Thomson Starts UKTF’s NCAA Championships with Three 10k Points

Results | Decathlon Broadcast | Hammer Throw BroadcastEUGENE, Ore. – Jacob Thomson placed sixth in the NCAA 10,000 meters Championship final to score three points for the Kentucky men’s track and field team on Wednesday in front of 9,201 fans at Oregon’s Hayward Field. Thomson, a sophomore who won the Southeastern Conference 5k and 10k last month, ran 29:13.73 to score the first points at an NCAA meet of his career. With six of 21 events scored, Kentucky is in 28th place with the three points Thomson scored. Oregon leads with 19, Arkansas is second with 16 and Purdue is third with 11.Nick Anderson advanced to the 110m hurdles final by running 13.67 into a headwind to place second in his heat and qualify for the Friday final automatically.Tim Duckworth and Cameron Short are ninth and 10th after day one of the decathlon with respective scores of 4013 and 3985.Duckworth won the high jump with a best clearance at 6’10.75”/2.10m to score 896 points. He also turned in personal bests in the shot put and 400m.Cameron Short placed third in the high jump, clearing the bar at 6’8.25”/2.04m to score 840 points. He also raced to a PR in the 400m to score 984 points in the last event of day one.Fred Dorsey placed 12th in the long jump with a mark of 24'6.25"/7.47m (+0.4). He did not score.Points are scored at the NCAA Championships by finishing in the top eight of each event. The points are awarded on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis with 10 going to the winner and one point to eighth place.Thursday outlookThursday’s action will feature Duckworth and Short in the decathlon, and then the Kentucky women’s team, which enters the NCAA Championships ranked No. 2 in the United States Track & Field and cross Country Coaches Association rankings. UK qualified 17 entries to the meet, the second most of any team.Points are available to Kentucky on Thursday in the men’s decathlon, and women’s hammer throw, pole vault and javelin. Additionally, Kentucky will have 13 entries in running-event semifinals.The decathlon will get back under way with the 110m hurdles at 1:30 p.m. ET. Beckie Famurewa will throw in the hammer at 5 p.m. The running events will begin with the 4x100m relay semifinals at 7:32 p.m.For the second consecutive season the NCAA is utilizing a championships schedule featuring men’s teams on Wednesday and Friday and women’s teams on Thursday and Saturday. Caveats are multi-events as the men’s decathlon will be contested Wednesday and Thursday and the women’s heptathlon will be contested on Friday and Saturday as those events are generally expected to be completed in consecutive days.The broadcast informationThe 2016 NCAA Championships will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks.ESPN3 will cover the early events of the decathlon on Thursday before the television broadcast window opens from 7:30 – 11 p.m. ET.Thursday the meet will be shown from 7:30-8:30 p.m. on ESPNU and 8:30-11 p.m. on ESPN.Friday’s men’s finals will be broadcast from 8:30-11 p.m. on ESPN.Saturday’s women’s finals will air from 6:30-9 p.m. on ESPN.The NCAA Championships precedentThe Kentucky women’s team’s NCAA record finish came a year ago when the Wildcats finished as national runner-up with 50 points.The Kentucky men’s team placed 44th with five points a year ago. UK’s record NCAA outdoor finish is ninth place with 25 points in 2008.The most up-to-date coverage of the UK track and field program is available via @KentuckyTrack handles on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.