FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas sophomore Omar McLeod ran the nation's fastest 60-meter hurdles time during the Tyson Invitational preliminaries Friday night.
An hour later McLeod ran even faster.
"This is the best field in the country, and Omar just blew them away," Arkansas sprints coach Doug Case said. "It shows where he is right now and where he's going."
McLeod, the defending NCAA champion in the 60 hurdles, ran 7.65 in his preliminary heat at the Randal Tyson Track Center. Then he ran 7.60 in the semifinals.
He sat out the final, after his quad muscles cramped up during his warm-up.
"If this was the SEC or NCAA meet, I definitely would run the final," McLeod said. "But I'm being smart and staying on top of things. There's no reason for me to take any chances right now."
LSU senior Joshua Thompson won Friday night's final in 7.70, which is the nation's third-fastest time.
McLeod was ranked fourth nationally coming into the meet at 7.75, so he already was in good shape to be among the top 16 qualifiers for the NCAA meet, but his performance Friday night assured it.
"Omar was on fire," Arkansas junior long jumper Jarrion Lawson said. "His training is going great, and he's got the right mind-set."
Lawson was pretty hot Friday night, too. He took over the national lead in the long jump by going 26-4 1/2.
"Jarrion's a special kid and a special talent," Arkansas field events coach Travis Geopfert said. "He's just got to focus on the process. The first step is getting qualified for nationals, and he's done that now."
Lawson, the defending NCAA Indoor champion, ranked 18th nationally coming into Friday night's meet at 24-9 3/4, so he was looking for a big jump to solidify a spot at the NCAA meet.
"There was some pressure, because usually someone like Jarrion would have hit that qualifying mark earlier in the season," Geopfert said. "I'm not sure who feels better right now-- me or him."
Lawson had planned to hit a qualifying mark two weeks ago at the Razorback Invitational, but he missed the meet after becoming ill with the flu.
"Sometimes you've just got wait it out a little bit longer," Lawson said. "I wasn't that concerned about getting a big jump, but it's nice to hit one like I did. It lets me know I can still jump far."
Lawson's 26-4 1/4 came on his fourth attempt after he fouled, went 23-6 1/4 and fouled again. He went with his longest approach of the season -- 20 steps -- and said it took a few attempts to get comfortable.
"I was all over the place at first," he said.
Geopfert said he decided Lawson needed a longer approach because of his speed.
"He's just so fast we needed to give him some more room on the runway to work," Geopfert said. "That's a process, but in the long run we think it's going to pay off."
Lawson won the NCAA title last year with a career-best 27-6 1/2.
"There's more in his tank, that's for sure," Geopfert said. " Now that we've seen in competition what we need to work on from his full approach, we can build on that."
McLeod can go faster, too. He ran a personal-best 7.57 at last year's NCAA meet.
"A year ago at this time Omar had only run 7.71," Case said. "So we're way ahead of that."
McLeod said he wasn't surprised by his performance Friday night because he's been running well in practice.
"It felt easy," he said. "I was just focused on executing technically sound races, getting over the first hurdle and getting that back foot down real quick."
Lawson and McLeod, who are roommates, will run legs on the Razorbacks' 1,600-meter relay team today.
"We're real close friends," McLeod said. "We motivate each other to practice hard and compete.
"It's great to have somebody like Jarrion to push me to get my work done."
Sports on 02/14/2015