Harter’s women win title
FAYETTEVILLE — After a quarter-century of keeping the Arkansas women’s track and field team in national contention but never winning it all, Coach Lance Harter rose to the top of the awards stand Saturday.
The No. 1 Razorbacks performed above expectations and rode firstplace showings from Sandi Morris in the pole vault, Dominique Scott in the 3,000 meters and the distance medley relay team to the NCAA indoor championship, the first in school history for the women’s team, before a boisterous home crowd of 4,538 at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
Arkansas scored in every event it had an entry and cruised to 63 points, easily outpacing Oregon (46.5 points) to break the Ducks’ streak of five consecutive indoor titles.
“It’s a dream come true,” Harter said, surrounded by his champion Razorbacks. “Any time you can make history it’s a very special moment.
“The idea that we could score in every event we were in, that’s unprecedented.”
Rounding out the top five teams were SEC members Georgia (37), Florida (36) and Kentucky (35).
Scott, a South African running in front of her parents for the first time in an indoor setting, ran an 8:55.19 and overtook Stanford’s Elise Cranny (8:58.88) with about three laps to go and pulled away for the victory.
“To do it for Coach Harter is what I wanted,” said Scott, who accepted a marriage proposal from former Razorbacks runner Cameron Efurd shortly after pulling off her winning kick. “He’s gotten second too many times, so to win the team title for him in his 25th year of coaching, I am so excited not only for myself but my teammates and all my coaches.”
Arkansas’ 1,600-meter relay team of Daina Harper, Sparkle McKnight, Chrishuna Williams and Taylor Ellis-Watson capped the Razorbacks championship performance by finishing second with a school-record time of 3:28.70.
An anticipated showdown in the pole vault between Morris and Stephen F. Austin’s Demi Payne, the college record holder (15-4 ¼), never materialized. Payne and 2014 indoor champion Kaitlin Petrillose of Texas both failed to clear a height.
“Demi didn’t do as well as she was supposed to, and I really do feel for her because I’ve been there,” said Morris, who won the pole vault competition with a 15-1 vault before missing at 15-5.
Morris said she felt off on her turn at the top of her vault but persevered with first-jump clearances at every height except for 15-1.
“It feels really great to be kind of disappointed with 151,” she said. “It’s funny. I’ve had the best season of my life, and I’m ready for a big outdoor season.”
Harter expected a winning score might be in the mid-50s range, but his team posted one performance after another as it exceeded the scoring plan.
“When you define a total team effort, that was it,” Harter said. “The kids really rose up to the top.”
Ellis-Watson clocked a 51.52 in the 400 meters to score eight points for second place behind Texas’ Courtney Okolo (51.12).
“It wasn’t the best race, but I did run a PR today so I’m happy about that,” said Ellis-Watson, a junior. “That’s a huge scoring point for us. … and hopefully we can just keep this momentum going.”
Five-time champion Oregon scored 11 points in the 60 meters, with Jasmine Todd and Jenna Prandini finishing third and fourth behind two-time champion Remona Burchell of Alabama. The Ducks extended their lead with 11 points in the 200 meters from Prandini’s second-place showing and Ariana Washington’s sixth place.
But Arkansas still had the pole vault, 3,000 meters and 1,600-meter relay remaining, and the Razorbacks easily overtook the Ducks.
Circumstances started breaking Arkansas’ way early when the Razorbacks’ Alex Gochenour and Taliyah Brooks both set career bests in the pentathlon and combined for seven points.
Georgia’s Kendell Williams took the event going away with a college record 4,678 points, winning the 60-meter hurdles and the long jump and finishing second in the high jump.
Gochenour, a junior, finished fourth with 4,430 points, and the freshman Brooks contributed two points with a seventh-place finish (4,230).
“We didn’t have a great conference meet,” Bryan Compton said. “We came back focused that we were going to get this done at the national meet, and they did a heck of a job.”
Harter and Compton hadn’t expected to get seven points out of the event.
“That was awesome,” Harter said. “Lifetime bests. They buckled down and gave us points we didn’t expect.”