Posted: March 6, 2005

Athletics: Arkansas Picks up New Qualifiers at Last Chance Meet; Cragg Captures European Championship

AMES, Iowa – Top-ranked Arkansas strengthened its’ national championship team at Iowa State’s Last Chance Meet as three Razorbacks gained new NCAA automatic or provisional times. With the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships only one week away it was crucial for the Hogs to post solid performances and guarantee themselves a spot in next week’s meet.

“It was very important for us to have a good meet,” Arkansas head coach John McDonnell said. “We got three people that we really wanted to get into nationals. Starting with Said Ahmed in the mile to Omar Brown in the 200; they both ran good times. Adam Perkins has also been running very well.”

The day started off with the mile run and junior Said Ahmed claimed first place with a career-best time of 3:57.04. Ahmed had entered the meet with a provisional standard of 4:01.05 and needed to better his time in order to secure at spot at the national championships. In addition to easily surpassing the auto cutoff of 3:59.30, he also set new meet (3:59.43) and stadium (3:58.57) records. The Boston, Mass., native’s performance also placed him at sixth on UA’s all-time indoor top 10 list. Ahmed is the first Razorback since Dirk Heinze (3:57.95) in 2002 to crack the top 10.

Senior Omar Brown posted an automatic and personal-best time of 20.79 for top honors in the 200-meter dash. Brown previous season-best time of 21.01 was on the bubble for getting him into nationals and now he joins sophomore Wallace Spearmon Jr., as the other Hog to be automatically qualified in the event. Brown’s performance also set a new meet record, breaking Arizona State’s Domenik Peterson’s time of 20.84 from 2004.

Another meet record fell as sophomore Adam Perkins wrapped up the day with an outstanding performance in the 3,000 meters. Perkins put up a fast provisional and career-best time of 7:56.22 for first place. Even though his time did not meet the automatic standard of 7:56.00, his performance will still be good enough to get into the national championships. Northern Iowa’s Balazas Csillag established the previous meet record in 2002 with a time of 7:59.09.

The weekend was topped off when former Razorback distance star, Alistair Cragg, claimed the 3,000-meter European Indoor Championship in Madrid, Spain. While representing Ireland, Cragg dominated the race and crossed the line with a time of 7:46.32, beating Britain’s John Mayock (7:51.46) and crowd favorite Reyes Estevez of Spain (7:51.65). The meet title was Cragg’s first major championship as a professional runner.