Arkansas women win NCAA championship for 3rd time

Arkansas' 1,600-meter relay team - (from left to right) Kethlin Campbell, Morgan Burks-Magee, Payton Chadwick and Kiara Parker - hug after realizing that the Razorbacks have won the women's team national championship at the NCAA Division I indoor athletics championships, Saturday, March 9, 2019, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)

Arkansas' women's track and field program has won its third national championship.

The Razorbacks scored 62 points to win the team title at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Saturday in Birmingham, Ala. Arkansas finished 11 points ahead of second-place Southern Cal.

The Razorbacks won the indoor title for the second time. They previously won indoors in 2015 and outdoors in 2016, and were indoor runner-up two of the previous three years.

Arkansas was bolstered by the pole vault, with a 1-3-4 finish by seniors Lexi Jacobus, Tori Hoggard and Desiree Freier that gave the Razorbacks 21 team points.

Jacobus won her third indoor national championship with a height of 15 feet, 1 1/2 inches. Hoggard and Freier both cleared 14-7 1/2.

The Razorbacks had eight points from Taylor Werner, who finished second in the 3,000 meters with a time of 9:01.75. Payton Chadwick scored 12 points with third-place finishes in the 60 hurdles in 7.97 seconds, and 200 meters in 22.99 seconds.

Janeek Brown (fifth, 60 hurdles), Carina Viljoen (fifth, mile), Lauren Gregory (seventh, 3,000 meters) and Kiara Parker (eighth, 60 meters) also scored.

Arkansas' 1,600-meter relay team of Kiara Parker, Morgan Burks-Magee, Chadwick and Kethlin Campbell finished third with a time of 3:30.86 to score six points.

Arkansas' distance medley relay team of Gregory, Burks-Magee, Alex Byrnes and Werner scored four points with a fifth-place finish in 10:56.85.

The Razorbacks' men finished 13th with 16 points. Florida won its second consecutive indoor championship with 55 points, 11 points ahead of second-place Houston with 44.

With Saturday's win, Arkansas claims 46 national championships in football, men's basketball and men's and women's track and field. Two additional men's track and field championships were abdicated in 2008 because of a violation of NCAA rules.