Speed Named to SEC Community Service Team
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In recognition for her good work outside of the gym, senior Braie Speed has been named to the 2018 Southeastern Conference Community Service Team, as announced by the League Friday afternoon. The community service team looks to highlight an athlete from each school who gives back to their community in superior service efforts.
Speed has volunteered her time participating in the Arkansas and Missouri canned food drive, and collecting household items for flood victims in Baton Rouge and Houston. The San Antonio, Native has also been a volunteer for the multiple Special Olympic events in Northwest Arkansas, including the Unified Flag Football event and the Special Olympic Games at Ramey Junior High.
In her third season competing as a Razorback, Speed has shined as a vault and bars specialist. She ranks in the top-25 on both events nationally, coming in at No. 18 on vault and No. 25 on bars. She has competed in 37 consecutive meets now as a Razorback on vault, posting scores of 9.800 in 33 of those meets, including every meet this season.
For the third time in three weeks she has posted multiple 9.900’s, including a 9.950 on bars against both Arizona and in Arkansas’ Tri meet against Denver and Iowa State. For her efforts last week, she was named the SEC’s Specialist of the Week for the first time in her career.
Speed has helped the Razorbacks pull the biggest turnaround in the Southeastern Conference this season, improving the team’s RQS (Regional Qualifying Score) by 0.99 points, while improving the team’s season average by 1.948 points. No other team in the conference improved their RQS by more than 0.33 points or their season average by 0.142 points.
Speed and the Razorbacks compete in St. Louis, Missouri Saturday in the SEC Championships. Arkansas is the fifth seed and will compete in the first session beginning at 2 p.m.
For more information on Razorback gymnastics, including in-meet updates, follow @RazorbackGym on Twitter.