TRACK AND FIELD UA qualifies 6 men, 1 woman at NCAA prelims
The Arkansas men’s track and field team had six national qualifiers and the women’s team qualified one athlete Thursday on the opening day of the NCAA West Preliminary meet in Austin, Texas.
The Razorbacks men’s team will be represented at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore., by Solomon Haile in the 10,000 meters, Anthony May II and Dwayne Golbek in the high jump and Jarrion Lawson, Tarik Batchelor and Raymond Higgs in the long jump. The men’s team also advanced eight runners to the quarterfinal round of the preliminary competition.
Arkansas’ women’s team qualified 10,000-meter runner Semehar Tesfaye for the championships.
The Razorbacks men’s team opened the preliminary meet with three national-qualifying performances in the long jump. Lawson was the top overall qualifier with a personal-best jump of 26 feet, 0.25 inches while Batchelor advanced with a leap of 25-8 and Higgs advanced with a mark of 25-6.25.
May tied for the overall lead in the high jump with a leap of 7-1, while Golbek was part of a three-man jump-off and claimed his spot at nationals by clearing 6-11.5.
Haile closed out the first day by finishing second in 10,000 meters in a time of 29:55.59.
Tesfaye advanced to NCAA Championships in the women’s 10,000 meters with a time of 35 minutes, 3.05 seconds
Sparkle McNight, Gwendolyn Flowers, Stephanie Brown, Keri Wood, Regina George, Chrishuna Williams and Martine Borge moved on today’s quarterfinals in the prelim meet.
McKnight and Flowers advanced in the 400-meter hurdles, finishing 1-2 with McKnight running 57.75 and Flowers running a personal-best 58.51.
Brown and Wood advanced in the 1,500 meters, with Brown winning her heat in 4:22.22. Wood grabbed the final at-large spot with a time of 4:25.26. George (51.27) and Williams (53,21) won their 400-meter heats. Borge placed third in her 800-meter heat in 2:08.19.
Zaborowska moves into finals
Harding’s Ewa Zaborowska qualified for the 1,500-meter finals of the NCAA Division II track and field championships with a time of 4:38.64 on Thursday in Pueblo, Colo.
A top eight finish in Saturday’s 1,500-meter final would make Zaborowska Harding’s first All-American in the event since 2003.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL Reed visiting Central Arkansas
Arkansas quarterback Taylor Reed said Thursday on his Twitter account he was headed to the University of Central Arkansas for a visit with quarterbacks coach Nathan Brown.
Reed, a walk-on who began his career at the University of Memphis, where he passed for 1,690 yards and 10 touchdowns as a freshman in 2011, took very few scrimmage snaps this spring. The left-hander from El Dorado was behind Brandon Allen and A.J. Derby at the least.
Reed posted this to his Twitter account: “Headed to Conway. Looking forward to meeting with Coach Brown, and checking out the University.”
Reed sat out last season as a transfer and is not on Arkansas’ roster.
HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL Little Rock Catholic hires new coach
Little Rock Catholic will have a new basketball coach next season with a familiar name.
Tim Ezzi has stepped down and his son, Todd, is stepping in as the Rockets’ new head coach.
“The past couple of years it’s been wearing on me,” said Tim Ezzi, who became the school’s athletic director in January 2012. “Basketball, like a lot of other sports, has become a year-round activity and I’ve found out that there’s a lot of stuff that goes on during the summer. We’ve got good kids, but I just felt like it was time.”
Starting in 1982, Tim Ezzi, 59, has had two stints at Catholic, with a two year stay at Cabot High School in between. When he returned to Catholic, he guided the Rockets’ baseball team to a conference championship in 1991. For the past 22 years, he has been the Rockets’ head basketball coach, leading them to the Class 7A state title in 2008, which is the only state basketball title in the school’s history.
Todd Ezzi, 33, graduated from Catholic in 1998 and has been an assistant basketball coach at Catholic for the past nine years. Todd Ezzi earned his degree at Arkansas Tech and spent one year at St. Joseph High School in Pine Bluff before taking the assistant’s position at Catholic.
- Tim Cooper
SOFTBALL McLemore an academic honoree
Arkansas pitcher Hope McLemore was named a third-team academic All-American on Thursday by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
McLemore, a senior from Ringling, Okla., is a member of the chancellor’s honor roll and a May graduate with a degree in education in community health promotion. A team captain and four-year letter winner, she ranks in Arkansas’ top 10 in strikeouts, victories, game started, shutouts and complete games.
TENNIS UA doubles team reaches round of 16
Arkansas’ doubles team of Manfred Jeske and Mike Nott defeated Virginia’s Alex Domjian and Michael Frank in the first round of the NCAA doubles tournament Thursday in Urbana, Ill.
The victory gave Jeske and Nott 11 victories on the season and five over Top 25 opponents. Virginia’s team was ranked No. 21, while Jeske and Nott were ranked 24th. They will play Jonas Lutjen and Nik Scholtz of Ole Miss or Isade Juneau and Sam Montette of Indiana.
Sports, Pages 25 on 05/24/2013