played host in 2010 when the BIG EAST Championships were held at Gettler
• Alexis Anton had a big weekend at the Kentucky Relays and was selected as this week's AAC Female Track Athlete of the Week, the first for UC since the 2016 season (outdoors)
• Several Bearcats return this weekend to try and defend their 2017 outdoor titles, including 3 women and 2 men
• Anton will look to score in a pair of events as she is one of only four women ranked in the Top 8 in both the 800m and 1,500m runs
• Loretta Blaut will look to win her fourth high jump title in a row after taking the past two indoor crowns with the 2017 outdoor title sandwiched between
• Adrian Valles enters the AAC meet having won his previous seven league titles, never having been defeated by an AAC foe in his collegiate career
• Sam Meece continues to shine as a rookie as he is the top-ranked freshman in three throwing events, including the shot put, discus and hammer
• Coach Lara Crofford recently competed in the Little Kings Mile as part of the Flying Pig weekend in Cincinnati and finished third in the women's elite race
// WELCOME TO CINCINNATI
This weekend's meet will mark the first time UC has played host to an AAC track & field meet and the second AAC championship overall after serving as the host of the 2016 cross country meet at Voice of America MetroPark in West Chester. The Bearcats are no stranger to serving as the conference meet host as this year's meet will mark the fifth time UC has done so outdoors and the 11th time overall including three indoor and three cross country meets.
// COVERING THEM ALL
What is interesting about UC serving as host this year is not the fact that UC has done so just five times total (including this weekend), but has done so once each for five different conferences. It all started in 1968 with the Mid-American Conference meet before hosting the 1994 Great Midwest Conference Championships. Two years later, Conference USA came to town for the 1996 championships before UC played host to the BIG EAST meet in 2010.
// THE LAST TIME: 2010 BIG EAST
Speaking of the BIG EAST, the 2010 meet was the last time UC has played host to a conference track and field competition. In that meet, the Bearcats men placed sixth overall and the women finished in a tie for 12th place. Antione Drakeford (400m) and Brian Zimmerman (javelin) were the lone victors for the Bearcats in the meet.
// TAKING RECORD OF THINGS
This year, there will be 42 events contested (21 for the men, 21 for the women), including 19 individual events and two relays for each gender. Of those 42 events, 16 stadium marks still stand from the last time a conference meet was held at Gettler Stadium with nine women's events and seven men's event standards set by BIG EAST competitors. Added to that were two individual heptathlon event and six decathlon event stadium records.
// ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: ALEXIS ANTON
Last weekend at the Kentucky Relays, Alexis Anton put together a pair of solid runs to continue to cement her place in UC history. The recent UC graduate ran 4:33.63 in the 1,500m run to place fourth overall while lowering her PR by nearly five seconds, a move that pushed her to #3 all-time in program history as just the fifth UC woman to run under 4:37 in the metric mile. She came back later to run 2:12.63 to win the 800m run. With a better time earlier this year, Anton is now ranked #6 in the AAC in the 800m (2:10.37) and #7 in the 1,500m, making her one of only four women to be ranked in the Top 8 in both events heading into the meet this weekend. For her efforts, Anton was named the American Athletic Conference Female Track Athlete of the Week, the first weekly honor of her career.
// TAILORING HISTORY
Anton's honor also brought a bit of history with it. Since the 2013-14 academic year when the AAC was formed, track weekly honors have been hard to come by for the Bearcats. Combining indoors and out, Anton is just the sixth different woman to earn a weekly track honor and the first non-sprinter/hurdler to earn the accolade. The last time a Bearcat earned a track honor was April 12, 2016, when Kenya Woodall won her third honor in as many seasons. To date, no UC men have earned track accolades (indoor and out) while they have collected 16 of 38 total field honors the program has earned.
// DEFENDING CHAMPIONS - TEAM
The UC women enter the weekend as the two-time defending champions after having slipped out of Orlando in 2016 with a 13-point victory over host UCF before claiming a 31-point win last year at Houston over UConn. The Bearcats are coming off an AAC indoor-record 62-point margin of victory to claim their first indoor title earlier this season, but look for the outdoor title race to be a bit closer than that this weekend.
// DEFENDING CHAMPIONS - INDIVIDUAL
Several individuals are set to compete this weekend where they will try to defend crowns they have won either last year outdoors, this year indoors or both. On the men's side, Adrian Valles will look to win his eighth career AAC pole vault crown while Bloom will look to defend his decathlon crown from last year and his indoor high jump crown from this year. On the women's side, the list is much longer as Loretta Blaut will try to win her fourth high jump title in a row; Brooke Catherine will try to sweep the pole vault titles this year; Naomi Urbano will go for her third combined events title (outdoor heptathlon last year and pentathlon indoor this year); Irati Mitxelena will look to sweep the triple jump this year; and Bryana Robinson will try for her fourth 400m title.
// GOING FOR GOLDEN HISTORY
As the two-time defending conference outdoor champions, the UC women also have won three titles in a row after capturing their first indoor crown earlier this year. Should the Bearcats successfully defend their outdoor titles, the victory would mean:
• The first three-peat in AAC women's team history (SMU won in 2014 and 2015 before UC won the past two outdoor titles)
• UC would become just the second women's team in AAC history to sweep the track & field crowns in the same year after SMU won the inaugural indoor and outdoor titles in 2014
• UC would have the most women's team track & field titles in AAC history at four, breaking a tie with SMU, who swept the titles in 2014 and added the outdoor crown in 2015
// TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADERS
Heading into the meet, two UC women hold the top marks in their respective events with Loretta Blaut and Brooke Catherine sitting on top of the standings in the high jump and pole vault, respectively. Blaut has cleared 1.82m (5-11.50) to lead the league since the opening weekend of competition while Catherine cleared 4.20m (13-09.25) to post a PR and claim the lead. Both women won their respective events at the 2018 indoor meet and will look to break out the brooms the week at home for a sweep of 2018.
// CORNERING THE MARKET
In the nine previous track and field championships the American has held (five indoor and four outdoor), the Bearcats women have been quite dominant in the high jump with Blaut looking to continue that trend this weekend. Indoors, UC is the only school that has won the women's high jump with Erika Hurd taking the first three and Blaut the past two. Outdoors, Hurd won in 2015 and Blaut last year, giving UC 7-of-9 titles that were up for grabs.
// GREAT EIGHT
Another event that UC has dominated in recent years is the men's pole vault as two-time IAAF World Championships competitor Adrian Valles is undefeated in AAC Championship events. Since he took to the runway for the first time at the 2015 AAC Indoor Championships, Valles has come out on top all seven times, capturing all four indoor championships while adding the last three outdoor crowns. Should he win this weekend, he will go a perfect 8-for-8 in AAC meets.
// ONE OF FOUR
The distance crew has found improved success with a pair of individuals standing out in 2018. On the women's side, Anton is one of four women that are ranked in the Top 8 in a pair of mid-distance events as she enters the AAC meet ranked #6 in the 800m and #7 in the 1,500m. On the men's side, Aaron Bienenfeld, who joined the team in January, is in a similar position as the German transfer (University of Frankfurt) is currently also one of just four men that are ranked in the Top 8 of two distance events as he ranks #2 in the 5,000m run and #4 in the 10,000m run.
// MEECE LEADING ROOKIES
Speaking of being highly ranked in multiple events, rookie Sam Meece might not be ranking the Top 8 in multiple events, but he is the top-ranked freshman in a trio of throws. Heading into his first AAC outdoor championships, Meece is currently ranked #3 in the discus, #8 in the hammer and #10 in the shot put and is the #1 freshman in all three. He currently is ranked in the program's all-time Top 10 in all three throws, sitting #6 in both the discus and the hammer and #10 in the shot put. He also has taken the school's freshman records in both the discus and the hammer multiple times this spring.
// MULTIPLE COMBINATIONS
Last year at the outdoor meet in Houston, the Bearcats broke out the brooms in the combined events with Naomi Urbano winning the women's heptathlon and Alex Bloom the men's decathlon. Moving indoors in 2018, Urbano won the women's pentathlon and Bloom, although not the champion, did eventually advance to the NCAA Indoor Championships where he claimed USTFCCCA All-America Second Team honors as the first UC man to reach the national indoor meet in the combined events in program history. This weekend, neither are ranked at the top of their respective events, but both have been to the top before and will look to climb from where they are ranked: Urbano enters #3 overall and Bloom #6.
// LOCAL LATTIMORE
While several Bearcats competing this weekend are local products, one couldn't possibly be more local than Tiona Lattimore who went to nearby Hughes High School. A standout for the Big Red, Lattimore will compete for conference titles in the shadows of her high school and could figure prominently in the scoring as she is ranked in the Top 6 in three sprints and is a member of both relays. Individually, she is #2 in the 400m, #4 in the 200m and #6 in the 100m which, if she runs all three and finishes in those positions, would score 16 points for the team.
// BIG IMPROVEMENTS
Over the weekend, several Bearcats posted big improvements in their respective events at the Kentucky Relays. In the pole vault, Rachel Coghill cleared 3.87m (12-08.25) to move onto the program's all-time Top 10 chart for the first time in her career at #8 while improving her best by 5.25". Staying in the field, Meece improved his hammer PR and the UC freshman record by 1'11" with his toss of 54.84m (179-11), the #6 mark in program history. On the track, Anton improved her 1,500m PR by 4.34 seconds in the first heat of the race before Cassidy Carey ran 4:47.01 to lower her PR by 3.12 seconds. Finally, in the men's 800m run, Logan Baker not only ran his first sub-2 minute time by finishing in 1:56.68, he lowered his PR by 5.67 seconds.
// ARTHUR ASHE, JR. SPORT SCHOLAR AWARDS
Last week, Diverse: Issues in Education magazine released its 2018 Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sport Scholar Award winners with seven track & field Bearcats earning honors. Justin Tulloch (1st team) was the lone man honored while the women had six honorees: Irati Mitxelena (2nd), Bryana Robinson (3rd), Angelica Lightfoot (4th), Kellsa Mbah (4th), Haisha Bisiolu (HM) and Sylvana Ross (HM)
// POUNDING THE BRICKS, LIKE HER SQUAD
Over the weekend, the Flying Pig events were held in Cincinnati, including the marathon, half marathon, 10,000m run, 5,000m run and the mile run. On Friday night, UC women's cross country and assistant track (distances) coach Lara Crofford took part in the elite women's mile and placed third overall for the second time in three years in the street race after also taking the silver medal in 2016. She won and set the course record in the half marathon last year, a record that still stands following the 2018 running of the half marathon.
// IF IT ENDED TODAY
Following the conference meet, the NCAA East Preliminary Round meet will be the next competition for those Bearcats that qualify. To make the meet, an athlete has to hold a mark ranking him/her in the Top 48 of individual events (Top 24 for relays). If the marks attained through last weekend were the final marks allowed, nine Bearcats would be on their way to Tampa. On the women's side, Loretta Blaut is ranked #4 in the high jump; Brooke Catherine is #10 in the pole vault; Irati Mitxelena is #30 in the triple jump; Ashley Williams is #33 in the shot put; and Leah Heckaman is #46 in the shot put. For the men, Austin Edwards is #27 in the long jump; Adrian Valles is #34 in the pole vault; Sam Meece is #34 in the discus; and Marcus Abraham is #43 in the shot put. Four individuals are just outside the Top 48 looking in and will need better marks this weekend to try and advance to the regional meet, including Alexis Gray, who is #49 in the discus, and Tiona Lattimore, who is #51 in the 200m dash, for the women and men's competitors Alex Bloom (high jump) and Aaron Bienenfeld (10,000m run), both of whom are #51 in their respective events.
PREVIOUSLY NOTED
// SCHNELLE KATZE
Aaron Bienenfeld is proving to be one fast cat! In his short time with the program, the mid-year transfer from Germany has done some rewrites of his own in the UC all-time Top 10, most recently running 29:52.13 in the 10,000m run at the Penn Relays for the #3 time in UC history. That impressive run, which makes him only the fourth UC man to run under 30 minutes in the event, came six days after he ran 14:12.84 in the 5,000m run at the Auburn War Eagle Invitational, the #2 time in UC history. After joining the team in January, Bienenfeld raced six times indoors, running UC all-time Top 10 times in five of those races, including the #9 mile, the #7 then #3 3,000m times and the #3 and school record times in the 5,000m with the record and the #3 time in the 3,000m coming on back-to-back days at the AAC Championships.
// MARKEL MARKS
Staying in the distance races, Hannah Markel has continued to impress as well as she ran 4:39.87 in the 1,500m run at Louisville's Lyles/Wood Invitational to post the #8 time in program history. Similar to Bienenfeld, she added a time to the Top 10 list in a short span of time as she ran 17:23.15 in the 5,000m run at the War Eagle Invitational just eight days prior to post the #7 time in UC history.
// THE GILMOUR GIRLS
With Markel making the Top 10 list in the metric mile, she has now joined her former Gilmour Academy teammate Alexis Anton in the Top 10 in both 'miles' this year. The Gilmour Girls are very close to one another on the Top 10 charts now with Anton leading the duo at 4:38.06 for #7 all-time and Markel sitting at #8, just 1.81 seconds behind. Their times came just eight days apart as Anton recorded her mark at the War Eagle Invitational at Auburn last week. Earlier this year, both women added their names to the indoor mile with Anton taking the #3 position (5:02.23) and Markel #4 (5:02.29), leaving a separation of just 0.06 seconds between the two on the list.
// NOT MEECE-ING THE MARK
Heading into the season, the school's freshman record in the men's discus was 50.46m (165-07) that was set by Scott Ference in the 1991 season. Move ahead 27 years and the record was finally taken down by Sam Meece, who threw 51.74m (169-09) to better the mark by 4'2". This past weekend, Meece upped the mark once again, this time throwing 53.45m (175-04) to better his own PR by 5'7" and better what Ference had thrown by nearly 10' (9'9"). Meece moved up to #6 in program history with the toss and is currently ranked third in the AAC.
// BEARCATS GRADUATE
On April 28, 18 members of the program earned their degrees from the. The list of graduates boasted 11 women, including Alexis Anton, Aliya Barnes, Loretta Blaut, Madison Dunlap, Annette Echikunwoke, Deanna Gesicki, Alexis Gray, Kellsa Mbah, Juliana Puopolo, Tessa Ward and Meg Westerheide, and seven men, including Jimmy Brooks, Spencer Clark, Seamus Collins, Ryan Greene, Jaashir Morris, Ben Wollenslegel and Mike Wood. Of all the graduates, Ward graduated from UC for the second time in as many years as she earned her Masters of Business degree.
// 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'.
// UP NEXT
After a much deserved week off from competition, those Bearcats that qualify will head to Tampa, Fla., and the USF Track & Field Stadium for the NCAA East Preliminary Round meet. The event will run May 24-26 and will be used to qualify individuals and relays to the NCAA Final in Eugene, Ore.
With the regular season behind them, the University of Cincinnati track and field program has turned its sights to capturing conference titles as the Bearcats are set to play host to the 2018 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships this Friday through Sunday (May 11-13) at Gettler Stadium in Cincinnati. The meet, which is the final time athletes can post marks that qualify for the NCAA regional meets, will see team, individual and relay champions crowned all three days with much of the action taking place at Gettler Stadium while the hammer and javelin events will be held at Coy Field.
// IN THE MEET
The AAC Championships will have 12 institutions represented this weekend. All 12 of the league schools will be on hand, including Cincinnati, ECU, Houston, Memphis, SMU, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa, UCF, USF and newcomer Wichita State with only SMU, Temple and UCF fielding a women's team only.
// INFORMATION CENTRAL
• Results: live results will be available at Live.FinishTiming.com
• Heat Sheets: are available on the AAC web site at TheAmerican.org/TrackField
• Social: be sure to follow @GoBearcatsTFXC and @AmericanXCTrack for all the latest on the meet and use the hashtags #Bearcats and #AmericanOTF to join the conversation
• Streaming: The American Digital Network will stream coverage of the meet all three days and fans can watch live on Facebook.com/AmericanConf. The streams will begin at 12:30 p.m. Friday, 10:30 a.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday.
// TICKETS REQUIRED
Unlike regular home meets at Gettler Stadium, the AAC meet is a ticketed event. Tickets will be on sale at the main gate to Gettler and will cost $10 for all three days or $5 per day for adults and $6 for all three days or $3 per day for youth/seniors. Children under the age of 2 and students with valid college identification cards will be permitted free entry. No tickets are needed for Coy Field.
// QUICK STARTS
• UC is playing host to the conference outdoor track & field meet for the fifth time in program history and will be welcoming its fifth different conference to town
• Cincinnati last played host in 2010 when the BIG EAST Championships were held at Gettler
• Alexis Anton had a big weekend at the Kentucky Relays and was selected as this week's AAC Female Track Athlete of the Week, the first for UC since the 2016 season (outdoors)
• Several Bearcats return this weekend to try and defend their 2017 outdoor titles, including 3 women and 2 men
• Anton will look to score in a pair of events as she is one of only four women ranked in the Top 8 in both the 800m and 1,500m runs
• Loretta Blaut will look to win her fourth high jump title in a row after taking the past two indoor crowns with the 2017 outdoor title sandwiched between
• Adrian Valles enters the AAC meet having won his previous seven league titles, never having been defeated by an AAC foe in his collegiate career
• Sam Meece continues to shine as a rookie as he is the top-ranked freshman in three throwing events, including the shot put, discus and hammer
• Coach Lara Crofford recently competed in the Little Kings Mile as part of the Flying Pig weekend in Cincinnati and finished third in the women's elite race
// WELCOME TO CINCINNATI
This weekend's meet will mark the first time UC has played host to an AAC track & field meet and the second AAC championship overall after serving as the host of the 2016 cross country meet at Voice of America MetroPark in West Chester. The Bearcats are no stranger to serving as the conference meet host as this year's meet will mark the fifth time UC has done so outdoors and the 11th time overall including three indoor and three cross country meets.
// COVERING THEM ALL
What is interesting about UC serving as host this year is not the fact that UC has done so just five times total (including this weekend), but has done so once each for five different conferences. It all started in 1968 with the Mid-American Conference meet before hosting the 1994 Great Midwest Conference Championships. Two years later, Conference USA came to town for the 1996 championships before UC played host to the BIG EAST meet in 2010.
// THE LAST TIME: 2010 BIG EAST
Speaking of the BIG EAST, the 2010 meet was the last time UC has played host to a conference track and field competition. In that meet, the Bearcats men placed sixth overall and the women finished in a tie for 12th place. Antione Drakeford (400m) and Brian Zimmerman (javelin) were the lone victors for the Bearcats in the meet.
// TAKING RECORD OF THINGS
This year, there will be 42 events contested (21 for the men, 21 for the women), including 19 individual events and two relays for each gender. Of those 42 events, 16 stadium marks still stand from the last time a conference meet was held at Gettler Stadium with nine women's events and seven men's event standards set by BIG EAST competitors. Added to that were two individual heptathlon event and six decathlon event stadium records.
// ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: ALEXIS ANTON
Last weekend at the Kentucky Relays, Alexis Anton put together a pair of solid runs to continue to cement her place in UC history. The recent UC graduate ran 4:33.63 in the 1,500m run to place fourth overall while lowering her PR by nearly five seconds, a move that pushed her to #3 all-time in program history as just the fifth UC woman to run under 4:37 in the metric mile. She came back later to run 2:12.63 to win the 800m run. With a better time earlier this year, Anton is now ranked #6 in the AAC in the 800m (2:10.37) and #7 in the 1,500m, making her one of only four women to be ranked in the Top 8 in both events heading into the meet this weekend. For her efforts, Anton was named the American Athletic Conference Female Track Athlete of the Week, the first weekly honor of her career.
Congratulations to Alexis Anton for being named the @AmericanXCTrack Female Track Athlete of the Week! ???????
— Cincinnati TF & XC (@GoBearcatsTFXC) May 8, 2018
The honor marks the first time a #Bearcats distance runner (man or woman) has earned a weekly honor from the American!
??: https://t.co/N9juFkMITl pic.twitter.com/gjl8gPKLzn
// TAILORING HISTORY
Anton's honor also brought a bit of history with it. Since the 2013-14 academic year when the AAC was formed, track weekly honors have been hard to come by for the Bearcats. Combining indoors and out, Anton is just the sixth different woman to earn a weekly track honor and the first non-sprinter/hurdler to earn the accolade. The last time a Bearcat earned a track honor was April 12, 2016, when Kenya Woodall won her third honor in as many seasons. To date, no UC men have earned track accolades (indoor and out) while they have collected 16 of 38 total field honors the program has earned.
// DEFENDING CHAMPIONS - TEAM
The UC women enter the weekend as the two-time defending champions after having slipped out of Orlando in 2016 with a 13-point victory over host UCF before claiming a 31-point win last year at Houston over UConn. The Bearcats are coming off an AAC indoor-record 62-point margin of victory to claim their first indoor title earlier this season, but look for the outdoor title race to be a bit closer than that this weekend.
// DEFENDING CHAMPIONS - INDIVIDUAL
Several individuals are set to compete this weekend where they will try to defend crowns they have won either last year outdoors, this year indoors or both. On the men's side, Adrian Valles will look to win his eighth career AAC pole vault crown while Bloom will look to defend his decathlon crown from last year and his indoor high jump crown from this year. On the women's side, the list is much longer as Loretta Blaut will try to win her fourth high jump title in a row; Brooke Catherine will try to sweep the pole vault titles this year; Naomi Urbano will go for her third combined events title (outdoor heptathlon last year and pentathlon indoor this year); Irati Mitxelena will look to sweep the triple jump this year; and Bryana Robinson will try for her fourth 400m title.
// GOING FOR GOLDEN HISTORY
As the two-time defending conference outdoor champions, the UC women also have won three titles in a row after capturing their first indoor crown earlier this year. Should the Bearcats successfully defend their outdoor titles, the victory would mean:
• The first three-peat in AAC women's team history (SMU won in 2014 and 2015 before UC won the past two outdoor titles)
• UC would become just the second women's team in AAC history to sweep the track & field crowns in the same year after SMU won the inaugural indoor and outdoor titles in 2014
• UC would have the most women's team track & field titles in AAC history at four, breaking a tie with SMU, who swept the titles in 2014 and added the outdoor crown in 2015
// TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADERS
Heading into the meet, two UC women hold the top marks in their respective events with Loretta Blaut and Brooke Catherine sitting on top of the standings in the high jump and pole vault, respectively. Blaut has cleared 1.82m (5-11.50) to lead the league since the opening weekend of competition while Catherine cleared 4.20m (13-09.25) to post a PR and claim the lead. Both women won their respective events at the 2018 indoor meet and will look to break out the brooms the week at home for a sweep of 2018.
// CORNERING THE MARKET
In the nine previous track and field championships the American has held (five indoor and four outdoor), the Bearcats women have been quite dominant in the high jump with Blaut looking to continue that trend this weekend. Indoors, UC is the only school that has won the women's high jump with Erika Hurd taking the first three and Blaut the past two. Outdoors, Hurd won in 2015 and Blaut last year, giving UC 7-of-9 titles that were up for grabs.
// GREAT EIGHT
Another event that UC has dominated in recent years is the men's pole vault as two-time IAAF World Championships competitor Adrian Valles is undefeated in AAC Championship events. Since he took to the runway for the first time at the 2015 AAC Indoor Championships, Valles has come out on top all seven times, capturing all four indoor championships while adding the last three outdoor crowns. Should he win this weekend, he will go a perfect 8-for-8 in AAC meets.
// ONE OF FOUR
The distance crew has found improved success with a pair of individuals standing out in 2018. On the women's side, Anton is one of four women that are ranked in the Top 8 in a pair of mid-distance events as she enters the AAC meet ranked #6 in the 800m and #7 in the 1,500m. On the men's side, Aaron Bienenfeld, who joined the team in January, is in a similar position as the German transfer (University of Frankfurt) is currently also one of just four men that are ranked in the Top 8 of two distance events as he ranks #2 in the 5,000m run and #4 in the 10,000m run.
// MEECE LEADING ROOKIES
Speaking of being highly ranked in multiple events, rookie Sam Meece might not be ranking the Top 8 in multiple events, but he is the top-ranked freshman in a trio of throws. Heading into his first AAC outdoor championships, Meece is currently ranked #3 in the discus, #8 in the hammer and #10 in the shot put and is the #1 freshman in all three. He currently is ranked in the program's all-time Top 10 in all three throws, sitting #6 in both the discus and the hammer and #10 in the shot put. He also has taken the school's freshman records in both the discus and the hammer multiple times this spring.
// MULTIPLE COMBINATIONS
Last year at the outdoor meet in Houston, the Bearcats broke out the brooms in the combined events with Naomi Urbano winning the women's heptathlon and Alex Bloom the men's decathlon. Moving indoors in 2018, Urbano won the women's pentathlon and Bloom, although not the champion, did eventually advance to the NCAA Indoor Championships where he claimed USTFCCCA All-America Second Team honors as the first UC man to reach the national indoor meet in the combined events in program history. This weekend, neither are ranked at the top of their respective events, but both have been to the top before and will look to climb from where they are ranked: Urbano enters #3 overall and Bloom #6.
// LOCAL LATTIMORE
While several Bearcats competing this weekend are local products, one couldn't possibly be more local than Tiona Lattimore who went to nearby Hughes High School. A standout for the Big Red, Lattimore will compete for conference titles in the shadows of her high school and could figure prominently in the scoring as she is ranked in the Top 6 in three sprints and is a member of both relays. Individually, she is #2 in the 400m, #4 in the 200m and #6 in the 100m which, if she runs all three and finishes in those positions, would score 16 points for the team.
// BIG IMPROVEMENTS
Over the weekend, several Bearcats posted big improvements in their respective events at the Kentucky Relays. In the pole vault, Rachel Coghill cleared 3.87m (12-08.25) to move onto the program's all-time Top 10 chart for the first time in her career at #8 while improving her best by 5.25". Staying in the field, Meece improved his hammer PR and the UC freshman record by 1'11" with his toss of 54.84m (179-11), the #6 mark in program history. On the track, Anton improved her 1,500m PR by 4.34 seconds in the first heat of the race before Cassidy Carey ran 4:47.01 to lower her PR by 3.12 seconds. Finally, in the men's 800m run, Logan Baker not only ran his first sub-2 minute time by finishing in 1:56.68, he lowered his PR by 5.67 seconds.
// ARTHUR ASHE, JR. SPORT SCHOLAR AWARDS
Last week, Diverse: Issues in Education magazine released its 2018 Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sport Scholar Award winners with seven track & field Bearcats earning honors. Justin Tulloch (1st team) was the lone man honored while the women had six honorees: Irati Mitxelena (2nd), Bryana Robinson (3rd), Angelica Lightfoot (4th), Kellsa Mbah (4th), Haisha Bisiolu (HM) and Sylvana Ross (HM)
// POUNDING THE BRICKS, LIKE HER SQUAD
Over the weekend, the Flying Pig events were held in Cincinnati, including the marathon, half marathon, 10,000m run, 5,000m run and the mile run. On Friday night, UC women's cross country and assistant track (distances) coach Lara Crofford took part in the elite women's mile and placed third overall for the second time in three years in the street race after also taking the silver medal in 2016. She won and set the course record in the half marathon last year, a record that still stands following the 2018 running of the half marathon.
// IF IT ENDED TODAY
Following the conference meet, the NCAA East Preliminary Round meet will be the next competition for those Bearcats that qualify. To make the meet, an athlete has to hold a mark ranking him/her in the Top 48 of individual events (Top 24 for relays). If the marks attained through last weekend were the final marks allowed, nine Bearcats would be on their way to Tampa. On the women's side, Loretta Blaut is ranked #4 in the high jump; Brooke Catherine is #10 in the pole vault; Irati Mitxelena is #30 in the triple jump; Ashley Williams is #33 in the shot put; and Leah Heckaman is #46 in the shot put. For the men, Austin Edwards is #27 in the long jump; Adrian Valles is #34 in the pole vault; Sam Meece is #34 in the discus; and Marcus Abraham is #43 in the shot put. Four individuals are just outside the Top 48 looking in and will need better marks this weekend to try and advance to the regional meet, including Alexis Gray, who is #49 in the discus, and Tiona Lattimore, who is #51 in the 200m dash, for the women and men's competitors Alex Bloom (high jump) and Aaron Bienenfeld (10,000m run), both of whom are #51 in their respective events.
PREVIOUSLY NOTED
// SCHNELLE KATZE
Aaron Bienenfeld is proving to be one fast cat! In his short time with the program, the mid-year transfer from Germany has done some rewrites of his own in the UC all-time Top 10, most recently running 29:52.13 in the 10,000m run at the Penn Relays for the #3 time in UC history. That impressive run, which makes him only the fourth UC man to run under 30 minutes in the event, came six days after he ran 14:12.84 in the 5,000m run at the Auburn War Eagle Invitational, the #2 time in UC history. After joining the team in January, Bienenfeld raced six times indoors, running UC all-time Top 10 times in five of those races, including the #9 mile, the #7 then #3 3,000m times and the #3 and school record times in the 5,000m with the record and the #3 time in the 3,000m coming on back-to-back days at the AAC Championships.
// MARKEL MARKS
Staying in the distance races, Hannah Markel has continued to impress as well as she ran 4:39.87 in the 1,500m run at Louisville's Lyles/Wood Invitational to post the #8 time in program history. Similar to Bienenfeld, she added a time to the Top 10 list in a short span of time as she ran 17:23.15 in the 5,000m run at the War Eagle Invitational just eight days prior to post the #7 time in UC history.
// THE GILMOUR GIRLS
With Markel making the Top 10 list in the metric mile, she has now joined her former Gilmour Academy teammate Alexis Anton in the Top 10 in both 'miles' this year. The Gilmour Girls are very close to one another on the Top 10 charts now with Anton leading the duo at 4:38.06 for #7 all-time and Markel sitting at #8, just 1.81 seconds behind. Their times came just eight days apart as Anton recorded her mark at the War Eagle Invitational at Auburn last week. Earlier this year, both women added their names to the indoor mile with Anton taking the #3 position (5:02.23) and Markel #4 (5:02.29), leaving a separation of just 0.06 seconds between the two on the list.
// NOT MEECE-ING THE MARK
Heading into the season, the school's freshman record in the men's discus was 50.46m (165-07) that was set by Scott Ference in the 1991 season. Move ahead 27 years and the record was finally taken down by Sam Meece, who threw 51.74m (169-09) to better the mark by 4'2". This past weekend, Meece upped the mark once again, this time throwing 53.45m (175-04) to better his own PR by 5'7" and better what Ference had thrown by nearly 10' (9'9"). Meece moved up to #6 in program history with the toss and is currently ranked third in the AAC.
// BEARCATS GRADUATE
On April 28, 18 members of the program earned their degrees from the. The list of graduates boasted 11 women, including Alexis Anton, Aliya Barnes, Loretta Blaut, Madison Dunlap, Annette Echikunwoke, Deanna Gesicki, Alexis Gray, Kellsa Mbah, Juliana Puopolo, Tessa Ward and Meg Westerheide, and seven men, including Jimmy Brooks, Spencer Clark, Seamus Collins, Ryan Greene, Jaashir Morris, Ben Wollenslegel and Mike Wood. Of all the graduates, Ward graduated from UC for the second time in as many years as she earned her Masters of Business degree.
// 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'.
// UP NEXT
After a much deserved week off from competition, those Bearcats that qualify will head to Tampa, Fla., and the USF Track & Field Stadium for the NCAA East Preliminary Round meet. The event will run May 24-26 and will be used to qualify individuals and relays to the NCAA Final in Eugene, Ore.