TAT: Razorbacks Sweep Texas

This article originally appeared on January 18, 2014 on The Arkansas Traveler website, uatrav.com.

The men’s 4x400 relay was only one of 31 events at the Arkansas-Texas Dual track meet, but it illustrates how the night went for the Razorbacks.

With the meet already well in hand, Arkansas won the 4x400 relay, the last event of the meet, by nearly seven seconds.

“We wanted to end the meet with a bang,” said senior Neil Braddy, who anchored the relay team.

That race gave the No. 1 Razorbacks a 102-68 victory over No. 15 Texas. Arkansas’ 34-point win is its largest margin in the five-year history of the dual, as the Razorbacks have never lost to the Longhorns.

“It’s a good series,” head coach Chris Bucknam said. “(Texas) is a great program and I was pleased with how we performed today.”

For the first time, Arkansas’ and Texas’ women also participated in the meet. The No. 7 Arkansas women also emerged victorious, upsetting No. 1 Texas 91-63.

On the men’s side, the Razorbacks won 12 of the 16 events, highlighted by freshman Omar McLeod and senior Anthony May.

McLeod, who burst onto the scene at the Arkansas Invitational by winning the 60-meter hurdles and 60-meter dash, continued his hot start Friday against Texas.

He won the 60-meter hurdles, again, with a time of 7.76 and the 200-meter  with a time of 21.09, despite it being only the second time he had ever run that distance in his life.

“All I wanted to do was show what I could do. I’ve been training hard, so I just needed to trust my training,” McLeod said. “I surprised myself, again.”

May led the Razorbacks in jumps, winning the high jump with a height of 2.20 meters and the triple jump with a distance of 15.58 meters.

Middle- and long-distance events favored the Razorbacks, as well. Junior Patrick Rono, sophomore Tomas Squella, senior Stanley Kebenei and senior Solomon Haile won the 800-meter, 1,000-meter, mile and 3,000-meter, respectively.

Kebenei also ran the anchor leg for the distance medley relay, which beat Texas by nearly four seconds, thanks to his strong final lap.

As a sophomore, Neil Braddy finished second in the 400-meter at the Southeastern Conference Championships with a time of 46.31 seconds. Last year, though, Braddy struggled and managed a season-best of only 46.53.

Now a senior, he regained some of his old form Friday and won the 400-meter with a time of 46.36 seconds.

“I knew we were going to have some stiff competition,” Braddy said. “I wanted to prove to myself that I still had it in me.”

On the women’s side, freshman Regine Williams turned in another impressive performance by winning one event and finishing second in three others. As a team, the Razorbacks won nine of the 15 events.

While beating the No. 1 team in the country seems great on paper, head coach Lance Harter said that Texas wasn’t at full-strength and ran some athletes in their secondary events.

“They probably didn’t show their true lineup,” Harter said. “What I was most proud of was our young people that took the challenge.”

Williams, who made a splash at the Arkansas Invitational by winning the 60-meter dash and 200-meter, won the 200-meter, again, with a time of 23.48 seconds and finished second in the 60-meter dash, long jump and triple jump.

“(Williams) is a dynamo,” Harter said. “She’s a great competitor with great passion.”

Like the men, the women dominated the middle- and long-distance races. Junior Jessica Kamilos, senior Grace Heymsfield, junior Dominique Scott and junior Kaitlin Flattmann won the 800-meter, 1,000-meter, mile and 3,000-meter, respectively.

Harter said that he was most impressed by the mile, in which Scott won with a time of 4:38.49 and senior Stephanie Brown finished second with a time of 4:41.26.

“The mile was a big breakthrough race for us,” Harter said. “Having the likes of a sub-4:40 mile is spectacular. All that training (Scott) has been doing since cross country is starting to show and that’s the fastest (Brown) has ever opened up.”

Heymsfield, Scott and Brown, as well as freshman Torry Feole, were also a part of Arkansas’ distance medley relay team that beat Texas by over one minute.

The Razorbacks return to action Jan. 31 for the Razorback Team Invitational. Highly ranked men’s and women’s teams from across the country will travel to Fayetteville for the meet at the Tyson Track Center.