Razorback 4 x 400 relay garners national accolade

NEW ORLEANS – Producing the second fastest time ever in the 4 x 400m relay to win the event at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic this past weekend earned Arkansas the National Athlete of the Week honor, announced by USTFCCCA on Tuesday.

With the Razorbacks world-leading time of 3:01.09, Arkansas only trails a 3:00.77 effort by USC from 2018 NCAA Indoor on the all-time collegiate and world lists and bettered the Arkansas school record of 3:03.18 set in 2022.

The previous best 4 x 400 at altitude on a 200m banked track was a 3:04.10 by LSU at 2014 NCAA Indoor in Albuquerque. Arkansas even bettered the best altitude time on an oversized track of 3:02.95 by SMU in Flagstaff in 1985.

The previous best relay time in February was a 3:01.51 by Houston in 2019 at Clemson.

Arkansas’ relay crew included Connor Washington (46.61), James Benson II (44.82), Ayden Owens-Delerme (45.34), and Chris Bailey (44.32).

The Razorbacks become just the fifth relay to have a pair of sub-45 seconds splits in the same race indoors, and the Arkansas combo of Benson and Bailey is the second fastest at 89.14, behind an 88.87 by USC in 2018 with Rai Benjamin (44.35) and Michael Norman (44.52).

The other relays with a pair of sub-45 second splits include Texas A&M (89.34), Houston (89.38), and Florida (89.65).

Bailey produced the fourth fastest indoor relay split ever with a 44.32 anchor leg. Bailey has also generated the most sub-45 second relay splits indoors with five, while four others have three each – Elijah Godwin (Georgia), Deon Lendore (Texas A&M), Grant Holloway (Florida), and Mar’yea Harris (Iowa).

Currently, Bailey is the world leader in the 400 (45.09) and 600 (1:15.18) this indoor season in addition to the 4×400 relay.