State sports briefs

— TRACK AND FIELD ASHoF to honor McDonnell

The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame’s annual fall salute will honor former Arkansas track and field coach John McDonnell tonight in Little Rock.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. in the great hall at the Clinton Presidential Center.

McDonnell won 42 national titles while coaching Arkansas’ track and field and cross country teams in 1972-2008 and was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.

Of those championships, 11 were in cross country, 19 were in indoor track and field and 12 were in outdoor track and field. He won 12 consecutive indoor national titles in 1984-1995 and won 84 conference titles.

He coached 179 All-Americans and 23 Olympians.

“He’s one of the great names in the history of track,” said Ray Tucker, executive director of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. “We’re delighted to be able to honor him in this way.”

Mike Conley, an Olympic gold medalist who won 16 NCAA long jump and triple jump championships while at Arkansas, will serve as master of ceremonies, while John Tyson of Springdale, former Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson and Alberto Salazar, who won the New York Marathon in 1980-1982, are also scheduled to speak.

Individual tickets remain for the dinner, and can be purchased by calling Catherine Johnson at 821-1021 or at [email protected].

VOLLEYBALL Begic named player of the year

UALR sophomore Edina Begic was named Sun Belt Conference offensive player of the year Wednesday.

Begic, a senior from Bosnia, leads NCAA Division I in kills (5.12) and points (5.78) per set. This season she has had 10 or more kills and digs in the same match 20 times.

She finished the regular season with 543 kills and enters the Sun Belt Tournament 21 kills shy of the UALR season record, set by Ivana Vracar in 2003.

“Edina has been so critical for us all season, playing full rotation and coming up big for us both offensively and defensively,” Coach Van Compton said.

UALR plays Arkansas State in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament at 7:30 p.m. today in Bowling Green, Ky.

Sports, Pages 22 on 11/15/2012

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