TAT: Razorbacks Finish 4th Nationally

This article originally appeared in the March 11, 2013 issue of The Arkansas Traveler.

Arkansas’ women’s track and field team is still searching for their first national championship after finishing fourth at the 2013 Indoor National Championship Saturday.

The Razorbacks ended the meet with 42.5 team points, which was 13.5 behind the national champion, Oregon.

Nine athletes qualified for the meet and all but one finished in the top eight and scored points for the team.

Senior Makeba Alcide started things off for the Razorbacks Friday, clearing a height of 6-1 1/2 in the high jump. She tied Middle Tennessee State senior Ann Dudley for sixth in the event.

The only Razorback not to finish in the top eight of her event was senior Ivanque Kemp. Her 8.17 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles Friday was ninth in the preliminaries and .02 seconds from qualifying her for the finals.

Day one of the meet ended on a high note for the Razorbacks, as they finished third in the final event of the day, the distance medley. Their 11:00.23 time was bettered only by Michigan and Villanova.

Alcide competed in the pentathlon Saturday, finishing third with 4,327 points. She actually tied Arizona State senior Keia Pinnick for second, but because Pinnick had better head-to-head marks in three of the five events, Alcide had to settle for third.

Junior Sandi Morris and sophomore Tamara Myers picked up fourth-place finishes in the pole vault and triple jump, respectively, for the Razorbacks.

Morris cleared a height of 14-3 1/4, while Myers jumped a distance of 43-10 on her fifth jump, increasing her distance by 4.5 inches.

“Our triple jumper was the real upset. Myers was the ninth qualifier for the final and popped a big jump to move up to fourth,” head coach Lance Harter said. “Those were the points that were critical.”

Arkansas’ highest finish of the meet came in the 400. Senior Regina George came in second in the 400 with a time of 51.05. Georgia freshman Shaunae Miller edged her by a mere .17 seconds.

Junior Sparkle McKnight finished seventh in the 400 with a time of 52.52.

In the final race of the meet, Arkansas beat Texas by .28 seconds to win their heat of the 4×400 relay. However, their 3:30.63 was still .13 seconds behind Oregon.

“I felt like we had it won when I crossed the finish line,” said George, the final leg of the relay team. “The fans were great and the atmosphere had us feeling like we won it.”

Oklahoma senior Tia Brooks broke the NCAA record in the shot put by throwing a distance of 63-0 3/4. Her mark beat North Carolina’s Laura Gerraughty’s 63 feet from 2004.

Oregon won the title with 56 team points, with Kansas (44 points), LSU (43 points), Arkansas (42.5 points) and Central Florida (30 points) rounding out the top five teams.

“We had a great weekend,” Harter said. “We were seeded third and there was 1.5 points separating second and fourth place. We had one great performance after another.”