Four Hogs headed to finals at NCAAs

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Inclement weather halted action at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. Wednesday evening but the Arkansas Razorback men’s track and field team rebounded from the delay, advancing four student-athletes to finals on day one of the competition.

The long jump prelims turned out well for the Hogs as both Alain Bailey and Mychael Stewart advanced to Thursday’s finals. Bailey finished second overall with his jump of 26-1.5. Stewart was the 12th and final jumper to advance. His best jump of the day measured 25-6. Freshman Tarik Batchelor was just short of advancing with his 16th-place finish and mark of 25-3.25.

Senior J-Mee Samuels, in his first of three races on Wednesday, anchored the 4×100-meter relay to a 10th-place finish in the prelims. The squad of senior Cedric Zellner, freshman Marek Niit, Stewart and Samuels combined for a season-best time of 39.43. They were the first quartet left out of the final.

Samuels went on to clock a 100-meter prelim time of 10.22 to finish ninth. He advanced to the semifinals where he finished 11th overall with a time of 10.43. He did not advance to the finals.

Senior Alex McClary advanced to the semifinal round of the 800 meters. He finished 15th overall in the prelims with a time of 1:48.24. Sophomore Chris Bilbrew finished 21st overall in the prelims. His time of 1:49.27 was not fast enough to advance to the finals.

Senior Scott MacPherson was Arkansas’ final competitor of the day. Running in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, he finished 11th overall with his time of 8:43.96, his fourth personal best of the season.

Thursday’s events will begin at 10:30 a.m. with the field events, 11:15 a.m. with the multi events and 5:30 p.m. with the running events. Arkansas’ first event of the day is the long jump final at 4:45 p.m. For complete results and more information, visit ArkansasRazorbacks.com.