Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
SEC men’s title a team effort for Hogs
FAYETTEVILLE — In meets just for the elites, teams have won NCAA Outdoor and NCAA Indoor Track and Field national championships loading up national qualifiers in just a few events.
To win a conference meet with a true team roster, especially the nationally No. 1 SEC, it nearly always takes deriving quality from the distance races, sprints and field events.
Coach Chris Bucknam’s Arkansas Razorbacks closed their fourth consecutive SEC Outdoor Men’s championship dramatically fending off Alabama 110-104, Texas A&M (103.5) and host Florida (100) last Thursday through Saturday in Gainesville, totaling 33 points from the meet’s final three events.
In Saturday’s last field event, the triple jump, Arkansas’ Apalos Edwards scored six third-place points with a personal best 52 feet, 11.5 inches.
In the last distance event, the 5,000 meters, Arkansas’ Patrick Kiprop, second to Alabama’s Victor Kiprop in Thursday’s 10,000 meters, took first at 13 minutes, 32.94 seconds for 10 team 5K points. Razorbacks Ben Shearer, fourth, and Kirami Yego, seventh, added seven 5K team points behind Alabama’s second-place Kiprop.
Finally, the foursome of TJ Tomlyanovich, Lance Lang, Steven McElroy and James Benson clinched the meet with a winning school 4x400 relay record 2:59.03. Lang’s second leg and anchorman Benson’s out-leaning Alabama’s Khaleb McRae at the tape edging runner-up Alabama, 2:59.06 proved pivotal.
Only Benson, fourth, scored for Arkansas in the open 400, but as the SEC Network noted Saturday, “They are tough in the relay.”
“You saw what happened today was a complete team effort across the board,” Bucknam told the SEC Network. “The last three events, the 5K, the triple jump and the 4x400 encompassed our whole team. I’m so proud of them.”
Arkansas started setting its table Thursday with 14 10K points from Patrick Kiprop’s second place, Yego, fourth and Jacob McLeod, eighth.
Arkansas blasted Friday field events with Wayne Pinnock, 26-5.5 for his fourth SEC long jump title, and high jumper Romaine Beckford, 7-3.25, repeating their SEC and NCAA Indoor victories while Razorbacks Jack Turner and Yariel Soto Torrado went 1-2 in the 2-day decathlon for 18 team points.
It’s not all firsts and seconds that win conference meets.
Those third through eighth finishes add up, too.
Arkansas netted enough to win it all. Pretty heady stuff given the SEC sported the nation’s top five ranked teams Florida, Texas A&M, LSU, Alabama and No.5 Arkansas.
“Texas A&M and Florida were up front in the rankings all year, and we wanted to prove we could run with them,” Bucknam said.
They did. Again while completing an SEC Cross Country-Indoor-Outdoor triple crown.
Though second to LSU, Coach Chris Johnson’s Razorbacks women matched the men’s 110 points and remain a viable threat to follow their NCAA Indoor championship with a NCAA Outdoor crown.
The SEC Women’ 400 meters, with Razorbacks Nickisha Pryce, Kaylyn Brown, and NCAA Indoor champion Amber Anning, 1-2-3 in personal bests 49.13, 49.47 and 49.51, sets that tone.