No. 3 Razorbacks challenge for NCAA Indoor team title

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico – No. 3 Arkansas enters the 41st edition of the NCAA Indoor Championships with 11 entries among six events as they challenge for a fourth national championship indoors.

The meet will be held this Friday and Saturday, March 10-11, at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Coverage of the national championship event will be available on ESPN+ (pay subscription) with replays set to air Sunday night and Monday morning on ESPNU.

Live results will be available here: https://flashresults.ncaa.com/Indoor/2023/index.htm.

A year ago, Florida claimed the team title over Texas and this season the Longhorns are ranked No. 1 with the Gators No. 2. Texas totals 15 entries in nine events while Florida has nine entries in eight events.

Teams ranked among the top eight nationally include Oregon, NC State, Alabama, Washington, and Georgia.

“A lot of the predictions say it could be a close meet, maybe separated by five points,” said Arkansas women’s head coach Lance Harter. “Texas, I guess, is considered to be in the driver’s seat because of their short sprint power and a good jumper. It’s a good team with a little bit of balance across the board. Where they are strong in the 200m, we balance that in the 400m.

“With Florida, we saw them up close in the SEC meet. They have some points that are incredible, especially with Talitha Diggs in the 400m as she set a collegiate and American record at the SEC meet. Some of our strengths are going head-to-head against Florida.”

Arkansas entries into the national championship meet include six sprinters in the 400m among the 16 that qualify in each individual event. The Razorbacks also have individual entries in the mile, 60m hurdles, pole vault, and both relays.

“We’ll have multiple opportunities to score with both relays, Lauren in the mile, Amanda in pole vault and Ackera in the hurdles in addition to line-up we have in the 400m, which is heavily weighted with Arkansas athletes,” noted Harter.

“When you’re in the conversation to be on the podium usually the color of the trophies kind of works itself out through the course of the meet.”

Razorback senior Lauren Gregory has scored a total of 23 points in three previous NCAA Indoor meets, collecting silver (2021) and bronze (2022) in the 3,000m as well as silver (2021) on the distance medley relay.

This season Gregory will race in the mile where she improved her career best to 4:31.88 during the season, just missing the UA school record of 4:31.83, and then set a meet record of 4:31.96 during the SEC Championships, where she was high point scorer for the second consecutive year as she accomplished a mile and 3,000m double victory.

In the distance medley relay, Gregory anchored the Razorbacks school record effort of 10:49.14, which ranks as the No. 3 school with the No. 4 performance on the all-time collegiate list. Her split was 4:30.23 on that effort. On the same weekend she set a PR in the mile, she split 4:29.89 over the 1,600m leg when Arkansas posted a time of 10:56.73.

“Any time you have senior leadership it helps a lot,” Harter said of Gregory. “Been there and done that. It helps give a calming effect to the others who may be experiencing the national championship meet for the first time.”

Gregory also finished fourth in the 5,000m a year ago while Arkansas won the distance medley relay with a crew that included a pair of seniors who graduated.

“When we get back to the idea of senior leadership, unfortunately most of our relay personnel from last year has moved on,” said Harter. “So, we’re actually taking two people who are true freshmen (Mary Ellen Eudaly and Ainsley Erzen) and an upperclassman (Lainey Quandt), who has never been to a national meet in any form or fashion, to help make up the DMR.

“The idea of trying to defend that title might be asking a bit much. The 4 x 400, though, is a different animal. That is a very, very special group. The inner competiveness of those six girls to vie for four spots on the relay makes them that much better.”

Arkansas broke the collegiate record in 2022 with a 3:24.09 at the SEC Indoor, then won the NCAA Indoor title with a 3:27.23 clocking.

This season, replacing a pair of relay legs, the Razorbacks produced a world-leading time of 3:26.40 in January. While still the collegiate leader heading into NCAA Indoor, the Netherlands set a world leading mark of 3:25.66 to win the European Indoor title last weekend.

Amber Anning, who broke the UA school record in the 400m with a 50.68 performance as the SEC silver medalist, leads the crew of six who qualified for the 400m field.

Joining Anning are Rosey Effiong (51.02), Britton Wilson (51.14), Joanne Reid (51.76), Nickisha Pryce (51.83), and Paris Peoples (52.06). The Razorbacks are seeded 3-4-6-11-12-15 in the 400m.

Wilson, who set a UA school record of 50.88 last year, finished sixth in the 400m at the 2022 NCAA Indoor. With LSU the past two seasons, Anning placed fifth in 2021 and was ninth last year. Effiong finished seventh in 2021 while Pryce claimed the past two NJCAA Indoor 400m titles.

Peoples, who placed 13th in 2021, ran the 400m leg of the winning distance medley relay a year ago when Arkansas became the first school to win the 4 x 400 and DMR at the same NCAA Indoor meet.

A previous national champion in the 60m hurdles while at Baylor in 2021, Ackera Nugent ranks second in the nation this season with a career best of 7.81 that broke the UA school record. Also in the field is Kentucky’s Masai Russell, who set a collegiate record of 7.75 this season and set a meet record of 7.77 during the SEC Indoor.

Undefeated in the pole vault this season, Amanda Fassold has won four meets this indoor season including the conference title. The NCAA Outdoor silver medalist in 2022 with a career best of 14-11 (4.55), Fassold is competing in her first NCAA Indoor meet.

Competing in Albuquerque in early February, Fassold set an indoor career best of 14-10.75 (4.54) that served as the collegiate leading mark until the conference weekend when it was eclipsed by a quarter of inch by South Dakota’s Marleen Mulla.

NCAA Indoor Championships | Arkansas schedule (MT listed)

Friday, March 10

Saturday, March 11