PRs Push Arkansas To Top-Three Finish

Final Results

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The final day of the Razorback Invitational brought on several personal-best performances from the No. 2 Arkansas women’s track and field team, resulting in a top-three team finish to cap the solid weekend. Head coach Lance Harter’s squad finished with a final score of 76 behind fellow top-10 nationally ranked foes, No. 7 LSU and No. 4 Southern California (USC) by less than a 10-point margin.

Top Finishers
Senior Regan Ward was the top performer on the women’s side finishing as the 3,000-meter invitational runner-up in a new lifetime best time of nine minutes, 20.84 seconds. The Razorbacks also picked up five points from freshman middle-distance runner Maddy Reed who successfully navigated the competitive invitational section of the mile, coming out with a PR of 4:48.07 which ranks her just inside the NCAA top-50 best of the event.

In the sprints, senior Daina Harper led the way with a fourth-place finish in the 400 invitational. Not the lone sprints contributor, Harper was joined by sophomore Kiara Parker who improved to a new career best of 7.41 to place fifth in the 60 final.

Additional Notable Performances
800: Arkansas had three runners under 2:10 this weekend in Damajahnee Birch (2:08.70), Ceara Watson (2:09.36) and Alexandra Byrnes (2:09.56). Through three meets, Byrnes has now shaved three seconds off her opening performance.
4-x-400 Relay: Team of Harper, Birch, Watson and Brianna Swinton raced to a new season’s best, finishing fourth in the invitational section with a time of 3:33.39. The quartet currently have the sixth-best performance this year in the NCAA.

What’s Next
While the majority of the squad will be off next weekend a select group of athletes may be on the road destined for competitions in Albuquerque, N.M and New York at the New Mexico Invitational and Armory Invitational, respectively. Arkansas will return to the Randal Tyson Track Center in two weeks when it hosts the Tyson Invitational on Feb 10-11.

Razorback Invitational (Day 2)
January 28, 2017
Randal Tyson Track Center (Fayetteville, Ark.)

Team Scores
1. #7 LSU – 85.33
2. #4 USC – 80
3. #2 Arkansas – 76
4. Texas A&M – 73.33
5. #3 Georgia – 59
6. #16 Ole Miss – 45
7. #5 Florida – 40
8. Auburn – 34.33
9. #24 South Carolina – 28
10. #14 Oklahoma State – 27
11. #17 Tennessee – 21
12. Mississippi State – 20
13. Missouri – 18
14. Wake Forest – 6

60 Meters Finals
5. Kiara Parker – 7.41

60 Meters Prelims
6. Kiara Parker – 7.44q
23. Tamara Kuykendall – 7.75

400 Meters
4. Daina Harper – 53.37
15. Brianna Swinton – 55.18
35. Sydney Hammit – 56.91

800 Meters
7. Damajahnee Birch – 2:08.70
9. Ceara Watson – 2:09.36
10. Alexandra Byrnes – 2:09.56
15. Kailee Sawyer – 2:11.18
21. Carina Viljoen – 2:13.29
23. Emily Jeacock – 2:15.02
30. Madison Cooley – 2:25.81
31. Autumn Sehy – 2:26.89

Mile
4. Maddy Reed – 4:48.07
8. Sydney Brown – 4:54.32
27. Grace Taylor – 5:07.84
31. Kristen Larkan – 5:25.82
32. Abby Tedford – 5:27.81

3,000 Meters
2. Regan Ward – 9:20.84
6. Abby Gray – 9:36.81
16. Valerie Reina – 9:54.53

60 Hurdles Prelims
14. Kelsey Herman – 8.64

4-x-400 Relay Invitational
4. Swinton/Harper/Birch/Watson – 3:33.39

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