Abby Steiner of Kentucky survived a moment of scare before winning her 60m preliminary heat in 7.17 seconds before returning to clock a fast 22.44 seconds in the 200m on day one at the 2022 SEC Indoor Championships at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium on the Texas A&M campus on Friday night (25).
Steiner won her section of the women’s 60m heat with the fastest time of the day but had to pull through a nerve-testing moment after receiving a warning for flinching in the starting blocks prior to the start of the race. The junior went on to defeat Tennessee Joella Lloyd who advanced to the final in 7.22 secs.
READ MORE: Boling runs PB of 6.59 to lead finalists at 2022 SEC Indoor Championships
Steiner returned just under two and hours later to dominate her 200m, posting the second-fastest time in the world this year behind her own world-leading time and collegiate record of 22.37 seconds. It is also the fourth-fastest time ever run among collegiate athletes over the 200m. All eyes will certainly be on the clock when she races on Saturday in the final at 6:40 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, LSU’s Favour Ofili was also in good form after setting a new personal best with 22.61 to qualify second-fastest in the 200m, while she also ran 7.21 to win her 60m heat and advanced to the final of that event as well.
Another strong performance in the preliminaries of the sprints came from Jada Baylark of Arkansas who clocked a PB of 22.89 in the 200m after running 7.21 in the 60m for the third and second best times in her respective events on Friday.
READ MORE: Micah Williams cruises 6.53 to heat at 2022 Pac-12 Indoor Invitational
Grace Stark of Florida and Alia Armstrong of LSU were the quickest qualifiers from the women’s heats of the 60m hurdles, while both sprint hurdlers also advanced to the final of the 60m dash with performances that indicated they were ready to battle for both titles.
In the men’s sprints, Matthew Boling led the qualifiers in the 60m with his 6.59 seconds PB, while Florida’s Cameron Miller leads the way in the 200m with a quick time of 20.59 secs, which is a PB for him. His Gator teammate Champion Allison enters the final of the men’s 400m as the fastest qualifier with a PB of 45.57.
The 2022 SEC Indoor Championships will continue on the second day on Saturday and is streaming live on SEC Network+. There will also be a highlight show on SEC Network on Sunday from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. ET for those who were not able to watch the meeting live.
