Jan. 29, 2010

Lexington, Ky. – The University of Memphis track and field teams traveled to the University of Kentucky on Friday to open competition in the Rod McCravy Memorial Track and Field meet at Nutter Fieldhouse.

Senior thrower Steffen Nerdal battled to a second-place finish in the men’s weight throw with a mark of 22.34m (73-03.50). Nike participant Cory Martin won the competition with his toss of 23.39m (76-09.00). Nerdal, the leading NCAA weight thrower gets credit with the top finish among collegiate throwers.

Junior thrower Knut Syversen finished fifth in the weight throw, but is credited with fourth due to Martin’s unattached participation. Syversen threw 18.48m (60-07.75) while fellow Tiger Harding Zills finished 10^th with a throw of 16.79m (55-01.00)

Lady Tiger freshmen pole vaulters Lauren Gale and Alyssa Northcutt each posted season-best vaults in the first day of competition. Gale finished 12^th in the competition with a vault of 3.40m (11-01.75) and Northcutt finished 14^th with a vault of 3.25m (10-08.00).

In the men’s high jump, junior Preston Williams cleared 1.84m (06-00.50) for a seventh-place finish. Junior Darrell Lewis was also entered in the men’s high jump, but did not register a jump.

Remaining field events including the women’s high jump (10:30 a.m.), women’s long jump (10:30 a.m.), men’s pole vault (11:30 a.m.) and the men’s and women’s shot put (12 p.m.) will be contested on Saturday. All running events will begin at 12:30 p.m. with the preliminaries of the 60m dash and 60m hurdles for the men and women. The meet will conclude with the 4x400m relay scheduled to start at 5:20 p.m.