The College of Arkansas celebrated a stellar yr in observe and area with vital South Central Area honors for the 2024 outside season.
Senior sprinter Nickisha Pryce was named Monitor Athlete of the 12 months, whereas first-year head coach Chris Johnson was acknowledged as Coach of the 12 months, capping off a unprecedented season for the NCAA Division 1 Ladies’s Champions.
Pryce, a standout athlete from St. Mary, Jamaica, entered the outside season with a private finest of fifty.21 within the 400m. She made outstanding enhancements, culminating in a collegiate and Jamaican report of 48.89 seconds, which she set whereas profitable the NCAA 400m title. Pryce’s victory spearheaded an unprecedented Arkansas sweep of the highest 4 spots within the occasion, incomes the Razorbacks a vital 29 factors in the direction of their workforce complete.
All through the season, Pryce demonstrated constant progress, attaining career-best marks of fifty.13, 49.72, 49.32, and at last 48.89. Her extraordinary performances had been pivotal as Arkansas amassed 61 of its 63 championship factors on the ultimate day of the NCAA Championships. This outstanding achievement allowed Coach Johnson and his workforce to finish a sweep of the NCAA Indoor and Outside workforce championships in his debut season as head coach.
Pryce additionally secured the SEC 400m title
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Along with her NCAA title, Pryce additionally secured the SEC 400m title with a time of 49.32, which on the time ranked third on the collegiate all-time checklist. Her dominance within the 400m was instrumental in Arkansas’s 1-2-3-5 end on the SEC Championships, contributing 28 factors to the workforce’s complete.
Pryce’s achievements have cemented her place in historical past as the primary collegian and first Jamaican to run below 49 seconds within the 400m. She surpassed the 22-year-old Jamaican report of 49.30 set by Lorraine Fenton in 2002. Her time of 48.89 additionally eclipsed the earlier collegiate report of 49.13 set by fellow Razorback Britton Wilson in 2023. On the 2024 world checklist, Pryce ranks second behind Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who recorded a time of 48.75. Pryce’s time additionally ties her for thirteenth on the all-time world checklist alongside Mexico’s Ana Guevara from 2003.
The end result of Arkansas’s season was highlighted by an emphatic victory within the 4 x 400m relay on the NCAA Championships, the place the Razorbacks set a collegiate report and world-leading time of three:17.96. Pryce’s spectacular third-leg break up of 49.19 was essential in securing the title. This efficiency broke the earlier collegiate report of three:21.92 set by Arkansas on the NCAA West meet, narrowly surpassing Kentucky’s 3:21.93 from the 2022 SEC meet.
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Coach Chris Johnson’s management was instrumental in guiding the Razorbacks to those historic achievements. Underneath his steerage, Arkansas scored in eight totally different occasions to seize the NCAA outside workforce title, edging out Florida by 4 factors. This victory adopted their triumph on the NCAA Indoor meet, the place they received by 5 factors.
