Weeks keeps title in family

Arkansas Razorbacks sophomore Tori Weeks kept the SEC pole vault title in the family.

Weeks cleared 15 feet on her first attempt at that height to win Friday at the SEC Indoor Track and Championships in Nashville, Tenn. She edged her twin sister, Lexi, who swept SEC and NCAA indoor and outdoor titles last year.

Lexi Weeks also cleared 15-0, but on her third attempt, so Tori Weeks was the SEC champion based on a first-attempt clearance.

“I don’t care which one of them wins as long as they keep going 1-2,” said University of Arkansas at Fayetteville assistant Bryan Compton, who coaches the vaulters. “They both did a great job and I thought just competed unbelievably.”

The Weeks twins, who are from Cabot, missed three attempts at 15-3.

Kentucky sophomore Olivia Gruver took third in the pole vault at 14-8 ¾.

“The Kentucky girl was playing really tough with us and wasn’t giving us a break,” Compton said. “She was jumping every bar with us.

“But Tori and Lexi fought really hard to keep the Kentucky girl away and we finally did what we had to do.”

Tori Weeks cleared 15-0 for the first time.

“It puts Tori in a different category to get that,” Compton said. “There are different barriers in the jumps you want to do, and 15 is definitely one of those.”

Arkansas sophomore Desiree Freier tied for eighth, clearing 13-7 ¼.

After the Razorbacks, ranked No. 2 nationally, scored 18 ½ points in the pole vault, they scored 19 in the pentathlon led by junior Taliyah Brooks’ second-place finish.

Arkansas, going for its ninth consecutive SEC title in cross country and track, leads in the women’s team race with four of 17 events scored with 38.5 points. Georgia is second with 25 points and Alabama third with 22.

Georgia senior Kendell Williams, the defending

NCAA and SEC champion, won the pentathlon with 4,686 points.

Brooks, the NCAA runner-up last year, was second with 4,450 points. It’s the second-highest mark in the nation this season behind Williams and assures Brooks a spot in the pentathlon field at the NCAA meet.

After completing the pentathlon, Brooks then took eighth in the long jump with a leap of 20-8 to score nine points for the team race in her first two events. She’ll also compete in the high jump today.

“That was big for Taliyah to get another point in the long jump,” Compton said. “Every point is going to count in this meet.”

Arkansas senior Leigha Brown was third with 4,374 points and sophomore Kelsey Herman was fourth with 4,226.

In the men’s competition, Arkansas junior Travonn White took second in the long jump in his first SEC meet.

White, a transfer from Oregon, went 26-0 ¼ behind Florida’s Deandre Bates, who won with a 26-4 ½ leap. Arkansas junior Andreas Trajkovski took fifth at 25-3 ½.

Arkansas senior Ken LeGassey — last year’s SEC champion — went 7-1 ¼ in the high jump to take third place.

Georgia went 1-2 in the high jump with Darius Carbin and Keenon Laine both

clearing 7-1 ¾.

Alabama’s Daniel Haugh won the weight throw with a best of 75-8.

Georgia leads the men with 24 points, followed by Kentucky (20), Florida (18) and Arkansas (17).

Three Razorbacks are in scoring position through four of seven heptathlon events, with sophomore Gabe Moore third (3,257 points), junior Derek Jacobus fifth (3,129) and Brad Culp seventh (3,047).

Arkansas junior Kenzo Cotton won his heat of the 60 meters in 6.65 seconds to advance to today’s final. Advancing in the 400 for the Razorbacks were sophomore Obi Igbokwe (46.03) and senior Eric Janise (46.18).

Arkansas juniors Devon Anderson ( 7.81) and Larry Donald (7.84) advanced to the final of the 60 hurdles.

Razorbacks sophomore Ethan Moehn ran 4:10.59 to advance in the mile.

Arkansas will have five of the 10 finalists in the women’s mile after Nikki Hiltz, Terese Haiss, Carina Viljoen, Valerie Reina and Maddy Reed all advanced. Hiltz led the Razorbacks with a 4:41.30 time in the first round.

Arkansas senior Daina Harper had the fastest qualifying time of 51.77 to advance to the 400 final. Freshman Damajahnee Birch (53.72) also advanced for the Razorbacks.