Orley seventh in SEC pentathlon

FAYETTEVILLE – Freshman Leah Orley was the first to score points for No. 6 Arkansas Razorback women’s track and field on day one of the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center on Friday.

In her first SEC Championship competition, Orley finished seventh in the five-event pentathlon. She scored a personal-best point total of 3,699. She bettered her NCAA provisional score and replaced her previous best of 3,666 from the 2010 Razorback Invitational.

"A freshman scoring points at the conference championships, I’m pretty pleased," associate head coach Rolando Greene said. "Leah needs to learn to be consistent. The best multi-event athletes set PRs or come close to it in every event. There are other things she needs to do for us this weekend and this is a good start. We have points on the board and that’s the important thing."

After day one of competition, South Carolina leads the team race with 10 points, Alabama is second with eight points and Kentucky is third with six points.

Orley opened the day with an 11th-place finish, 914 points and a personal-best time of 8.98 in the 60-meter hurdles. She finished sixth in the high jump with a personal-best clearance of 5-4.25 and 771 points. She was eighth in the shot put with a toss for 33-4.75, good for 541 points. In the long jump, her personal-best jump of 17-3.25 earned a 12th-place finish and 631 points. She ended the day with a race win in the 800 meters. Her time of 2:18.65 earned 842 points.

"I’m happy to score points for my team but I’m disappointed with the finish," Orley said. "I wanted to be in the top five. I had a few bad events today but I always have the 800 to look forward to. I try to concentrate on one event at a time but when I fall behind, I know I can rely on my 800. I can always end on a good note."

The ESPNU championship highlight show will air Thurs., March 11 at 8 p.m. CST on ESPNU. SEC Weekly TV will also be devoting a show to the championship. SEC Weekly TV airs Tuesdays at 5 p.m. CST on ESPNU and repeats a few times during the week. Some of the clips from SEC Weekly TV are also posted on SECSports.com.

Live results and a live video stream can be found throughout the championships at ArkansasRazorbacks.com.

Download: Day1Results.pdf