An ex-UK athlete becomes one of the world’s best sports stories

Quick hitters from the heat wave:

21. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The former Kentucky Wildcats one-and-done track star is missing this week’s World Athletics (track and field) Championships in Budapest, Hungary, due to a knee injury.

20. Abby Steiner. The ex-UK sprints star failed to qualify for Team USA for the world championships and proceeded to shut down her 2023 season to have surgery to repair a heel injury.

19. Lack of ex-Cats star power. If you thought the absence of McLaughlin-Levrone and Steiner meant former Kentucky track athletes would not make a dramatic impact in the 2023 world championships, you thought wrong.

18. Alexis Holmes. The ex-Kentucky 400-meter specialist was the talk of Saturday’s first day of the world championships after her relentless run as the anchor for the Team USA 4x400-mixed relay wore down Dutch star Femke Bol and led the Americans to the gold medal in world-record time.

17. A stirring example of competitive grit. Taking the baton in second place behind Bol, one of the world’s elite track athletes, the former Kentucky standout simply would not relent. As the finish line drew near, Holmes drew shoulder-to-shoulder with Bol. Feeling the unexpected pressure to her outside, Bol would later say she cramped, causing her to fall to the track as Holmes passed for the win.

16. A personal best. Holmes’ relay split, 48.82, was a personal best and was vital in the world-record time (3:08.8) turned in by the Team USA mixed relay — which also included Justin Robinson (44.47 split), Rosey Effiong (50.38) and Matthew Boling (45.13).

15. “Super-determined.” After the race, Holmes told NBC Sports, “I was just super-determined. I was thinking about my teammates and just representing my country and I wanted to bring it home the best way I could — and we ended up with gold.”

14. More ex-Cats competing. Among other former Kentucky track and field standouts who will compete in Budapest are 100-meter hurdlers Kendra Harrison (Team USA), Masai Russell (Team USA) and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (Puerto Rico) plus shot putter Micaela Hazlewood (Team USA) on the women’s side and 110-meter hurdler Daniel Roberts (Team USA) among the men.

13. Calorie counters. When many of us are required to watch what we eat, it is to limit intake in hopes of shedding excess pounds. So it’s easy to feel a little envious of a pair of Wildcats football players who are counting calories for the opposite reason.

12. Octavious Oxendine. After playing defensive line for UK at 318 pounds in 2021, the former North Hardin star dropped down to 281 for the 2022 season. Oxendine said he lost the weight “just to get faster.”

11. Too much weight loss. The general consensus was, having dropped so much bulk, the Oxendine of 2022 was not as effective holding up against physical SEC offensive lines as the larger version of him had been.

10. Eat whatever you want. Given the charge by UK to put the pounds back on, Oxendine said he is adding things like red meat and starches back into his diet. “Late-night snacks, early-morning snacks, whatever I want, I can eat,” he said.

9. Malachi Wood. The towering, 6-foot-8 true freshman offensive lineman from Madison Central is another Cat whose assignment is to pack pounds onto his listed frame of 283 pounds.

8. A high-calorie diet. Wood said he is consuming between 4,000 and 5,000 calories a day. “Lot of proteins, steak, chicken. Lots of carbs as well, potatoes, breads, all that good stuff,” he said.

7. A “many meals” plan. For Wood, his primary challenge is finding time in the busy schedule of a college football player to fit in all the meals he’s supposed to consume. “Four or five meals a day,” Wood said. “Try to eat one after practice. (Have) another one a couple of hours later. Then, whenever I have time to run out to the cafeteria and get some food in me.”

6. Marques Cox. Last year, the season of the then-Northern Illinois left tackle ended due to an injury suffered at Kroger Field playing against Kentucky in the Huskies’ fourth game.

5. A collision with Jacquez Jones. The 6-5, 311-pound Cox said he met the then-Kentucky linebacker in the hole on a counter play. “My feet were (planted) in the ground and I got rolled up on. (As a result), I tore ligaments in my foot.”

4. No hard feelings. Even though his 2022 season ended in Lexington, that did not stop Cox from picking UK once he entered the transfer portal. The Peoria, Ill., product is slated to be Kentucky’s starting left tackle as a super-senior this fall.

3. “Football happens.” “Things happen. It was just football. Football happens,” Cox said of his injury. “Those things come with the game.”

2. Anthony Brown. As will be repeated on the telecast of every Kentucky game in which the UK freshman wide receiver ever plays, Brown is the nephew of singer John Legend.

1. Favorite song. A 5-10, 168-pound product of Springfield, Ohio, Brown said, yes, he has a favorite song by Legend, his mom’s brother. “I have to go with everybody’s favorite, ‘All of Me,’” Brown said. “You can sing it to your girlfriend. It’s good.”

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