Razorbacks claim 4th consecutive SEC Indoor title, 26th overall
FAYETTEVILLE – No. 1 Arkansas totaled 100.25 points to win a fourth consecutive SEC Indoor championship and 26th overall among the 32 editions of the meet the Razorbacks have been involved with since joining the league.
In chasing Arkansas for the team title, Florida finished second with 73 points while Alabama was third at 63. Following were Georgia (59), Tennessee (54), Ole Miss (50.25), and Kentucky (48).
Combined with the women’s victory this marks the 10th time Arkansas has swept team titles at the SEC Indoor Championships. Overall, this is the 33rd sweep for the Razorback men and women in SEC Championships – cross country (19), indoors (10), and outdoor (4).
Scores in the shot put (16) and triple jump (15) secured 31 points for Arkansas while 18 were added in the heptathlon. Sprinters and hurdlers totaled 15 points over four events.
Jaydon Hibbert won the triple jump with an outstanding leap of 56-1.25 (17.10) in the second round as he extended his approach a few steps from his debut in New Mexico a few weeks earlier. He improved his collegiate-leading mark of 54-10.75 (16.73) set in Albuquerque.
Hibbert opened with a 54-9.25 (16.69) on his first attempt and then generated his winning mark in round two. After a foul in round three, Hibbert passed his three remaining attempts.
In moving to No. 5 on the UA all-time list, Hibbert joins an elite level of Razorback jumpers who bettered 56 feet while at Arkansas. They include Erick Walker (56-6.75 | 17.24), Clive Pullen (56-4.75 | 17.19) and Edrick Floréal (56-2.75 | 17.14).
Mike Conley’s indoor school record in the triple jump is 57-1 (17.40) from 1985.
Hibbert is now No. 3 on the world U20 all-time list behind Melvin Raffin of France (56-5.25 | 17.20) and Volker Mai of Germany (56-2.75 | 17.14), who competed at Georgia and was the SEC champion in 1991.
On Jamaica’s indoor all-time list, Hibbert is No. 3 behind Clive Pullen (56-4.75 | 17.19) and current teammate Carey McLeod (56-4 | 17.17), who won the 2021 SEC title with that mark.
Additional points in the triple jump were supplied by McLeod (53-8.25 | 16.36) and Ryan Brown (52-5.5 | 15.99) as they finished fifth and sixth.
In his first heptathlon of the season Ayden Owens-Delerme scored 6,237 points for the victory with Georgia’s Johannes Erm runner-up at 5,935 points. Additional Arkansas points came from Marcus Weaver (5,760) and Daniel Spejcher (5,602), who finished fourth and fifth.
Owens-Delerme snapped a streak of 10 consecutive heptathlon victories by a Georgia athlete. He also bettered the meet record of 6,047 set by Devon Williams of Georgia in 2017.
The score by Owens-Delerme is the No. 6 performance all-time collegiately. Only he and three other collegians have ever scored more.
A trio of career best marks fueled the shot put trio as Jordan West repeated as silver medalist with a 66-7 (20.29) effort to improve his No. 2 position on the UA all-time list. Rojé Stona hit a mark of 65-6 (19.96) as the bronze medalist while Ralford Mullings improved to 61-7 (18.77). Stona and Mullings are now No. 3 and No. 6 on the UA all-time list.
Chris Bailey finished third in the 400m with a 45.13 as Georgia’s Elija Godwin lowered the world leading time in 2023 to 44.75 in breaking the meet record of 44.80 set by Alabama’s Kirani James in 2011. Godwin also moved to No. 5 on the all-time collegiate list, No. 6 on the all-time world and U.S. list.
Florida finished 2-4-6-7 in the race with Jacory Patterson leading the Gators with a 45.05 as silver medalist.
Scoring in the high jump were Kason O’Riley in fourth at 7-1.75 (2.18) while Tomas Ferrari was among a four-way tie for eighth place with a clearance of 6-8.75 (2.05).
Phillip Lemonious ran 7.77 for fifth in the 60m hurdles while Tre’Bien Gilbert fell early in the race and did not finish.
Ben Shearer placed fifth in the 5,000m with a 7:58.47 effort while Myles Richter was 10th in 8:08.50.