Hog Calls

UA needs more promotion of Tori, Lexi

Lexi Weeks (left) and Tori Weeks of Arkansas speak Friday, Jan. 27, 2017, during the pole vault competition in the Razorback Invitational in the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Today's novel Arkansas track and field storyline seems destined to unfold for Weeks and Weeks.

Arkansas needs to capitalize on that the next week that Tori Weeks and Lexi Weeks compete in Arkansas.

The pole vaulting twin sisters from Cabot for Coach Lance Harter's Razorbacks women headlined the Razorback Invitational Friday and Saturday at the Randal Tyson Track Center.

But it was before the few Friday afternoon rather than the peak attendance Friday night and Saturday afternoon that Tori vaulted 14-10 1/4, a personal record and best by a collegian in 2017.

Lexi, the 2016 U.S. Olympian and 2016 NCAA and SEC indoor and outdoor champion, placed second at 14-6 1/4, also second for 2017 collegians only to her sister.

A prime time women's vault seems a must when Arkansas hosts the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 10-11. Especially if former Razorbacks NCAA pole vault champion Sandi Morris, the Olympic silver medalist, also competes.

Actually, the Weeks sisters have been Arkansas prime time since high school.

In 2015 at Cabot, Tori set the national high school indoor record clearing 14-4 then Lexi set the national high school outdoor record clearing 14-7 1/4.

By any standards but her sister's, Tori Weeks posted a spectacular freshman 2016 She placed third and second in the SEC Indoor and Outdoor and All-American third in the NCAA Indoor.

Lexi's freshman year exceeded spectacular. She won both NCAA and SEC titles and three times surpassed 15-feet including a NCAA Indoor meet record 15--2 1/4 and 15-5 for bronze at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Recovering from her extended outdoor season exacerbated by a hamstring flareup set Lexi back early this indoor season.

Friday's meet showed "Lexi is starting to get a little groove back there," said Bryan Compton, the Arkansas' women's vault coach.

Meanwhile Tori has exceeded personal records all three meets.

The 15-0 barrier that Lexi first cleared indoors last season seems Tori's height to clear.

Tori wonders if she has cleared it given how high she believed she was above the bar clearing Friday's 14-10 1/4 before not clearing three 15-feet attempts.

"My jump at 14-10 felt really great," Tori said. "If I had just been able to do that jump at 15, I might have been able to clear it."

It will come soon and officially, Compton said.

"We are inching our way up there," Compton said. "So yeah, I think she gets a few more looks at it I think it will go."

Nobody exudes more joy at Tori's success than her "inseparable" twin sister, Harter and Compton say.

"I always knew she had it in her," Lexi said Friday. "I think everybody knew that. Three weeks in a row she has PR'd. This is what we have been waiting for having meets battling it out back and forth and I love it."

Sports on 01/30/2017