Posted: February 27, 2005

Athletics: Arkansas Sits in First Place at SEC Championships

Kosgei Claims 3K Crown & Spearmon Sets SEC Meet Record in 200

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – After the second day of competition at the Southeastern Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships the top-ranked Razorbacks sit in first place with 43 points and find themselves in excellent position to win the team title on Sunday. Eight athletes helped rack up the point total when they scored in their respective events, while 10 additional athletes will look to contribute even more on Sunday after they advanced out of today’s prelims.

“It’s been a good day for us and I think we’re in control of our own destiny,” Arkansas head coach John McDonnell said. “Now it’s up to us to go out and execute tomorrow. We haven’t faltered at all and we have people qualified where they need to be. We competed really smart today and no one made mistakes.”

The 3,000 meters capped off the evening and Arkansas dominated as sophomore Peter Kosgei led a parade of Razorbacks that crossed the line in 1-2-3-8, adding 11 points to UA’s team total. Kosgei came away with a new personal-best and NCAA automatic qualifying time of 7:56.00. The Kapsabet, Kenya native became the 10th UA athlete in 13 years to capture the SEC 3K crown and came very close to passing the meet record of 7:55.06 held by former Razorback standout Michael Power.

Junior Josphat Boit earned runner-up honors with an improved provisional time of 7:58.26. After running in preliminary heats of the mile, sophomore Adam Perkins went to the line again in the 3,000 meters and came in third place with a time of 8:03.47.

Senior Jason Sandfort picked up his 15th-career All-SEC honor as he finished in eighth place (8:14.40). Freshman Shawn Forrest was close behind in ninth (8:14.40) and junior Jose Campos was 13th (8:47.55).

The 200 meters provided the next exciting highlight for Hog fans when sophomore Wallace Spearmon Jr. broke teammate Tyson Gay’s league meet record (20.40). Spearmon blazed to a record time of 20.35 and reset his own world-leading time. His performance was also good enough to win his preliminary heat and advance to the finals.

“I wanted to catch Jonathan Wade from Tennessee, because I knew he had the fastest 60-meter time from the prelims,” Spearmon said. “He helped bring me through and I eased up a little bit at the end to save myself for tomorrow.”

In the prelims of the 60-meter dash Spearmon finished first in his heat with a time of 6.74 and advanced to the finals with the third-fastest time overall.

Freshman two-sport athlete Michael Grant posted season-best times of 6.83 and 21.49 in the 60 and 200-meter dashes, respectively, but was unable to move on to the finals.

The Hogs momentum started rolling on Saturday morning when junior two-sport athlete Tony Ugoh recorded three personal bests and a school record on his way to finishing seventh in the 35-pound weight throw. Ugoh had the top mark in his flight (58-1.75) to advance to the finals.

Heading into the finals he was sixth overall, but two other competitors passed him on their last attempts. After fouling on this second throw, Ugoh entered the ring and put up a mark of 60-4.50 on his last attempt in the finals to pick up two points for team. Ugoh is the only athlete in UA history to compete in the event and his performance established the school record.

“I was just glad to score points for the team, that was my main goal,” Ugoh said. “No matter how far I threw I just wanted to score points for the team. I was really nervous on my last throw, because I knew I had been passed by two people and I had to throw really well.”

Senior Jaanus Uudmae gained UA’s next four points when he finished fifth in the long jump. Uudmae turned in a season-best leap of 24-7.00 for his career-best conference showing in the event. He will compete in the triple jump on Sunday.

In 2004 the Razorbacks were unable to tally any points in the high jump, but this year their impact was definitely felt. Sophomore Greg Martin and junior Cory Oldham went out and gained 11 additional points for Arkansas, placing the team in third with 17 points through three events.

While competing in the long and high jumps simultaneously, Martin came through in a big way as he finished third in the high jump with a season-best height of 7-1.00. In the long jump he was just out of scoring range when he was ninth overall with a season-best performance of 23-6.75.

Oldham was right behind in fourth with a career-best clearance of 6-11.50. Freshman Brent Rosson barely missed the chance to score when he finished ninth with a mark of 6-8.00.

Arkansas will have the potential to pick up lots of points in the mile on Sunday after all four of its runners advanced to the finals be virtue of their finishes in the prelims. In the first heat Perkins and junior Seth Summerside, crossed the line 1-2 with times of 4:07.51 and 4:07.19, respectively. Juniors Said Ahmed and Marc Rodrigues went on to do the same in the second heat with times of 4:08.99 and 4:09.05, respectively.

The 800-meter runners were equally impressive as they posted the event’s top four fastest times, allowing all four athletes to advance to the finals on Sunday. Ahmed led the group with a season-best performance of 1:49.81 from the first heat, while senior James Hatch turned in a 1:50.16 in the second heat. Junior Harun Iman earned a season-best 1:50.37 and sophomore Brian Roe had 1:50.48.

The 400-meter runners also did very well as two moved on to the finals. Seniors Terry Gatson and Omar Brown were in the same heat and registered season-best performances with times of 46.29 and 46.74, respectively. They also improved their NCAA provisional standings. Junior David Wittenmyer was in the last heat, but did not advance with a season-best clocking of 49.20.

Junior Jimmy Duke continued the heptathlon with the 60-meter hurdles. He matched his personal-best time of 9.06 for 733 points. In the pole vault portion he cleared 15-9.00 for 849 points, bumping him up from 10th to eighth place. The 1,000 meters wrapped up the event and he crossed the line with a time of 2:52.49 for 740 points. At the end of the day he had tallied 5,001 points for eighth place and one point for the team.

On Sunday UA’s first field event is scheduled to start at noon with the triple jump and the first running event will begin at 12:55 p.m. with Spearmon in the 60 meters. The 4x400-meter relay will conclude this year’s championship meet at 3:45 p.m.