Hogs Clean Up in 10K Score 19 Points

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Shawn Forrest, James Strang and Peter Kosgei picked up 19 points in the 10,000 meters for Arkansas Razorback track and field on day two of the SEC Championships.

The Hogs are second in the team race with 19 points after two complete days of competition. Auburn leads it with 21 points.

“It was hard to beat Tyson David,” McDonnell said. “Our top two guys ran in their flats. They didn’t wear spikes so their legs wouldn’t be tired for the 5,000 meters. That hurt them a little bit at the end of the race. They gave (David) a good run. 19 points is more than I was hoping for. We had a very good day. Hopefully this will set the trend for the rest of the meet.”

The Arkansas trio pushed the pace from the get-go, in hopes to leave the rest of the pack behind. The plan worked accordingly, except for Alabama harrier Tyson David, who went with the Hogs.

Forrest, Strang and David ran the entire race as a pack until the last two laps. Kosgei held strong in fourth position and cruised through. David, with a strong kick, passed Forrest with 200 meters to go and showed great speed as he took the tape in a new meet record time of 28:23.01, breaking former Hog Alistair Cragg’s record of 28:42.73.

Forrest finished second, earning his sixth All-SEC honor, with a personal and season best 28:24.44. Strang was third with a clocking of 28:31.33. Kosgei was fourth with an NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 29:25.14.

“We thought with the pace we set, we would break (Tyson David),” Forrest said. “Hats off to him, he has a great kick and a good finish. That was a fast race.”

“I’m thrilled with the 2-3-4 finish,” Strang said. “We all had the same mentality, this one was for Coach. Shawn did a majority of the work. I tried to help out when I could. I knew he wanted this race really badly so I wasn’t going to challenge him.”

In the prelims, Alex McClary advanced to Sunday’s 800-meter finals while J-Mee Samuels also advanced in the 200-meter prelims.

McClary, running in heat two, clocked a time of 1:49.99 to earn a third-place finish in his heat. He finished seventh overall and advanced on his time.

“I thought the time I ran would get me in,” McClary said. “The third heat was a quick one. I knew I did the work to get in. Our heat went out faster than the others. In the prelims you want focus on clocking good times and advancing. There is a lot more pressure in the prelims. Now that I’ve advanced, I can concentrate on the final.”

Samuels won his heat of the 200 meters. Running into a strong headwind, he clocked a somewhat slow time of 21.24 but the wind played more of a factor than Samuels thought it would. He is the fifth-fastest runner coming out of the prelims.

For a complete recap and results of the SEC Championships, visit www.hogwired.com.

Download: day2_results.pdf