Asbury University held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new multi-use outdoor facility on Jan. 18.
The $5 million facility will include an eight-lane track, a turf field, spectator seating, locker rooms, and a multi-purpose event space. Construction is scheduled to be completed by September 2023, coinciding with the first season of Asbury’s new track and field team.
“I want to thank you for your patience, and it is very much our hope that the inconveniences associated with construction will be more than made up for by a finished product that can be used and enjoyed by our community members,” Asbury President Kevin Brown said at the ceremony.
Brown said the facility will be used for purposes outside of track and field, including concerts, chapel gatherings, and commencement. “We want the outdoor venue to be a gift to this community. It is our confidence that it will be enjoyed by Wilmore residents and the larger surrounding central Kentucky area,” Brown said.
“This will be a destination for high school events, for summer camps and youth tournaments. So, the impact is well beyond athletics,” Mark Whitworth, Asbury’s Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, said at the ceremony.
“The outdoor facility will not only help our track athletes train and compete at a high level, but also provide a great venue for Asbury Athletics and the campus community as a whole,” O’Brian Bridges, the inaugural coach of the track and field team program, told the Jessamine Journal.
Bridges joined Asbury’s staff in fall 2022, and has been working on recruiting for the program’s first roster in fall 2023. “Everyone’s been helpful, friendly, and supportive of myself and the track and field program starting up. It’s just been great,” Bridges told the Collegian.
According to his profile on Team AU, Bridges’s mission at Asbury is to build a championship level program which will help athletes grow personally and spiritually. “With this new program I really want to make a splash. Winning conference championships within our first couple years, that’s the goal. We hope to become not just a regional powerhouse, but a national one as well.”
