SEC OUTDOOR TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Hogs a step ahead going into SEC meet’s last day

Arkansas competed in day three of the 2013 SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships Saturday at Audrey J. Walton Track Stadium in Columbia, Missouri.

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Stanley Kebenei still had several more laps ahead of him at Audrey J. Walton Stadium when he felt the cramping in his abdominal muscles Saturday evening.

But as the only runner within spitting distance of Texas A&M senior Henry Lelei and with points at such a premium in the team competition at the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the Arkansas junior kept on pushing around the track and over the hurdles until the conclusion of the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

“I was like, ‘I have to maintain this,’ ” said Kebenei, a native of Nakura, Kenya, in his first season running for the fifth-ranked Razorbacks after transferring from Iowa Central Community College.

Kebenei didn’t have the finishing kick to propel him past Lelei and to his goal of winning an SEC championship, but he still cruised across the line comfortably in second place with a time of 8 minutes, 40.23 seconds, and scored eight big points for Arkansas as it chases after its 18th SEC men’s team championship.

After Kebenei’s performance and two more points from teammate David Flynn, who finished seventh in the steeplechase, the Razorbacks have 57 points and will carry a 10-point lead over top-ranked Florida in what promises to be an action-packed final day of competition today.

“We came here to win,” said Kebenei, who’ll try to add to Arkansas’ total again in today’s 5,000-meter run. “We came here knowing that everyone must give out the best of our ability. That’s our spirit.Everything you do, just do the best you can.”

No Arkansas athlete did that better than Arkansas senior Jeff Woods in Saturday’s first event, the men’s javelin.

In his first attempt on a bright but windy afternoon, Woods, who has been slowed by a groin injury throughout the season and entered the competition ranked ninth in the conference, delivered what was then the day’s longest throw, a personal-best 220 feet, 5 inches. His next time up, he beat that mark with a throw of 226-5, nearly 19 feet beyond his previous high going into Saturday.

Only NCAA Division I leader Sam Humphreys of Texas A&M and Kentucky’s Raymond Dykstra managed to throw farther as Woods scored a surprising six points with a third-place finish.

“They weren’t probably expecting any points at all, so I knew anything I could do would help,” said Woods, who also gained a personal boost of confidence as he looks ahead to the regional meet and he hopes national competition later this spring.

It was a lot less surprising to see Arkansas score well in the men’s long jump competition with junior Tarik Batchelor, freshman Jarrion Lawson, junior Anthony May and junior Raymond Higgs all placing among the top seven contenders for a total of 16 points.

Batchelor, who finished third, was disappointed he didn’t do better than his top mark of 25 feet, 8¼ inches, especially with LSU’s Damar Forbes and Florida’s Marquis Dendy both exceeding 27 feet. Forbes’ mark of 27-4½ would have counted as the best in the world this season if it weren’t wind-aided.

But Batchelor will take another leap at an SEC title in today’s triple jump, which he enters as the No. 2 seed.

The sixth-ranked Arkansas women’s team is also leading the competition entering the final day with 50 points, one more than Georgia and 19 more than fourth-ranked LSU. Florida and Texas A&M round out the top five.

The Razorbacks women won their second individual SEC title as junior Grace Heymsfield won the steeplechase with teammates Jessica Kamilos and Shannon Klenke taking third and fourth, respectively.

Heymsfield picked herself up after what she called an embarrassing moment when she stumbled into the water - the first time she’d ever had such a mishap - in the middle of the race. She was able to catch pace-setter Kamilos on the final lap and beat Georgia’s Leslie Boozer in a duel across the final 200 meters, finishing in a meet record time of 10:01.74.

“We knew going into this that we had a lot of potential to score big points for our team and we wanted to deliver, so I know all of us are really thrilled about what we did,” Heymsfield said.

Senior Makeba Alcide, who won the heptathlon title Friday, settled for fifth in the high jump with a top jump of 5-10¾, while teammate Kirsten Hesseltine tied for eighth. Junior Danielle Nowell tied for fifth in the pole vault, clearing 12-11½.

Sports, Pages 30 on 05/12/2013