Stephanie Brown earns SEC award

FAYETTEVILLE – For the second time in as many weeks, the Southeastern Conference’s Freshman of the Week winner has come from the Arkansas Razorback women’s track and field roster.

Razorback Stephanie Brown, a native of Downs, Ill., is this week’s SEC Freshman of the Week. At Texas Relays, she competed in the 4×800-meter relay and the sprint medley relay.

"Stephanie ran some great races for us in Austin," head coach Lance Harter said. "We are really pleased with how she is progressing and she is still in a heavy training mode. She and her teammates really impressed our coaching staff and put their names on the map with wins in the 4×400-meter and 4×800-meter relays and a school record in the sprint medley relay."

As the anchor leg of the 4×800-meter relay Thursday night, Brown tucked in behind LSU anchor LaTavia Thomas and passed her with 120 meters to go. Thomas, a multi-time NCAA Champion and All-American for the LSU Tigers, challenged back but Brown was able to out-kick her as they approached the finish line. Brown split 2:07.68 as the 4×800-meter anchor leg and Arkansas clocked a race-winning time of 8:35.18.

As the anchor 800-meter leg of the sprint medley relay Friday night, Brown was part of Arkansas’ runner-up team and school record time of 3:44.40. She clocked a personal-best 800-meter split of 2:04.70. The quartet broke the previous school record of 3:48.25 set in 2007.

Arkansas will compete next when it hosts the John McDonnell Invitational on Sat., April 10.