Men's Track Heads to Gainesville for SEC Championships
5/13/2009 12:00:00 AM
May 13, 2009
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama men's track and field team will be competing at the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships being held in Gainesville, Fla. May 14-17. The men's squad is coming off a ninth place finish at the SEC Indoor Championships and finished ninth at the 2008 outdoor meet.
Alabama placed ninth at its rival oval at Auburn at last season's SEC Championships. The Crimson Tide won the meet in 1950, 1952, and 1980 and finished in second place eight times with the latest coming in 1985.
The Crimson Tide has posted 13 regional marks this season with seven ranking among the nation's top 25 including Tyson David's automatic qualifier and Abraham Kutingala's provisional qualifier in the 10,000 meter run.
Alabama has seven athletes ranked among the top five in the conference led by David's two second place rankings in the 1,500m and 10,000m. David, the 10,000m SEC record holder, is the only returning SEC Champion on the roster (10,000m) and looks to repeat as he did in the 5,000m indoors earlier this year.
Emmanuel Bor is ranked second in the conference in the 5,000m and will look to avenge his 12th place finish from a year ago. Abraham Kutingala is also looking for his first All-SEC accolade on the track as he is currently the holder of the second fastest 3,000m steeplechase time in the conference. Also, Ray Jadusingh could make some noise at the championships as he has led the team all season and has already qualified in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m and 4x400m relays. Jadusingh holds the sixth fastest 200m time in the conference while the 4x100m relay team is the fifth fastest.
Distance runner, senior Tyson David is looking to repeat as 10,000m SEC champion (placed second in the 5,000 at 2008 outdoor SECs). He is ranked second in the 1,500m, sixth in the 5,000m and second in the 10,000m in the SEC this season. David smashed the 10,000m SEC record last year with a time of 28:23.01 and has already ran 28:20.22 this season but Arkansas' Shawn Forrest has run 27:52.10 so he will have a tough race. The senior has qualified for regionals in 1,500 and 5,000 and automatically nationally in the 10,000m. David earned All-American in the 10,000m outdoors in 2008 and the 5,000m indoors in 2009.
Distance runner, junior Emmanuel Bor is ranked second in the SEC in the 5,000m, also behind Arkansas' Shawn Forrest. Bor has qualified for regionals in the 5,000m and 1,500m where he is sixth in the SEC. Bor finished 12th last year in the 5,000m at SEC outdoors, his time of 13:43.15 this year would have won last year (winner ran 13:44.18, Bor ran 14:19.77)
Distance runner, senior Abraham Kutingala (Coo-tin-gah-luh) is the only Alabama athlete to ever earn All-SEC and All-South Region honors in cross country every year for four consecutive years (2005-2008) yet he has never earned All-SEC on the track. This year, he has a chance to do so in the steeplechase where he is ranked second with a time of 8:55.28 behind Arkansas' Scott Macpherson (8:44.64). Kutingala has a personal best of 8:48.00. He has qualified for regionals in the event and provisionally for NCAAs in the 10,000m (28:52.45--sixth in the SEC).
