Arkansas builds team lead with 40 points on SEC Outdoor day two

BATON ROUGE – Quality and depth supplied Arkansas with another big scoring output on the second day of the SEC Outdoor Championships held at Bernie Moore Stadium. Britton Wilson improved her collegiate record in the 400m to 49.40 second during Friday’s prelims.

After earning 21 points in the 10,000m on Thursday, 25 points were claimed by the Razorbacks in the pole vault from a 1-3-4-5 effort as Amanda Fassold defended her title. Then 14 points were added in the 3,000m steeplechase off a 2-3 finish.

Through eight of 21 finals scored, Arkansas currently leads with 61 points over Ole Miss (45), Texas A&M (43), Florida (37), and Alabama (23).

Wilson cruised through the 400m prelim, improving the collegiate record of 49.51 she set earlier this outdoor season in Florida. In addition, she added the SEC meet record as well as the facility record to her collection of honors.

Athing Mu of Texas A&M set the previous SEC meet record of 49.84 in 2021 while the previous Bernie Moore Stadium record was 49.57, a collegiate record at the time, by Courtney Okolo of Texas in 2016.

Three vaulters cleared 14-3.25 (4.35) in the pole vault competition. In addition to Fassold winning another gold medal, teammate Mackenzie Hayward cleared the height for a career best height in earning bronze. Texas A&M’s Heather Abadie finished as the silver medalist as all three missed attempts at 14-5.25 (4.40).

Hayward, who had a previous best of 14-0.75, moves to No. 10 on the UA all-time list. Additional team scoring came from Marin Chamberlin in fourth place with a career best of 13-9.25 (4.20) as well as Kaitlyn Banas in fifth place with a 13-9.35 clearance.

Finishing the second night off with the 3,000m steeplechase, the Arkansas tandem of Laura Taborda and Gracie Hyde seemed destined for a 1-2 finish. Then they both fell with 300m remaining in the race.

They recovered to finish second and third as Hyde claimed a silver medal in 10:03.50 with Taborda the bronze medalist in 10:07.19. Kristel van den Berg of Ole Miss won in 9:56.56 after trailing the Razorback pair throughout the race.

Macy Owens scored a point in the heptathlon, placing eighth with a career best score of 5,182 points. The previous best score for Owens was 4,572 from the Texas Relays earlier this season.

The second day of the heptathlon started with a windy 17-8.75 (5.40) long jump for 671 points. Then a javelin toss of 118-4 (36.08) added 592 points. Moving from fifth to third in the final 200m of the 800m, Owens set an outdoor best of 2:19.12 for 835 points.

Owens had been in ninth place following the long jump and javelin but moved into eighth place after the 800m. The difference to ninth place was 30 points.

Qualifying from prelim races went well for the Razorbacks as eight advanced from four events.

Following Wilson in to the 400m final were Aaliyah Pyatt (51.34) and Rosey Effiong (51.53) as auto qualifiers. Advancing on time was Nickisha Pryce (51.43). Pyatt set a PR that moves her to No. 8 on the UA all-time list while Pryce moved to No. 9 with her career best.

Another four Razorbacks sprinters in the field included Amber Anning (51.84), Paris Peoples (52.24), Ashanti Denton (51.84), and Joanne Reid (52.63).

Advancing to the final of the 1,500m were Heidi Nielson (4:24.01) and Katie McCune (4:24.07).

Ackera Nugent ran in prelims of the 100m and then the 100m hurdles, advancing in both with a 12.49w over the hurdles followed by an 11.16 in the 100. Madison Langley-Walker joined Nugent into the hurdle final after qualifying for the 400m hurdles on Thursday.