Former Razorbacks Sandi Morris and Tina Sutej each cleared 14 feet, 11 inches in pole vault qualifying Tuesday to be among a field of 12 to advance to Friday’s final.
Lexi Weeks, who will be a sophomore at Arkansas this year, cleared 14-7½ and finished 19th. She missed three attempts at 14-11.
Morris, the American record holder at 16-2, has been competing as a professional the past year after graduating from Arkansas in 2015.
“I competed in the World Championships last year in Beijing, and I think that gave me a good idea of what it would be like today,” Morris said. “Huge stadium, lots of fans, and kind of a foreign situation.
“It’s very different being in a meet in the U.S. versus overseas anywhere. Numbers are in metrics, some officials don’t speak English, they don’t call out who’s up, who’s on deck and who’s in the hole, so you just have to know where you are in line.”
Morris, 24, is competing at her first Olympics. She finished fourth at the World Outdoor Championships last year and was second at this year’s World Indoor Championships in Portland, Ore.
Weeks, from Cabot, traveled outside of the U.S. for the first time to compete in the Olympics. She cleared a personal-best 15-5 at the U.S. Trials to take third.
“I can’t say that I’m not disappointed,” Weeks said. “I’ve cleared 14-11 lots of times this year. But I feel so blessed to even get to this point right here today.”
Weeks, 19, said the long track season may have taken a physical toll after she swept SEC and NCAA indoor and outdoor titles this year.
“I was definitely excited,” she said. “But I could feel today that I had a long season.”
Sutej, competing for Slovenia, advanced to her first Olympic final. She finished 19th in the qualifying round in 2012.