Sydney Thorvaldson wins SEC 10k as Razorbacks score 21 points

BATON ROUGE – A 1-2-6 finish in the 10,000m final on Thursday earned No. 3 Arkansas 21 points to close out the first day of the SEC Outdoor Champions held at Bernie Moore Stadium.

Racing in the lone track final on the first day of the conference meet, Sydney Thorvaldson won in 35:07.50 with teammates Julia Paternain runner-up in 35:07.76 and Nyah Hernandez finishing sixth in 35:48.84.

Among three finals held on the first day of the SEC meet, the others being the hammer and javelin, the 21 points have the Razorbacks currently in second to 22 points for Missouri with Ole Miss and Texas A&M tied for third at 20 points.

The 1-2 finish for Thorvaldson and Paternain is the first by the same school since 2009, when the SEC meet was held in Gainesville. The combo that season was by the Arkansas tandem of Catherine White (35:07.50) and Denise Bargiachi (35:13.64) with Thorvaldson matching the winning time by White.

Currently in eighth place in the heptathlon, Macy Owens had a pair of career best marks in the high jump and shot put during the first day of the multi-event.

Owens opened with a time of 14.37 in the 100m hurdles for 927 points, just off her PR of 14.27. She then cleared a best of 5-0.25 (1.53) in the high jump to collect 655 points. An improvement to 34-9.5 (10.60) in the shot put earned 569 points.

Owens capped the first day with a time of 24.72w (3.1 wind) in the 200m for 913 points, where she has a wind-legal best of 25.42. Her score is 3,084 points through the first four events.

Among three qualifying prelim races, the Razorbacks advanced a leading total of five athletes. Three other schools – Florida, Kentucky, LSU – each qualified four.

Britton Wilson set a facility record in the 400m hurdles with a leading time of 53.76, bettering the previous mark of 54.70 by Olympian Ashley Spencer in 2016.

Madison Langley-Walker finished second to Wilson in the same prelim heat and automatically qualified for the final with her time of 56.87.

In the 200m, the Razorback pair of Rosey Effiong and Nickisha Pryce advanced to the final. Pryce claimed her prelim heat in a career best of 23.21. Effiong, meanwhile, placed third in a loaded heat with a career best of 22.85 to secure the final time qualifier to the final.

Effiong moved to No. 4 on the UA all-time list in placing third in the final of seven heats behind a 22.58 for LSU’s Favour Ofili and 22.68 by Florida’s Talitha Diggs.

Lainey Quandt, who finished third in the first of four prelims, secured the final place in the 800m final with a 2:05.91, just 0.03 ahead of the 10th place runner. Teammate Ainsley Erzen finished fourth in the same heat as Quandt, setting an outdoor career best of 2:08.09 to place 14th overall with nine advancing to the final.