FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas NCAA champion Jarrion Lawson led four Razorbacks who went farther than 25 feet in the long jump Friday at the John McDonnell Invitational.
Several longtime track officials working the meet said they couldn't recall the Razorbacks ever having four 25-foot jumpers on the same day.
"I think we've got the best long jump crew in the NCAA as far as depth," Lawson said. "I'm happy for everybody."
Lawson, a senior from Texarkana, Texas, who has two NCAA indoor titles, won Friday with a 26-2¼ leap while long jumping for the first time this outdoor season.
Kansas State's Ifeanyichukwu Otuonye took second at 25-5½. Arkansas sophomore Rubin Owens was third with a personal-best 25-4¾; junior Andreas Trajkovski was fourth in 25-0¾; and junior Kurt Jenner was fifth with a personal-best 25-0¼.
"I'm proud of all our guys and their effort," said Razorbacks assistant Travis Geopfert, who coaches the jumpers. "It's all about setting yourselves up to score points at the conference meet.
"They're putting themselves in a good position to do it."
The Razorbacks' quartet would have combined to score 22 points in the long jump at last year's SEC Outdoor Championships with the same marks they had Friday.
Lawson has an outdoor best of 27-4½, more than a foot better than he did Friday, but it ranks second nationally this season behind Charleston Southern senior Braxton Drummond, who leads at 26-7.
"I wanted to jump farther, but I guess I've got to be satisfied with it for my first time outdoors," Lawson said. "Me and Coach developed a longer approach, so to be doing that, I was just glad to get some jumps in and fix some of the problems I had fouling indoors.
"I know the big jumps are going to come as long as I can be consistent and get my foot on the board."
Lawson has backed up his approach to 22 steps, two more than he had used previously. He's been practicing the new approach about two weeks.
"Jarrion's still getting used to it," Geopfert said. "All things considered, for the first time doing that in a meet, it was pretty solid."
Lawson missed several days of training in late March when he underwent surgery on his jaw because of veins causing swelling.
"It was a pretty significant surgery," Geopfert said. "It put him out for about 10 days, but he's getting back into rhythm now.
"He's done two hard weight-lifting workouts this week, too, so he's training through this right now. He's set up for a lot of success moving forward."
Owens, from Le Roy, N.Y., improved his previous long jump best (23-5½) by nearly 2 feet.
"You can see Rubin coming on," Geopfert said. "He's matured a lot. He's starting to figure some stuff out, and it's nice to see it come to fruition for him."
Owens is triple jumping today.
"I think he's a better triple jumper," Geopfert said. "But after the way he long jumped, who knows?"
Sports on 04/23/2016