Shawn Price April 15, 2021
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The second meet of the outdoor season for Arkansas has the Razorbacks competing in the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational hosted by No. 3 Florida this Friday and Saturday.
SEC schools competing in the meet include No. 11 Kentucky, No. 15 Georgia, and Mississippi. Other teams include Coastal Carolina, Florida State, Jacksonville, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina State, North Florida, South Florida, VCU, and UCF.
“We’ve only had one meet outdoors and are heading into our second meet this weekend,” noted Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam. “We got some distance qualifying done when we were at Oregon, which is good.
Featured on Friday are the distance medley relay, long jump and the first day of the heptathlon. Saturday’s menu includes a very talented field in the 3,000m as well as the usual array of national caliber athletes across various events.
“Everybody brings something a little different each weekend,” said Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam. “When you look at the schools that come in this week, they bring a different flavor. The flavor this week is maybe not so quite the ballistic events as it is maybe the distances. Again, though, there will be some good sprinting and jumping going on.”
High Jump
Olympic shot put gold medalist and Olympic Games record holder Ryan Crouser continues to get closer to the world record with his indoor best less than three inches away. Crouser, in this second year as an Arkansas volunteer assistant, has an indoor career best of 74-1 ¾ (22.60) which ranks second on the all-time world indoor list.
The world indoor shot put record of 74-4 ¼ (22.66) was set in 1989 by Randy Barnes in Los Angeles.
Omar McLeod, an Arkansas alum and 2016 Olympic gold medalist in the 110m hurdles, returns to Fayetteville to race in the 60 meters. Joining him in the same 60m prelim heat is Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse, who has collected three Olympic medals and four World Championship medals between the 100m, 200m and 4×100 relay.