UK's Dezerea Bryant Wins NCAA National Championship, Hillenbrand Advances to Mile Finals

Mar 15, 2014

Dezerea Bryant Wins NCAA 200m Championship

Four Wildcats Advance to Four Finals During First Day of NCAA Indoor Championships

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Dezerea Bryant became the first woman in Kentucky track and field history to win the NCAA 200-Meter Dash Championship on Saturday inside the Albuquerque Convention Center.

Friday night’s race was billed as a showdown between the fastest two women not just in the collegiate ranks, but also in the world this year at 200 meters, Bryant and Texas A&M’s Kamaria Brown.

The two were matched in adjacent lanes in the final with Bryant starting from lane five and Brown slightly ahead on the outside in six.

“I think Dezerea being our first sprinter NCAA Champion in school-history says it all,” head coach Edrick Floréal said. “Anytime you can we can do something that’s never done before, we are taking a huge step in the right direction. The competition was pretty tough too. She had to really make Kamaria Brown uncomfortable. That was the plan, to get out and make her feel uncomfortable. She did that, she executed the plan in order to win.”

Bryant got the better start and never looked back, clocking a school-record lowering personal best time of 22.69. The runner-up, Florida’s Kyra Jefferson, was .1 seconds behind.

“I executed well, I just felt really focused on winning,” Bryant said. “It’s very exciting. I’m a little smaller than my competitors, but I see some advantage in that I have to focus more on executing in order to win.”

Bryant became the first Wildcat to win a NCAA Championship at any sprint distance in school history. She is just the fourth Wildcat ever to win a women’s individual NCAA Title. All the previous winners (Lisa Breiding, Valarie McGovern and Bernadette Madigan) were distance runners.

Kentucky had entries in five events on Friday and a Wildcat advanced to NCAA Finals in all five of those events. Four of those finals will take place on Saturday.

Bryant doubled up on Friday as the 200m final was her third race of the night. She qualified in the 200m moments after posting the fastest 60m dash qualifying time, 7.17, which was just .01

seconds of her collegiate-leading personal best. The dash final will be Saturday at 9:10 p.m. ET.

Matt Hillenbrand stayed ahead of traffic for much of the race, but had to fight late as he finished fifth in the initial mile semifinal heat with a time of 4:04.67. Only the top-four in each of the two mile prelims advanced automatically, so Hillenbrand was made to wait to be confirmed as an NCAA finalist.

His time held up as the fifth fastest qualifier overall. The men’s mile final will be Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.

Allison Peare was next up on the track and she also advanced, automatically, to the NCAA women’s mile final. Peare stayed in the middle of the pack for much of her race, but fell behind at the bell. She was in sixth position as she came to the home turn, but apparently in control the whole time as she kicked nicely to place third in her heat with a time of 4:42.40.

Kendra Harrison, the SEC 60m hurdles Champion and top-seed entering the Championships, won her prelim heat with a time of 8.03 and advanced the NCAA 60H Championship, which will go off at 9:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.

Kayla Parker did not make the hurdles final coming up two spots short, with a qualifying time of 8.19 for 10^th place. Leah Nugent ran 8.34 for 15^th place. Both Parker and Nugent were each competing in their first NCAA Indoor Championships.