FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – For the second straight yr, Arkansas earned a program file with a seventh place end within the closing standings of 2021-22 Learfield Administrators’ Cup launched on Thursday by the Nationwide Affiliation of Collegiate Administrators of America (NACDA). The Razorbacks tallied eight Southeastern Convention championships and recorded 9 top-10 nationwide finishes to finest this system’s earlier Administrators’ Cup finest end, eighth, within the 2020-21 athletics season.
Arkansas completed within the high 10 of the Administrators’ Cup standings for under the second time at school historical past and ranked No. 1 within the standings amongst packages with 19 or fewer sports activities. Arkansas ranked second amongst SEC packages and was one in every of three SEC packages (Florida and Kentucky) to be ranked within the top-10 within the standings. A complete of 9 SEC packages ranked within the high 25 of the ultimate standings. The Razorbacks completed with 1050.75 Administrators’ Cup factors.
In 2020-21, Razorback Athletics turned in probably the most profitable years at school historical past, together with a program-best eighth place end within the 2020-21 Learfield IMG Administrators’ Cup. Arkansas’ earlier finest end was 14th. The Administrators’ Cup program has been monitoring the success of the nation’s high intercollegiate athletics packages since 1993-94.
The Razorbacks received an NCAA title (Ladies’s Indoor Observe & Subject), earned eight Prime-10 NCAA finishes and a outstanding 10 Southeastern Convention common season and event championships, together with SEC triple crown sweeps in each males’s and ladies’s cross nation & observe and discipline, a second-straight soccer common season crown, this system’s first softball common season title and a baseball common season and event championship. Arkansas’ championship complete led the league and doubled the subsequent closest SEC program.
The Administrators’ Cup tracks the nation’s most profitable intercollegiate athletics packages for his or her performances all year long. The ultimate standings launched on Thursday included baseball, males’s and ladies’s basketball, girls’s seaside volleyball, girls’s bowling, males’s and ladies’s cross nation, fencing, girls’s discipline hockey, soccer, males’s and ladies’s golf, males’s and ladies’s gymnastics, males’s and ladies’s hockey, males’s and ladies’s lacrosse, rifle, snowboarding, girls’s rowing, males’s and ladies’s soccer, softball, males’s and ladies’s swimming and diving, males’s and ladies’s tennis, males’s and ladies’s indoor and outside observe and discipline, males’s and ladies’s volleyball, males’s and ladies ‘s water polo and wrestling.
“After cracking the top-10 within the Administrators’ Cup for the primary time in program historical past final yr, our program responded with a fair higher encore, handing over the most effective collective yr ever for Razorback Athletics,” Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Hunter Yurachek mentioned. “With 9 top-10 NCAA finishes, eight SEC championships and numerous further accomplishments on and off the sector in all 19 of our sports activities, the 2021-22 athletics season might be celebrated by Razorback followers for years to come back. I wish to thank and congratulate our student-athletes, coaches and employees members for a very phenomenal yr! I’m additionally grateful for the large assist of Razorback Basis members, season ticket holders and followers who make this outstanding success attainable. It really is a good time to be an Arkansas Razorback!”
Arkansas culminated its 2021-22 season with its eleventh look on the School World Collection. The Razorbacks took to the street to win an NCAA Regional in Stillwater, Oklahoma and a NCAA Tremendous Regional in Chapel Hill, North Carolina to earn a berth to the nationwide championship in Omaha, Nebraska. Arkansas completed third on the CWS, falling only one recreation wanting the championship sequence. The Hogs superior to the School World Collection for the third time previously 4 full seasons, incomes 83 Administrators’ Cup factors for the end.
Razorback softball as soon as once more was on the forefront nationally, profitable a second-straight SEC common season championship after which capturing the SEC Event for the primary time at school historical past. Coach Courtney Deifel’s squad hosted each a NCAA Regional and Tremendous Regional at Bogle Park. The Hogs completed the season tied ninth nationally. Arkansas earned 64 factors for its historic season.
One other Razorbacks girls’s squad added a top-10 nationwide end of its personal. Arkansas completed sixth on the NCAA Outside Observe and Subject Championships, giving Coach Lance Harter and his group 73.5 factors within the Administrators’ Cup standings. The Razorbacks additionally captured the celebrated Terry Crawford Ladies’s Division I Program of the 12 months award, recognizing the nation’s high program within the 2021-22 season primarily based on championship outcomes on the NCAA cross nation, indoor and outside championships.
After profitable the SEC Triple Crown (cross nation, indoor and outside observe) within the 2021-22 season, Coach Chris Bucknam and the Razorback males’s observe and discipline group earned 50.5 factors within the Administrators’ Cup standings. Arkansas completed twenty third on the NCAA Outside Observe and Subject Championships.
Coach Brad McMakin and the Razorback males’s golf group notched a top-10 nationwide end. Arkansas superior by means of the NCAA Regional and completed ninth on the NCAA Males’s Golf Championship in Scottsdale, Arizona. The end earned 69 Administrators’ Cup factors and was the most effective nationwide end for this system since Arkansas was the nationwide runner-up in 2009.
Arkansas’ girls’s golf group additionally superior by means of the regional spherical to compete on the NCAA Ladies’s Golf Championship in Scottsdale. Coach Shauna Taylor’s group completed twenty second within the nation and contributed 51.5 factors to the Razorbacks’ Administrators’ Cup complete.
Coach Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar made probably the most of her first season on the helm of the Arkansas girls’s tennis program, main her squad to a berth within the NCAA Event. The Razorbacks earned 25 factors for making it to the NCAA Event draw.
Arkansas continued its latest momentum in gymnastics. Arkansas superior to the regional closing for a second-consecutive season. The Razorbacks completed second in its session of the NCAA Norman (Oklahoma) Regional and superior to the Candy Sixteen. Coach Jordyn Wieber and the GymBacks concluded their group season, only one step shy of advancing to compete for a nationwide championship. Arkansas earned 60.75 factors for the NCAA end.
Coach Eric Musselman and the Razorback males’s basketball group made a deep run into the NCAA Event for the second consecutive yr. The Razorbacks received three video games within the draw, together with a win over No.1 Gonzaga within the Candy Sixteen to advance to the Elite Eight and the West Regional Closing. It marked the primary time Arkansas has superior to the Elite Eight in back-to-back seasons because the 1993-94 and 1994-95 campaigns. For its efforts, Arkansas earned 73 Administrators’ Cup factors.
The Razorbacks continued their custom of excellence in observe and discipline throughout the indoor season. Each the lads’s and ladies’s squads received the SEC Indoor Observe and Subject group titles earlier than advancing to top-10 finishes on the NCAA Indoor Observe and Subject Championships. Coach Lance Harter led the ladies’s group to a fourth-place end on the nationwide meet. The rostrum end produced 80 factors. Coach Chris Bucknam and the lads’s group earned a seventh-place end to earn 72 factors towards this system’s Administrators’ Cup level complete.
Arkansas’ girls’s swimming and diving group secured a top-30 end on the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. Coach Neil Harper’s squad completed twenty eighth within the nationwide meet, incomes 46 Administrators’ Cup factors.
Arkansas made a return journey to the NCAA Ladies’s Basketball Event, after qualifying for the Huge Dance in 2020-21 as nicely. If not for a pandemic shortened 2019-20 marketing campaign, the Razorbacks would have earned three-straight NCAA appearances. Coach Mike Neighbors and the Razorbacks tallied 25 factors for incomes a berth within the NCAA Event discipline.
Arkansas began the autumn season with a pair of SEC championships and top-10 NCAA finishes in cross nation. The lads’s cross nation group earned 80 factors for a podium end on the nationwide meet, ending in fourth place. The Razorback girls’s cross nation group additionally dented the highest 10 with an eighth-place end, incomes 70.5 Administrators’ Cup factors.
Arkansas received its third straight SEC common season crown, earlier than advancing to the Elite Eight spherical of the NCAA Ladies’s Soccer Event for the primary time. This system file postseason run landed 73 factors for the Hogs.
Coach Sam Pittman and the Razorback soccer group turned in the most effective gridiron seasons in latest historical past in 2021. Arkansas capped a outstanding 9-4 season with a 24-10 win over Penn State within the Outback Bowl. The Razorbacks earned a closing nationwide rating of No. 20 within the USA At present / AFCA Coaches ballot, tallying 54 factors within the Administrators’ Cup standings.
One man died in a crash on Interstate 430 in North Little Rock early Saturday morning, according to a report from Arkansas State Police.
Ivan Vallecillo, 18, of Conway died after the 2008 Kia Rio he was driving became disabled in a closed management lane while heading south on I-430, according to the report. A 2015 Ford F-150 also traveling on the interstate struck the rear of the Kia.
A state trooper investigating the crash reported that the weather was clear and the road was dry at the time.
Defensive lineman JaQuentin Madison committed to Arkansas on Sunday following his official visit to Fayetteville.
Madison, 6-3 and 280 pounds, of Alpharetta, Ga., chose Arkansas over offers from Missouri, North Carolina State, Pittsburgh, SMU, Georgia Tech, Kansas and other programs.
He had 75 tackles, 9 sacks, 10 tackles for loss, 17 quarterback hurries, 1 forced fumble, 2 pass deflections and 1 interception returned for a touchdown as a junior.
Madison is rated a 3-star prospect by 247Sports. The three other recruiting services have yet to rate him.
Madison is the 11th commitment for the Razorbacks’ 2025 class.
When the Rev. Jeff Hood entered Missouri’s execution chamber this past week, he saw something hauntingly out of the ordinary: himself.
The window to the death chamber is one-way, meaning witnesses can see inmates but inmates cannot see who is watching them, Hood told USA TODAY, adding that every other execution he’s witnessed in other states has been in a room with a two-way window.
“It’s like a house of horrors,” Hood said. “It’s very, very bizarre.”
Hood walked in to find his friend, David Hosier − a man condemned to die for the 2009 murder of a former lover − strapped to the gurney. Hosier’s final words to the reverend before Missouri executed him: “Give ’em hell, Jeff.” Encouragement for Hood to keep fighting against the ultimate punishment.
As Hood put his hand on Hosier’s shoulder and began to read scripture, the intravenous line to deliver the lethal injection was near Hood’s elbow. Soon the reverend was able to see the pentobarbital − or as he calls it, “poison” − travel to end Hosier’s life.
When time of death was pronounced at 6:11 p.m. on Tuesday, Hosier became the seventh man Hood has seen executed.
In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that spiritual advisers must be allowed into execution chambers if death row inmates want them. Since then, the 40-year-old Hood − who lives in Little Rock, Arkansas with his wife and five children − has made it one of his missions to comfort the condemned in their final weeks, hours and minutes.
“My job is to come into their lives when they have six to three months left to live and become their best friend,” Hood told USA TODAY in an interview shortly after Hosier’s execution. “I become their best friend in order to be their best friend when they die.”
After seven executions, Hood said it doesn’t get any easier. If anything, it’s gotten harder.
“You feel like a murderer,” he said. “I’m called to be there for my guy. I’m called to pray. I’m called to read scripture. For all of my good intentions, I ultimately do nothing to stop it … I sit there and watch someone I love be murdered. In my inaction, I join the team of murderers.
“Being a part of the entire process is moral torture,” he added.
But Hood feels compelled to continue the work. Three inmates have asked him to accompany them to their executions in the next six months, and he works with about two dozen others throughout the country. This despite what he says have been numerous death threats against him and his family.
Why?
“Giving someone a voice, that’s the only thing that can make them feel like a human being,” he said.
While Hood says every execution he’s witnessed is disturbing, he’s particularly haunted by that of Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was put to death by nitrogen gas in Alabama in January for his role in a murder-for-hire plot of a preacher’s wife in 1988.
“He literally was heaving back and forth, his face was hitting the front of the mask,” Hood says. “Mucus and slobber were drizzling down the front of the inside of the mask … It was like his veins all over his body were spidering and that there were ants up on his skin that were moving in every single direction.”
Marty Roney, a reporter with the Montgomery Advertiser − part of the USA TODAY Network − was also among witnesses and reported that Smith “appeared to convulse and shake vigorously for about four minutes after the nitrogen gas apparently began flowing through his full-face mask,” and that “it was another two to three minutes before he appeared to lose consciousness, all while gasping for air to the extent that the gurney shook several times.”
By appearances, lethal injections almost look like medical procedures, Hood said, while the nitrogen gas method “looks like a very vicious, horrible murder.”
Among Smith’s last words before he suffocated: “Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backward.”
In a statement following Smith’s execution, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall noted that it “marked the first time in the nation – and the world – that nitrogen hypoxia was used as the method of execution.”
The state “has achieved something historic,” he added. Alabama is set to execute another inmate, Alan Eugene Miller, with nitrogen gas in September. Miller, who was convicted of killing three people during two workplace shootings in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1999, is arguing against the method in a lawsuit, saying it’s cruel and unusual punishment.
At the most recent execution Hood attended, that of David Hosier on June 11, he said he read from the Bible as he held the inmate’s shoulder.
As we was reading, Hood says Hosier repeated the phrase, “Give ’em hell,” an apparent reference to Hood’s hope to see the death penalty abolished.
Hosier was convicted in the 2009 shooting death of his former lover, Angela Gilpin, a married mother of two sons. Gilpin was seeing Hosier while she was separated from her husband but had decided to make her marriage work and broke it off with Hosier, who always maintained his innocence.
Hood said that Hosier was 100% convinced of his innocence and that he wasn’t just “putting on a show.” Hood gave Hosier absolution for his sins and did not confess to the crime in his final moments.
While Hood says he was being tortured by his own emotions during the process, his focus was on ensuring Hosier felt love and felt like a human being.
“I think that in the last few weeks, David got a lot of his dignity back,” Hood said.
“I’m the luckiest man on Earth,” Hosier said in a final statement sent to reporters shortly before he was put to death. “I’ve been able to speak the the truth of my innocence … I leave you all with love.”
Contributing: Marty Roney of the Montgomery Advertiser
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