Werner, Brown Give Arkansas A Lift On The Way To Women's Outdoor Title

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

AUSTIN – With her team scratching for every point on a hot afternoon at Mike A. Myers Stadium, Taylor Werner gave the Arkansas Razorbacks a lift when she finished second in the 5,000 meters near the end of the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships.

Her eight points brought Arkansas even with USC with one event left, 56-56. Never mind that she had doubled back from a steamy 10,000 meters two nights prior.

Werner’s team needed it.

Then, in the 4x400 relay, a wildly entertaining meet went a little bit haywire when USC’s Anna Cockrell tangled with another runner on the third leg and the baton went flying out of her hand.

Arkansas completed the race with a season’s best time, outlasted USC, and wrapped up the team championship.

“I got tired with like a mile to go and I thought ‘No, my team needs me,’” said Werner, who found herself in the lead with 400 meters to go. “With a lap to go, OK I’ve got to kick. I can do this. I’ve done it in countless workouts. And so I went, and I was like ‘Why is no one passing me, what’s going on?’ Then the last 100 I just kept going and (tried to maintain) my form and Dani (Jones) went by me. I thought ‘Don’t stress about it, just keep going.’”

Arkansas won for the 45th time in its illustrious NCAA Championships history, and the team completed an indoor-outdoor double, the first by any women’s program since Oregon in 2017. The Razorbacks captured their first outdoor title since 2016 and became only the fifth women’s team in Division 1 history to capture both indoor and outdoor championships in the same year, along with Arizona State, LSU, Oregon and Texas.

But it wasn’t easy and it took some late heroics from Werner to help seal the deal.

USC spent Saturday afternoon accelerating from zero toward 60 – points, that is – like a Lambourghini.

The Women of Troy collected points in bunches from its sprinters and hurdlers. Cockrell rolled to a victory in the 400-meter hurdles in 55.23 and Angie Annelus held off LSU freshman wunderkind Sha’Carri Richardson to win an absurdly fast 200 final, clocking 22.16 seconds for the win.

USC could almost smell a repeat of the 2018 title, complete with Kendall Ellis’ magical 4x400 anchor leg comeback.

Werner’s eight points only brought the Razorbacks back to even, but they spoke to an attitude that rippled through the team all week in Austin.

“We could expect three or four points (from Werner) coming back off that 10K double, but she rose to the challenge,” Razorbacks women's coach Lance Harter said. “She’s just one of the great competitors that I’ve had at Arkansas.”

Back in March, at the indoor championships, Werner took second in the 3,000 meters to help lift the team to the title.

At the indoor meet, Arkansas grabbed 21 of its 62 points in the pole vault.

In Austin, the pole vault was supposed to be the foundation of the title effort. And despite Tori Hoggard’s victory, twin sister Lexi Jacobus and Desiree Freier’s tying for ninth place were setbacks that the team needed to make up for elsewhere.

“We knew we took a hit,” Harter said. “We talked every morning about how when something doesn’t go according to plan, is there someone who can rise to the challenge.”

Janeek Brown also rose up to meet the challenge.

The Jamaican ran the second-fastest 100-meter hurdles in collegiate history when she tore through the final in 12.40 seconds, a world-leading time and one spot ahead of the indoor 60-meter hurdles champion Chanel Brissett of USC.

“It felt real good. It felt awesome,” Brown said. “I knew that I could do it. If it didn’t happen, I’d have been OK with it, but (the fast time) came and I’m happy about it.”

Brown came back later to take fourth in the 200 meters with a school-record time of 22.40 seconds for five more crucial points. Brown’s 100 hurdles/200-meter double was the fastest in history.

Even with Brown and Werner rising, all it did was set the stage for a fantastic finish.

USC and Arkansas had season’s bests in the 4x400 that were separated by 0.01 seconds.

It was winner-take-all.

On the fateful third leg, rounding the final curve, Cockrell got caught up on the feet of another runner and her baton went flying. USC’s chance to pull off another dramatic win was blown apart.

Arkansas’ third leg, Payton Chadwick, was on the outside of the mishap and kept the Razorbacks out of trouble.

“There were a lot of people bunched up coming around the final curve and I knew I had to stay out wide in order to avoid any trouble,” Chadwick said. “Once I heard all of the noise behind me and realized what had happened, it just pushed me to go even faster to make sure we stayed up front.” 

Kethlin Campbell, already fourth in the 400 meters, turned in the fastest split of the relay – 49.79 seconds – as the Razorbacks finished second behind Texas A&M in 3:25.89.

It’s possible that USC, even with 400-meter indoor champion Kaelin Roberts inserted into the lineup on the anchor, wouldn’t have been able to beat the Razorbacks.

All that mattered to Arkansas is that when the dust settled, the team had 64 points. USC had 57.

Staying resilient and meeting the challenge. It’s what Harter and the program strive for every season.

“It’s part of our culture that we have initiated over the years, a legacy we have been able to establish,” Harter said. “For a long time we were in the shadow of John McConnell, and now I think we’ve been able to set our own history.”