Arkansas Wins Ninth-Straight 4x1500M at Texas Relays

AUSTIN, Texas – Arkansas’ day started at 9:30 a.m. Friday morning at the Texas Relays and its final event of the day, 12 hours later, led to the Razorbacks’ first relay win of the weekend.

Micky Cobrin, Tyler Hill, Peter Kosgei and Adam Perkins combined for a clocking of 15:40.41 to win Arkansas’ 53rd Texas Relays title and ninth-straight 4×1,500-meter title (1999-2007).

“It’s nice to get that win,” head coach John McDonnell said. “We had two young guys on that relay, Micky (Cobrin) and Tyler (Hill), and they had the best splits. They ran the first two legs and it was encouraging to see them run the way they did. They were hungry to win and it gives the team a good boost.”

Cobrin, in his first outdoor appearance with the Razorbacks after transferring to UA last fall from UCLA, led off with a 3:53 split. A tightly packed group for much of the first leg, Cobrin split away with slightly less then two laps to go. Once he took the lead, Arkansas never relinquished.

Cobrin handed to Hill, the SEC Indoor 5,000-meter runner up, who made his 4×1,500-meter relay debut this evening. Despite his proficiency at longer distance events, Hill’s split of 3:54 stretched Arkansas’s lead to almost a full 100 meters.

3,000-meter steeplechase specialist Kosgei, a 10-time All-American, stepped in to take the third leg. He clocked a split of 3:54.

Five-time All-American Adam Perkins, who battled injuries through out the indoor season, took the anchor leg and held the Razorback’s lead at a solid 100 meters. He clocked a 3:55 split.

“This is our first time stepping on the track for a race this season,” Perkins said. “We have been doing a lot of strength work and this meet is a great chance for us to see where we stand. I’m very happy for these guys. It’s Micky’s first big meet with us and Peter and Tyler are not 1,500 meter specialists. It was good to see them run strong splits.”

Daniel Quinn and Alain Bailey became the first Razorbacks to qualify for the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships with their performances in the long jump.

Quinn jumped first in the “B” flight of the long jump. He finished second of the 15 competitors with his mark of 24-4.5. The mark is also a personal best, replacing his previous best of 24-1.75 set at the 2006 SEC Championships.

Bailey, the 2007 NCAA Indoor bronze medallist, jumped with the “A” group and finished sixth out of the 12 competitors, fifth among collegians. His mark of 24-5 came on his third attempt and advanced him to three more jumps in the finals.

Early Friday morning, Cedric Zellner, Clemore Henry, Mychael Stewart and J-Mee Samuels combined for a clocking of 41.01 in the 4×100-meter relay. While the time was just short of the 40.66 NCAA Regional mark, it was good enough to advance the group, running for the first time together, to the finals on Saturday afternoon.

“They are four guys who had never run together before this morning,” assistant coach Kyle White said. “We need to clean up our last hand off and hopefully we can be in the top three in the finals. We want to get the regional time.”

In the distance medley relay, Arkansas got a strong start from Samuels who handed off to Stewart to combine for the first 400 meters. Henry took the baton for the 400-meter leg and handed off to Brian Roe in seventh place after he faded badly with 100 meters to go. Roe, who has been battling foot injuries, fought back to as high as sixth place but he faded with 400 meters to go and eventually stepped off the track with 300 meters to go.

Competition will resume for the Razorbacks at 11:00 a.m. with the high jump. For complete details and results of the 80th Texas Relays, visit www.texassports.com.