Arkansas closes the deal to win team title

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

EUGENE -- Keturah Orji broke the American record in the triple jump, Ariana Washington became the first woman to sweep the NCAA 100 and 200 meters since 1998, and Arkansas got the late points it needed to pull away from Oregon and win its first women's outdoor national championship on Saturday at Hayward Field.

Dominique Scott-Efurd completed her distance double with a dominant final two laps of the 5,000 meters and Arkansas placed second in the 4x400 relay. Those 18 points in the final two events moved the Razorbacks ahead of Oregon atop the team standings. Arkansas scored 72 points and the Ducks, who won the title last year, finished with 62.

Meanwhile, Georgia sophomore Keturah Orji broke the American record in the triple jump by going 47 feet, 8 inches on her fifth attempt. Orji came out of Mount Olive HS in New Jersey with big expectations and she finished fourth at World Indoors in Portland in March.

Freshman Jasmine Quinn-Camacho from Kentucky, who will represent Puerto Rico at the upcoming Olympics, ran 12.54 to win the 100 hurdles in a race that was aided by a steady 3.4 m/s tailwind. It was the second-fastest all-conditions time ever for a 19-and-under hurdler.

Oregon's Ariana Washington became the first woman to capture the 100-200 double since 1998. And she led a 1-2 finish with Deajah Stevens for 18 points in the 200 meters, the first time two sprinters from the same team swept the top two spots in the 200 since Texas A&M in 2010. Still, Oregon could not overcome the injury to Hannah Cunliffe and the dropped baton in the 4x400 relay prelims in their fight to retain the title. 

Still, the Ducks were nearly perfect and rose to take the team lead late in the meet. Raevyn Rogers became the first runner in NCAA history to win the 800 meters as a freshman and sophomore. She did it by throwing down a lethal kick over the final 180 meters that put the field away. Rogers won in 2:00.75. Stanford sophomore Olivia Baker was second in 2:02.65.

In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Courtney Frerichs of New Mexico ran away from the field and took down Jenny Simpson's collegiate record with 9:24.41, spurred over the final 100 meters by the Hayward Field crowd.

LSU opened the action on the track by speeding through the 4x100 relay in 42.65 seconds to break its own Hayward Field record.

Marta Freitas of Mississippi State, who nearly paid dearly for celebrating too early, held off Elise Cranny of Stanford by .004 seconds. Freitas dedicated the win to her father, who died during one of her races in her native Portugal.

In the heptathlon, Georgia's Kendell Williams took the lead from defending champion Akela Jones of Kansas State in the final event, the 800 meters. Jones, running with an injury, stopped rounding the final bend of the 800 and then regrouped to finish her run. But she gave away precious time and her 2:39.04 was more than 20 seconds slower than Williams and Erica Bougard of Mississippi State. Jones won four of the seven events but finished third and Williams captured her second title, including 2014.

Wisconsin's Kelsey Card won the discus with a consistent series of throws that landed past 200 feet. She won it with 208-3.

Shamier Little of Texas A&M ran the second-fastest collegiate time ever in the 400 hurdles, clocking a world-leading 53.51 seconds to capture her third consecutive title.

Scott-Efurd of Arkansas ran 15:57.07 and took command over the final two laps of the 5,000. Behind her, five of the next six finishers were sophomores. 

Courtney Okolo of Texas, the collegiate record holder in the 400, had no problem winning the national title. Her closing speed pulled her away from her challengers and she ran 50.36. Later, she wove through traffic on the anchor leg of the 4x400 to deliver the Longhorns the relay win in 3:27.64, securing the 10th championship in the event in program history.