Arkansas
Arkansas’ Wilson could not be caught
FAYETTEVILLE — Within the first 41 years of the ladies’s SEC Outside Monitor and Area Championships from 1981-2021, no athlete received the 400 meters and 400-meter hurdles on the similar meet.
College of Arkansas sophomore Britton Wilson modified that in an enormous method on Saturday in Oxford, Miss.
Wilson turned the primary feminine to win each occasions on the similar SEC meet and did so in record-setting vogue.
First Wilson received the 400 in 50.05 seconds, which set Arkansas’ college report. She broke the mark of fifty.25 run by Taylor Ellis-Watson in 2016.
An hour after the 400, Wilson received the 400 hurdles in 53.75 to interrupt her personal report of 54.23 she set in Thursday night time’s preliminaries.
Wilson then anchored the Razorbacks’ 1,600-meter relay group — which additionally included Morgan Burks-Magee, Rosey Effiong and Jada Baylark — to a school-record 3:22.55, which was good for third behind Kentucky (3:21.93) and Texas A&M (3:22.01).
The Wildcats and Aggies each bettered the earlier collegiate report of three:22.34 by Texas A&M in 2021.
Wilson’s relay cut up was timed at 48.6 — sooner than different anchor occasions by Kentucky’s Abby Steiner (48.8) and Texas A&M’s Charokee Younger (48.9).
Each Wilson’s 400 and 400 hurdles occasions rank No. 6 on the all-time collegiate record. Her 400 hurdles time leads the world this season.
No male athlete has received the SEC 400 and 400 hurdles since 1977 when the convention modified from yards to meters. The one male who received the 400-yard sprint and 400-yard hurdles earlier than the metric change was Auburn’s David Atkins in 1966 — the yr the 400-hurdles race was added.
“Britton Wilson, my gosh, that’s unbelievable what she simply did,” Arkansas Coach Lance Harter stated. “Until you witness it, you assume, ‘That’s unattainable. That may’t occur.’
“However she and Chris Johnson simply have this good formulation and so they did an exceptional job.”
Johnson is the Razorbacks’ sprints coach and is about to succeed Harter, who will retire after the 2023 out of doors season.
Wilson has flourished working with Johnson since transferring to Arkansas this yr from Tennessee.
“What Chris and Britton can do collectively is magic,” Harter stated. “I imply, absolute magic.”
Wilson’s efficiency helped No. 5-ranked Arkansas rating 103 factors and take second within the group race behind No. 3 Florida, which received with 107.
For the reason that begin of the 2013-14 college yr, Florida is the one ladies’s group to win an SEC cross nation or indoor and out of doors monitor and subject title apart from Arkansas.
The Razorbacks have received 23 of a potential 26 convention championships in that span with Florida profitable three (2014 indoors and 2018 and this yr outside).
“To have the string of championships that we’ve been capable of put collectively because the fall of 2013, we’ll take that,” Harter stated. “Each one among these SEC meets is a battle, so to do what our children have over an extended time period is exceptional.”
Arkansas junior Amanda Fassold received the pole vault by clearing a personal-best 14 ft, 9 inches. Senior Lauren Gregory took second within the 1,500 and third within the 5,000; sophomore Isabel Van Camp was third within the 10,000 and fourth within the 5,000; and senior Logan Jolly was third within the 3,000-meter steeplechase and seventh within the 5,000.
“Our youngsters simply fought their tails off,” Harter stated. “We recognized in our [Saturday] morning assembly that it could possibly be a two- to five-point meet, and we could possibly be on the sunny facet of it or the darkish facet of it.
“Florida was capable of rating some factors in occasions the place we didn’t count on, and that was the distinction.”
Wilson helped Arkansas rating 26 factors with 10 every within the 400 and 400 hurdles and 6 on the relay.
“I’ve been working for this,” Wilson stated in an interview with the SEC Community. “I’m simply actually glad I acquired the chance to indicate everybody what I may do.”
Harter, in his thirty third yr at Arkansas and forty fourth as a school head coach, stated what Wilson did on the SEC meet was pretty much as good a efficiency as he’s seen from a collegiate athlete.
“It’s acquired to be No. 1,” Harter stated. “What she did was completely phenomenal. I’d enterprise to say it compares to anyone within the historical past of collegiate monitor and subject.
“I’m glad I used to be capable of witness it, and I’m glad that she wears the Razorback uniform.”