SEC Indoor Championships

UA women seal it, but men fall short

Chrishuna Williams of Arkansas leads the field in the 400 meters during the Arkansas Open Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015, at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- While the Arkansas women were busy winning their fifth league championship Saturday, the Razorbacks men had to settle for second place at the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships at Nutter Field House.

The top-ranked Razorbacks women's team was overpowering as it took home the title for the second time in three seasons.

Arkansas rolled up 130 points to easily outdistance third-ranked Florida (86), last year's indoor champion. Seventh-ranked Texas A&M (81.9) finished third, and host Kentucky (76) was fourth.

"I think it was one of those situations where we really started to snowball," said Coach Lance Harter, who also guided Arkansas' women's team to the league's cross country title earlier this season and to the outdoor championship last season. "Some of our kids that really competed well [Friday] kind of got the momentum started, really just kind of ignited them. Today we had people break through time and time again.

"We had so many lifetime bests that I think that's a reconfirmation to our coaches and our team that we're doing things right. We planned our workouts and our racing to be peaked at this time of year, and the proof's in the results."

The Arkansas men's team was unable to defend its title as top-ranked Florida outscored the Razorbacks 114-89. Fourth-ranked Texas A&M (87) finished third.

Arkansas had won the past three SEC indoor titles and nine of the past 10 going into the meet.

"We've won an awful lot of SEC titles and we're used to finishing at the top of the podium," said Chris Bucknam, the Razorbacks men's coach. "We had a close second. ... We just kind of ran out of bodies and came up a little short."

Andrew Irwin (pole vault), Omar McLeod (60-meter hurdles) and Kemoy Campbell (3,000 meters, 5,000 meters) all won individual events, but it wasn't enough to overcome strong performances by the Gators in the 400 and 800 meters as well as the horizontal jumps.

"We had some wonderful performances," Bucknam said. "We saw a lot of character, but hats off to Florida."

Arkansas' women got rolling Saturday when Dominique Scott led a 1-3-4-5 finish in the mile, setting a meet record of 4:32.49. Mississippi State's Rhianwedd Price took second, in front of Razorbacks Diane Robison, Jessica Kamilos and Therese Haiss.

"My coach wanted me to help my teammates out today and pull them through," Scott said. "We knew that we would get the most points as a collective group if the pace was honest. So we let someone else do the work for the first [400 meters] and kind of settled in, and then he wanted me to start picking it up. So I did that, and the last 800 I'm pretty sure we negative-split every lap.

"It was hard, though. It was really hard coming off last night's race [the 3,000]."

Then top-seeded Chrishuna Williams captured the 800 in 2:02.95.

"My strategy was to get out there and be on the right pace," Williams said. "After that I saw I was on the right pace, and the last 600 I didn't care what it was. I just went with whatever I had left."

Arkansas also swept the distance medley and 1,600 relays.

Irwin won his third indoor pole vault title, clearing 18 feet, 3 3/4 inches. Tennessee's Jake Blankenship cleared the same height but was second because of a miss at 18-0 1/2.

"We had our first one here my freshman year, so it was nice to come back here and finish it up as a senior," Irwin said. "I'm glad that I was blessed enough to win today."

Top-seeded McLeod captured the 60-meter hurdles, setting a meet and Nutter Field House record of 7.49. He cracked a wide smile when his time was displayed.

"I mean, it's ridiculous. That time is crazy," McLeod said. "Honestly I wanted to just come out here, my team expected points from me, I was just trying to take a place as best as possible, just maintain my composure and just execute a good race."

Campbell, who won the 3,000 Friday night, came back strong to win the 5,000 in 13:44.96. He shared the Commissioner's Cup, which goes to the high-point scorer, with Florida jumper Marquis Dendy.

Sports on 03/01/2015