Fayetteville, Ark. – The University of Arizona Wildcat women's track and field team scored two points at the NCAA Indoor Championships on this weekend. The meet was held at Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark. Junior Nnenya Hailey ran in the final of the 60-meter hurdles on Saturday and earned a seventh-place finish. The UA women's team of three student-athletes tied for 49th place with those two points.
“With the three ladies we had coming in, they competed really well,” head coach Fred Harvey said. “They are going to take back to Arizona a level of attitude that it takes to make it to the NCAA Championships. It will help the younger athletes on this team get ready for this type of competition. It was a good two days for the Wildcats but trust me, we want more and it is going to be a lot better outdoors.”
In the final of the women's 60-meter hurdles, Hailey clocked a time of 8.23 and finished in seventh place overall. Her time of 8.23 is tied for the fourth-best mark of her career. On Friday, Hailey clocked a school-record time of 8.16 in the 60-meter hurdles preliminary round, good for a spot in the final. Hailey had the sixth-best time overall in the preliminary round, taking fourth place in heat two and advancing on time. Hailey broke LaTisha Holden's school record of 8.17, set in 2011 on February 25 in Seattle. Hailey and Holden are the only two student-athletes in UA history to earn first-team NCAA Indoor All-America accolades in the women's 60-meter hurdles.
“Nnenya Hailey, what can I say?” Harvey said. “School record yesterday, a personal best of 8.16 and she got to the finals. She took seventh overall; she ran a great race considering she clipped that second hurdle. At this level, it's got to be clean. If you have one mistake at a meet like this, you're going to get it handed to you. That's part of the race, that's why they put the hurdles there.”
The women's team championship went to Arkansas who scored 63 points. Oregon took second place after winning the last five NCAA Indoor Championships with 46.5 points. Georgia totaled 37 points in third place and Florida had 36 points in fourth.
For the men, Oregon won for the second-straight year with 74 points. Florida earned a runner-up finish with 50 points. Arkansas had 39 points in third place and Texas A&M took fourth with 33 points.
On Friday, sophomore Lisanne Hagens took 13th place in the women's high jump competition with a mark of 5-10 (1.78m).
“I'm very pleased with Lisanne coming in to her first NCAA Championships,” Harvey said. “You got to get your feet wet, she cleared two bars, two bars here means you're doing really well. She was a second-team All-American and she understands what this meet is all about. You can talk about it but you never know what it's actually about until you get here and have to compete. I'm really proud of her performance yesterday.”
Also Friday, senior Elvin Kibet had a time of 16:12.14 in the women's 5K, good for 12th place overall.
“Elvin fought really hard,” Harvey said. “She didn't run her personal best but she kept in there. She's not as fit as she can be because of injuries and those things set her back a bit. With that being said, she made it to the meet, she fought hard and I'm looking for much bigger things from her coming into outdoor season.”
Arizona begins the 2015 outdoor season by hosting the Willie Williams Classic next week on March 19-21 at Roy P. Drachman Stadium. You can buy tickets here.
For continued coverage of University of Arizona Wildcat track and field, visit ArizonaWildcats.com and follow @ArizonaTrack on Twitter.
