No. 3 Razorbacks Ready For Road Challenges

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The No. 3 Arkansas women’s track and field team will face a pair of challenges on the road this week as they journey to Austin, Texas for the Texas Relays and Palo Alto, California for the Stanford Invitational.

Both competitions will feature several Razorbacks entered in their signature events for the first time this season.

Texas Relays
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 29, 10:30 a.m. CT | Thursday, March 30, 11 a.m. CT | Saturday, April 1, 12 p.m. CT
Venue: Mike A. Myers Stadium
Important Links: :  Meet Schedule | Entries | Dec/Hept Heat Sheets | Live Results

LHN Broadcast Schedule (all times Central)
• Wednesday, March 29: 6-7:30 p.m. (tape delay of multi-events)
• Thursday, March 30: 4:30-6 p.m. (tape delay of multi-events); 6-8 p.m. (LIVE)
• Saturday, April 1: 1:30-5:30 p.m. (LIVE)

All-American combined events quartet including Taliyah Brooks, Leigha Brown, Kelsey Herman and Payton Stumbaugh will headline the heptathlon competition. Brooks returns to Austin as the defending champion looking to retain her crown. The two-time NCAA pentathlon runner-up will face some stiff competition at the hands of her own teammate, Stumbaugh, who finished right behind Brooks at the 2016 Texas Relays by a six-point margin. All four multis have the potential to earn national qualifying marks at this meet.

Arkansas has held the heptathlon title since 2015 when former Razorback Alex Gochenour captured the title with a score 6,027 points. Gochenour is one of five women to ever reach the 6,000-point mark at the Texas Relays in the event’s 34-year history.

In addition to the heptathlon, Razorback All-American pole vault trio of Desiree Freier, Lexi Weeks and Tori Weeks will compete in A section of the pole vault on Saturday, April 1 at noon. The A section will feature a deep field of competitors including professional vaulters Kristen Brown, Megan Clark, Morgan Leleux and Kortney Ross. The Razorback crew will also face off against several top NCAA opponents including conference rivals Emily Gunderson (Texas A&M) and Jessie Johnson (Auburn) as well as regional foe, Annie Rhodes (Baylor).

Competition in Austin will get underway at 10:30 a.m. CT tomorrow with the heptathlon 100-meter hurdles. Fans are encouraged to follow along on social media, using the hashtag #TXRelays17 to engage with the event.

Stanford Invitational
Date/Time: Friday, March 31, 1:18 p.m. CT | Saturday, April 1, 4:35 p.m. CT
Venue: Cobb Track & Angell Field
Important Links: Meet Schedule | Entries | Live Results

Arkansas’ distance squad will take on competition on the West coast set to line up with some of the best athletes from around the country in Palo Alto.

All contributing members to the Razorback DMR at different points 2017 indoor season Alex Byrnes, Therese Haiss, Nikki Hiltz and Ceara Watson will compete in the 800. It will be the first race for Haiss and Hiltz since their 4-5 finish in the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships earlier this month.

The meet will mark the official return of Razorback standout Devin Clark who will compete in the 1,500 to get a feel for her speed. Although known more for her talents in the steeplechase Clark owns a respectable PR of 4 minutes, 18.22 seconds in the 1,500 which she ran at this meet last year. Clark will be joined in the event by international Hogs Kailee Sawyer (Canada) and Carina Viljoen (South Africa).

Sydney Brown, Abby Gray, Maddy Reed and Taylor Werner will contest the 5,000 for Arkansas in search of NCAA West region qualifying times. Werner was the SEC champion at that distance at the 2017 indoor meet and holds a career best of 16:04.05 from that competition.

Upperclassmen Valerie Reina (10,000) and Regan Ward (steeplechase) will go solo for Arkansas in their respective events, looking to secure their own postseason bids with top times early in the year.

The 5,000 will be the first event on the track on Friday, March 31 at 1:18 p.m. CT. The meet will be live streamed on FloTrack (subscription required).

For more information on Arkansas track and field including in-meet updates, follow @RazorbackTF on Twitter.