Barr Advances on Day Two at NCAA Championships

DES MOINES, Iowa – Dacia Barr advanced to the finals and Denise Bargiachi competed in the 10K for Arkansas Lady Razorback track and field on day two of the NCAA Championships at Drake Stadium.

“Denise (Bargiachi) had a great season and she had a pretty good race tonight,” head coach Lance Harter said. “She had a great first 5K and then locked up half way through. She started dancing along and it’s not an effective way to run. What a tough 1,500 meters it will be on Saturday. Dacia (Barr) ran pretty well and she was well prepared for how tough the prelims were. ”

Dacia Barr will compete in Saturday’s 1,500-meter finals. She clocked a prelim time of 4:15.73 and automatically advanced to the final with a top four finish in her heat.

“The goal today was just to finish in the top four and qualify for the finals,” Barr said. “I was a little nervous coming down the home stretch when I saw all those girls over my shoulder. It’s hard in these national races because everybody is so good that everyone is used to sitting up front so everyone is jockeying to get back to the front so it’s usually a little bit of a fight to get up in position and sometimes you have to go wide, but it’s necessary to make sure that you are in that position to go if you need to. The day of rest will be huge and I think that I have a lot of strength right now so I can handle a faster race. Being older and having a little more experience definitely helps to keep your nerves under control a little bit and help you relax. It should be a fast race and I am looking to go out and try to PR.”

Arkansas’s 4×400-meter relay nearly made it to the final after a rocky end to the season. Courtney Brown, Tominque Boatright, Paige Farrell and Shelise Williams combined for a time of 3:36.06 and finished 14th overall.

Makeatha Cooper had a strong showing in the 100-meter hurdles and had advanced to the semifinals until the fourth prelim heat was contested. She clocked a time of 13.53 and was the first runner left out of the semis.

Arkansas’s events will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday with Katie Stripling in the pole vault. For complete results of the NCAA Championships, visit ww.ladybacks.com.