Higgs’ top jump paces UA

BATON ROUGE — Raymond Higgs produced the best long jump of the year Saturday as Arkansas’ men’s team kept up their winning ways at the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

The Razorbacks sophomore won the long jump with a national-best distance of 27

1 feet, 5 ⁄ inches Saturday at

4 LSU’S Bernie Moore Stadium. Higgs’ title helped the No. 6 Razorbacks take a 32-point lead into today’s finals.

Arkansas had 70 points, well ahead of Georgia’s 38 while No. 1 Florida, the Razorbacks’ chief competition in the team race, was fourth with 26 points. The Gators failed to score Saturday but have finalists placed throughout today’s events.

The Razorbacks women’s team slipped to third place in the team race with 43.5 points despite a high-point total in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Georgia led the women’s competition with 76 points, followed by LSU with 47.5.

“We can’t take our foot off the pedal,” Arkansas men’s Coach Chris Bucknam said. “We put ourselves in great position. We have to take care of business. It all kind of going as we planned.”

Higgs’ victory came against a field that included the second-, third- and fifth-ranked jumpers in the nation. Higgs’ winning mark is the nation’s best by more than 8 inches.

“Raymond is an outstanding talent,” Bucknam said. “That’s a big jump, and we figured he was that type of jumper. It was a big boost.”

In addition to Higgs’ victory, the Razorbacks added 11 points with two top-four finishes in the 3,000 steeplechase. David Flynn finished third in 8 minutes, 52.76 seconds and teammate Rick Elliott was fourth.

The Razorbacks have plenty of scoring opportunities in today’s finals after adding qualifiers Saturday. Arkansas advanced three runners to today’s 1,500 finals — joining five runners in the 800 — and three more Razorbacks made the 110 hurdles finals. Akheem Gauntlett in the 400 and Marek Niit in the 100 also advanced.

“It takes depth to win meets like these, but we’re getting national-class performances, too,” Bucknam said. “We seem to be peaking at the right time.”

Two-time indoor national champion and outdoor record holder Tina Sutej failed to win the pole vault, finishing second on misses to Georgia’s Morgann Leleux. Both cleared

1 14 feet, 6 ⁄ inches but Leleux

4 had fewer previous misses.

The news was better for the women in the steeplechase where three Razorbacks finished in the top six. Sophomore Grace Heymsfield led Arkansas with a second-place time of 10:17.81 and senior Cali George was third in 10:20.48.

Freshman Shannon Klenke’s sixth-place finish gave Arkansas 17 points in the event.

“We capitalized in the steeplechase,” Arkansas women’s Coach Lance Harter said. “We didn’t expect anything close to that. Those were critical team points.”

The Razorbacks women had success in the preliminaries, advancing two runners each to today’s 400, 1,500 and 100 hurdles finals.