Bailey Hill Phillips Lead Hogs at New Balance Invite Day Two

NEW YORK – Tyler Hill and Duncan Phillips set personal bests while Alain Bailey finished fourth in the high jump on day two of competition at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational. Arkansas ended the meet with the three NCAA provisional marks collected on Friday.

“It wasn’t good today,” head coach John McDonnell said. “It was just one of those weekends. We had some decent performances in the distance medley relay and the kids in the 800 meters with the way the races developed. But not in the sprints and the field events. It just wasn’t a good meet for us.”

“They have to make up their minds whether they want to run or take off their shirts and forget about it,” McDonnell said. “Nothing has to be changed. They are in good shape. Some of them don’t believe in themselves enough. I don’t know if it’s coming to New York but a lot of them have been here before. They have to go out there and hurt a little bit. It hurts to be great.”

Phillips set a collegiate personal best in the championship 800 meters. Clocking a time of 1:50.65, just shy of the NCAA provisional mark, he put up a strong fight for his fifth-place finish. Andy McClary finished 16th with a time of 1:52.48 and Chris Bilbrew clocked a 1:53.13 to finish 19th.

Tyler Hill recorded his second PR in the mile this season. He finished 11th in a packed field, third in his heat, with a time of 4:07.61. Chris Barnicle was right behind him with a 15th-place finish, sixth in his heat, and a time of 4:09.26.

Bailey cleared 6-10.25 to finish fourth in the championship high jump. Spencer McCorkel was 14th in the pole vault after clearing 15-7.

J-Mee Samuels, after winning the consolation 60-meter finals Friday night, came back to run a solid 21.54 200 meters. He finished 10th overall and opted not to run the final.

Competing in the championship 3,000 meters, James Strang finished 13th with a time of 8:12.56 while Shawn Forrest was 21st with a time of 8:23.07. Scott MacPherson clocked a 4:16.47 in the mile run to finish 13th.

For complete details of the New Balance Collegiate Invite, visit
http://ny.milesplit.us/pages/NB-Collegiate
. Next up for the Hogs will be the Tyson Invitational, Feb. 15-16, at Fayetteville’s Randal Tyson Track Center. Log on to www.hogwired.com for more news about Razorback track and field.