Arkansas’ No. 1 men’s track team defended their position atop the polls at the Razorback Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
Besides Arkansas, there was four other teams ranked in the top 10 nationally, with nine of the 13 teams participating in the meet being ranked in the top 25.
Senior Akheem Gauntlett finished first in the 200-meter, with a time of 20.82, while junior Scott Gillespie earned a second-place time in the one mile run, with a 4:07.76.
Junior Layne Nixon also got a second place finish for the Hogs, running a time of 14:34.25 in the 5,000 meter.
Arkansas took first place in the distance medley and the 4X400 meter relay. The Razorbacks edged out LSU by .08 seconds time was 3:06.03 to take first in the relay. Both teams times were good enough for national qualifiers.
“It surprised me a little bit, I didn’t expect to run an automatic qualifying mark this early in the year,” Assistant coach Doug Case said. “We’ve been working very hard in practice. These guys, it just shows how good they are. Any time us and LSU are toe on the line it’s going to be a good race, we’re fired up to race those guys all the time.”
Arkansas freshman Gunnar Nixon grabbed first place honors in the heptathlon during his first collegiate meet. Nixon finished first in the long jump part of the event as well.
Freshman Andrew Irwin, who vaulted a national qualifying height in the Arkansas-Texas dual meet, struggled in his second collegiate meet as he failed to place in the event.
“It just got messed up,” Case said. “He had to take all of his jumps back-to-back-to-back, and he just wasn’t really ready for it. He did a great job, he didn’t complain at all about it. He took his jumps when he was supposed to, and I think he gave good effort, it just didn’t work out for him.”
Women’s track gaining momentum
Arkansas women’s No. 3 track team came out strong at the Razorback Invitational Friday and Saturday. The Razorbacks faced two other opponents ranked in the top 10.
Junior Regina George ran a second-place time of 53.45 in the 400 meter, just .35 seconds short automatically qualifying for nationals. Unattached runner Sanya Richards-Ross was first, with a time of 51.45.
Fellow junior Martine Borge won the 800 meter, with a time of 2:10.24.
“All in all we couldn’t ask for anything more.” coach Lance Harter said. “We had a great two days, and a lot of positive momentum not only for the conference meet, but also to put ourselves in place for nationals.”
Senior pole vaulter Tina Sutej continued to her dominating success, placing first and earning a trip to nationals with a jump of 4.45 meters.
“Those were ragged type jumps, but she’s still making high heights,” Harter said. “Once she gets into a rhythm and gets her technique down, she’s gonna go a lot higher.”
The Razorbacks had a close race in the 4X400 meter relay, with a time of 3:35.80, Arkansas fell just short of LSU’s winning time of 3:35.41.
Junior Makeba Alcide finished first in the pentathlon, with an overall score of 3,997. She placed first in the 800 meter and high jump segments of the event, and then second in the 60-meter hurdles as well as shot put.
Senior Kristen Gillespie won the 1 mile run invite with an automatic qualifying time of 4:36.94. Stephanie Brown also automatically qualified for nationals in the 800 meter run invite with a second-place time of 2:03.93.
“It was really awesome to start out that way.” Gillespie said. “It was really good for an opener. I could hear people cheering for me the whole way, that always helps it’s just awesome to be on the home track, I love it.”