Igbokwe fast
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville junior sprinter Obi Igbokwe set a personal best of 45.72 seconds in the 400 meters at the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville on Saturday, but the short-handed Razorbacks finished eighth.
FAYETTEVILLE — It was Obi Igbokwe’s first time to run the indoor 400 meters this season, and Arkansas men’s track and field Coach Chris Bucknam had instructed him to take it easy over the first half of Saturday’s race.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville junior sprinter did that, but Igbokwe took off over the final 200 meters and went on to win the invitational portion of that event with a personal-best 45.72 seconds during the 2018 Razorback Invitational.
Igbokwe ran fast enough to get ahead of Florida junior Kunle Fasasi at the halfway mark, then used the next 100 meters to pull away and set a time that currently ranks the best among NCAA runners and No. 2 in the world this season. Florida’s Benjamin Vedel, who won the first heat, finished second at 46.14, followed by Fasasi at 46.24.
“The past few weeks I’ve been having hamstring issues, so I couldn’t quite run like I wanted to,” Igbokwe said. “I didn’t want to press. I just wanted to go out and get the lead at the 200, so I was good. At the end, I brought it home, just like coach told me to.”
Igbokwe’s victory, as well as a second-place finish by Gabe Moore in the heptathlon, were the highlights for a short-handed Arkansas team that finished eighth out of 11 teams with 45 points. Texas A&M edged Florida by an 88.5-88 margin to win the meet, thanks to the Aggies’ victory in the last scored event — the 1,600 invitational relay — while the Gators finished fifth, just .21 seconds behind Arkansas’ B team.
Bucknam said his team went into the meet with a conservative approach. Arkansas already had competed in meets the past two weekends, and a number of athletes were dealing with injuries and illness.
“We have a good team, and the score is no indication of where we hope to end up,” Bucknam said. “We have another month until the SEC Championship, and as I said in a conference [call] earlier this week, we have a pitch count on some of our guys. You didn’t see a lot of stars out there because we don’t want to lose them for the end of the season.”
On the women’s side, Arkansas’ mixture of experience and youth meshed well, particularly in the distance races, as the Razorbacks earned a convincing victory. Arkansas finished with 113 points, followed by Southern California with 82 and Georgia with 81.
The Razorbacks trailed Georgia 73-64 before Devin Clark turned a winning time of 9:21.20 in the 3,000 invitational and sparked a 1-4-6-8 finish in that event that netted 18 points. Sophomore Taylor Werner added to that when she won the mile invitational in 4:39.52 while fellow sophomore Maddy Reed took fourth.
“I think this is a tribute to some of these young people that really took care of business,” Arkansas Coach Lance Harter said. “… We have these competitive great efforts, like Taylor Werner in the mile. The idea is we’re posting these marks, one after another, and it shows our team is evolving and in a positive way. Now we’re on schedule for the SEC meet.”