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Razorbacks Bring Home Ninth Women's Title with Flourish at End of Meet

Dominance in quarter-mile probably got attention of even those that normally wouldn't even notice track meet

Andy Hodges

Rosey Effiong, Nickisha Pryce, Kaylyn Brown and Amber Anning at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., on Saturday.
Rosey Effiong, Nickisha Pryce, Kaylyn Brown and Amber Anning at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., on Saturday. / Arkansas Communications

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It was the late, great Blackie Sherrod with The Dallas Times Herald that wrote one time, "the only sport more boring than track is field." For an overwhelming number of Arkansas Razorback fans that holds true, even with a logjam of national title trophies.

At one point years ago, Max Howell came into town doing the Conference Call radio show and interviewed track coach John McDonnell. Trophies were all over the place. Max, an old coach, started looking at them and it was national championship trophies. That was somewhat shocking to an old coach and administrator.

"We ran out of places to put them and I guess we'll have to find a closet," McDonnell said. They solved that problem years later with a wall that's still got a little room left. It's probably hard to keep the signage up inside the Tyson Track Center listing all of the national and SEC championships. But they try.

Now they have another one to add. After the men surprisingly stumbled last week and came in seventh, the women took care of business with some eye-opening and jaw-dropping performances in the quarter-mile. Now they call it the 400-meter and 4x400 relay or the 1,600-meter relay. Us oldtimers still call it the quarter-mile because it's a loop around the track. The quarter-mile relay was how we finished track meets back in junior high and high school in the 1960's and 70's. I'm not adapting to all that number and alphabet soup.

To be completely honest about it, I completely missed the whole NCAA track meet. Even with football getting ready for media days that's rapidly approaching and basketball expectations, we had to deal with a collapse in baseball and everybody complaining.

Several fans that never pay attention to track have seen the replays of that quarter-mile relay that finished a blowout of Florida for a ninth national title that came after the Hogs went 1-2-3-4 in the individual quarter. I re-watched the replay several times, a couple muttering things like "unbelievable" and wondering if the whole thing was some sort of edit. Nope, it was real.

That video clip on ESPN is just from the finish. It brought back memories of Secretariat at Belmont back in 1973. Even being in high school I was stunned at that and the only thing I knew about horse racing was what the guys int he pool hall at Wayne's in downtown Warren talked about in the spring when it was going on and they were getting a runner.

"I’m fortunate right now," first-year coach Chris Johnson said on ESPN after winning. Amber Anning, Rosey Effiong, Nickisha Pryce and Kaylyn Brown ran a collegiate-record time of 3:17.96 winning the thing, but it was the way they finished it.

Maybe the most telling part was as Brown came down the stretch at the end, the announcer said the Hogs could still win by finishing third, "which won't happen unless they drop the baton three times." Yes, it was such a staggering performance even that would not have cost them the title.

The individual was as dominating, but putting Brown, a freshman, in the anchor leg was interesting to us non-savvy folks. Brown became the fastest 19-year-old ever in the world as she finished in second place with a time of 49.13, which equals the previous collegiate record set by Razorback Britton Wilson last year. She bettered the previous world best by a 19-year-old of 49.42 set by Germany’s Grit Breuer in 1991 as a silver medalist in the Tokyo World Championships.

That wasn't even the fastest individual in the 400 for the Hogs. Pryce won with a collegiate record  and world-leading time of 48.89, 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 SEC title.

It takes a team effort, though, to win a national championship in track. This one was no different. "Everybody on the team is important," Johnson said later.

It does give fans something watch for the Paris Olympics coming up this summer in women's track, a sport that often gets ignored. Not this year, though. When you hear about women's 400 in the overwhelming coverage around the Olympics, you might want to pay attention. Some will be running for their home country of Jamaica, but they'll still be Razorbacks.

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Andy Hodges
ANDY HODGES

Sports columnist, writer, former radio host and television host who has been expressing an opinion on sports in the media for over four decades. He has been at numerous media stops in Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi.

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