DES MOINES, Iowa — Raymond Higgs opened the scoring for the No. 12 University of Arkansas men’s track and field team with a third-place finish in the long jump Wednesday at the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. In addition to the six points from Higgs, the Razorbacks picked up qualifiers for event finals in the 400 meters with Akheem Gauntlett, and 4×100-meter relay. Arkansas also has three in the top seven at the end of day one in the decathlon.
On his first attempt of the competition, Higgs posted his best mark of the day with a jump of 26 feet, 5 inches. He entered the finals as the third-best qualifier and ended the day in the same place. Higgs’ result is Arkansas’ highest outdoor finish in the long jump since Melvin Lister won the event in 1999. He closes out a season in which he won the SEC title back in May. Last season, Higgs finished eighth in the long jump at the NCAA meet.
At the end of day one in the decathlon, all three Razorbacks are in scoring position with Gunnar Nixon leading the way for the team in second place. He has a score of 4,177 points through the first five events, just 10 points behind leader Kurt Felix, of Boise State. Kevin Lazas currently sits in fifth place with 4,025 points while Terry Prentice, in his NCAA Championships debut, is seventh with 3,974 points.
The No. 12 University of Arkansas women’s track and field team scored three points from a sixth-place finish by Tina Sutej in the pole vault. In semifinal action, Regina George broke the school record in the 400 meters in qualifying for the event final.
In the first scoring opportunity of the meet for Arkansas, Sutej finished in sixth place in the pole vault to score three points in the team race. The Razorback senior began the competition with first-attempt clearances at her first two heights and finished with a final mark of 13-11.25. Sutej closes out her collegiate career as a two-time NCAA indoor champion and five-time Southeastern Conference champion.
Running in heat two of the semifinal round, George took the early lead through the first 300 meters of the race and crossed the finish line in a school-record time of 51.57 seconds. She finished second in her heat and fifth overall to advance to finals of the 400 meters. Also in heat two, Whitney Jones finished fifth with a time of 52.98, but will not move on to the finals. Both will return to the track Thursday for the semifinal of the 4×400-meter relay.