Arkansas’ men rebounded from a disappointing outcome Friday and scored 21 points on the final day of the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
The Razorbacks finished with 24 points over two days for a seventh-place finish in Birmingham, Ala.
Arkansas was led by Ayden Owens, who won the heptathlon with 6,211 points. Owens was fifth through Friday’s four events, but won the 60 meters in 7.80 seconds and the 1,000 in 2:31.55 on Saturday, and finished sixth in the pole vault with a height of 15-11 1/4 — all personal bests.
“I went to bed last night, prayed to God, said my prayers that I would come tomorrow and become a champion,” Owens said.
“Look what I did today: I became an NCAA champion. I’m really the best in the NCAA.”
Owens broke his personal-best time in the 1,000 by four seconds. His 1,000 time was the fastest ever by a heptathlete who scored at least 6,200 points.
Owens, who finished third in the heptathlon last year while competing at Michigan, edged Georgia’s Kyle Garland by 11 points.
Owens trailed Garland by 152 points entering the 1,000, which is the heptathlon’s final event. He had to beat Garland by at least 13.5 seconds to win the title, and beat Garland by more than 14.5 seconds.
There was only a seven-second differential in their two best times before the race.
“It was pretty darn impressive,” Arkansas men’s coach Chris Bucknam said. “Of all the things I’ve seen — I’ve been in this sport a long time — it was one of the most impressive athletic feats I’ve seen.”
Arkansas’ Amon Kemboi was runner-up in the 3,000, one night after a seventh-place finish in the 5,000. Kemboi ran the 3,000 in 8:00.21, three-tenths of a second behind Abdihamid Nur of Northern Arizona.
“He went out there like Ayden did and took control of the race after a couple of laps,” Bucknam said. “He gave it up on the last lap, but roared back and nearly won it. He’s a national runner-up in an unbelievable field of 15 athletes. He did a great job.”
The Razorbacks’ 1,600-meter relay team of James Milholen, James Benson, Connor Washington and Brandon Battle scored three points with a sixth-place finish in 3:05.96.
Bucknam said he was proud of his team’s effort one day after a series of results left the top-ranked Razorbacks as a long shot to win the team title.
“With anything in life, you want to bounce back from adversity and be better the next day,” Bucknam said. “That’s exactly what our team did.
“It wasn’t the final place we were hoping for, but if we hadn’t had the day we had today, we would have been down below the top 20. I just love the way our kids competed and the way they finished the indoor season. We had a hell of an indoor season.”
Bucknam noted his team is young, which should bode well for future seasons.
“The future is bright for us,” Bucknam said. “I’m excited about it.
“We hope to battle for a national championship outdoors and then turn around and do it again with the recruits we have coming in and the squad we have coming back. Our goal is to get on the top rung of the podium.”
Texas, coached by former Arkansas national champion triple jumper Edrick Floreal, won its first men’s championship with 47 points — 11 points ahead of second-place North Carolina A&T. Floreal also coaches the Longhorns’ women’s team that was runner-up to Florida.