Women’s track team sweeps 2024 NCAA Championships

EUGENE, Ore. — The top-ranked Arkansas women’s track team completed its mission in spectacular style on the final day of the NCAA Championships, which took place June 5-8 at Hayward Field, winning the team title with 63 points over 59 for Florida.

Arkansas women’s coach Chris Johnson secured a sweep of NCAA Championships during the 2024 indoor and outdoor seasons in his first year as head coach of the program. Arkansas bettered Florida by five points (55 points to 50) for the NCAA indoor title in March.

It marks the ninth NCAA Championship for the women’s team and the 51st overall national title for the Arkansas track and field programs.

Entering the final day with two points from a seventh-place finish for Sydney Thorvaldson on June 6, the Razorbacks accumulated 61 points on the final day. The point production included Arkansas scoring in seven events from the 12 entries the Razorbacks had on the final day.

Texas finished third in team scoring with 41 points, followed by host Oregon (40.5), Mississippi (38) and Louisiana State University (31).

The Razorbacks created plenty of history along the way with 29 points in the 400-meter dash off a first-ever 1-23-4 sweep in any NCAA event, scoring the most points by either a men’s or women’s team.

Arkansas surpassed the 24 points Texas women scored in the 400-meter dash in 1996 with a 1-2-3 finish. The Texas-El Paso Miners men’s track team totaled 28 points in the 10,000-meter run during the 1981 NCAA meet while Florida State women scored 27 points in the 200-meter dash off a 1-2-3-6 finish in 1984.

Nickisha Pryce won the 400-meter dash in a collegiate record and worldleading time of 48.89 seconds, which also breaks the Jamaican national record of 49.30 set in 2000 by Lorraine Fenton. Pryce, who finished third in the 2023 NCAA final, entered the meet as the collegiate leader with a 49.32 from winning the Southeastern Conference title.

Kaylyn Brown became the fastest 19-year-old ever in the world as she finished in second place with a time of 49.13 seconds, which equals the previous collegiate record set by Razorback Britton Wilson last year.

Brown bettered the previous world best by a 19-year-old of 49.42 seconds set by Germany’s Grit Breuer in 1991 as a silver medalist in the Tokyo World Championships.

In the history of the NCAA Outdoor Championships, six freshmen have claimed a 400-meter dash title, but none have ever produced a time better than the 49.13 Brown established as runner-up. The previous best freshman time in the NCAA final was 49.57 by Texas A&M’s Athing Mu in 2021 when she broke the collegiate and American U20 record.

This was the sixth sub-50 second performance by Brown this outdoor season. The one outlier was a time of 51.17 seconds in the first round of the NCAA West. Her average time among the six 49-second races is 49.7.

Amber Anning clocked 49.59 seconds for third, just off her career best of 49.51, and Rosey Effiong joined her teammates with a sub-50 second time in fourth place with a 49.72 that ranks No. 8 performer on the collegian alltime list.

The four sub-50 second times to sweep the 400-meter dash final add up to a 3:17.33 in a 1,600-meter relay.

For an encore, the Razorback foursome delivered a world-class finish in the 1,600-meter relay, where Arkansas needed to finish first or second for the team title while third place would leave them tied with Florida for the overall team championship.

The Gators didn’t have a team in the 1,600-meter relay after moving into the team lead with 59 points over Arkansas’ 53 after Parker Valby won the 5,000-meter run, the second to last event in the meet.

A winning time of 3:17.96 in the relay was mind-blowing and left the crowd in awe as it clinched the team title. It bettered the collegiate record of 3:21.92 that Arkansas set in the recent NCAA West meet. Runner-up to the Razorbacks were Tennessee at 3:23.32 with Texas third in 3:23.68.

The splits for the Hog foursome included Anning (50.52 seconds), Effiong (49.21), Pryce (49.19), and Brown (49.04) as they controlled the race from the start and steadily increased its lead to 5.36-second margin.

Starting the final day with the 400-meter relay, the Razorbacks finished fourth in 42.71 seconds behind a trio of SEC schools. Ole Miss won the race in 42.34 and were followed by LSU (42.57) and South Carolina (42.63).

Finishing behind Arkansas were Texas Tech (42.87 seconds), Baylor (42.98) and Texas (43.06).

Rachel Glenn collected bronze in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 54.11 seconds, contesting the event after competing in the high jump. Southern California’s Jasmine Jones broke the meet record with a 53.15 victory while defending champion Savannah Sutherland of Michigan placed second in a career best of 53.25.

Glenn, the NCAA Indoor high jump champion while equaling the collegiate record, tied for 13th in the high jump with a clearance of 5-11.5.

Laura Taborda challenged the Razorback school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with another career best. She placed fifth in 9:35.47, moving to No. 2 on the UA all-time list behind a 9:34.76 by Logan Jolly from 2022.

Entering the NCAA Championships with a then career best of 9:50.86, Taborda improved to 9:48.48 in the semifinal and then sliced 13 seconds off in the final.

Destiny Huven moved to No. 5 on the UA all-time list in the 100-meter hurdles as she produced a time of 12.81 from lane nine in finishing fifth for four additional team points.

Finishing sixth in the 800-meter run after being tripped at the 600-meter mark, Sanu Jallow clocked 2:01.07. She led the field through 400-meter dash at 58.02 seconds, with LSU’s Michaela Rose (58.22) and Stanford’s Juliette Whittaker (58.34) each a stride back.

Whittaker claimed the race in 1:59.61 with her teammate Roisin Willis runnerup in 2:00.17. Rose finished fourth in 2:01.03.

On the men’s side, Romaine Beckford completed a sweep of NCAA high jump titles during an undefeated season in 2024 with a winning height of 7-5 on June 7. The 7-5 clearance was a season best for Beckford and moves him to the No. 6 position on the UA all-time outdoor list. Opening at 6-11.5 (2.12), Beckford cleared three bars on first attempts. Then he required second attempts at 7-3.75 and 7-5. Beckford, who also swept the NCAA titles a year ago while with South Florida, finished ahead of two jumpers who cleared 7-3.75 in the competition.

The Arkansas men’s 1,600-meter relay team finished in second place with a school record time of 2:58.83 to close out the meet. Texas A&M won the race in a world-leading time of 2:58.37 while Florida finished third in 2:58.98.

It marks the first time in NCAA outdoor history three relay teams produced sub 2:59 times in the same race. This is the four time for Arkansas to place second in the NCAA outdoor 1,600-meter relay. Previous years include 2000, 2013 and 2017.

The seventh-place finish for the Razorbacks, who scored 30 points, combines with a fourth-place finish in NCAA cross country last fall as well as an NCAA indoor runner-up.

That earns Arkansas the USTFCCCA John McDonnell Program of the Year for 2023-24. The Razorbacks were tied with Northern Arizona (second cross country, fourth indoor) heading into the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The Lumberjacks finished in a tie for 23rd in the 2024 NCAA Championships.

Arkansas had the world-leading 1,600-meter relay time heading into the NCAA Championships with its school record of 2:59.03 from the SEC Championships.

The Razorback foursome supplied some amazing splits with T.J. Tomlyanovich leading off with a time of 45.94 seconds followed by a 44.91 from Lance Lang. At that stage Florida (1:30.18) led over Texas A&M (1:30.8) with Arkansas (1:30.18) in third. A third leg carry of 44.81 by Steven McElroy kept the Razorbacks in third behind Florida (2:15.08) and the Aggies (2:15.17).

With a crew of four Americans comprising the Arkansas relay, they become the third fastest United States collegian relay behind Florida’s 2:58.53 from 2022 and a 2:58.82 by Georgia in 2023.

Lang competed in two sprint finals earlier, placing eighth in the 200-meter dash (20.67 seconds) and ninth in the 100-meter dash (10.15), where first and ninth place were separated by 0.2 of a second.