Johnson brothers sweep 2024 national coaching honors
FAYETTEVILLE – For the second time this season USTFCCCA national women’s coaching honors have been awarded to Arkansas women’s head coach Chris Johnson and Razorback assistant coach Boogie Johnson.
The Johnson brothers also swept the honors during the indoor season following a national championship for the Arkansas women’s program in March.
This marked the eighth and ninth national championships for the Razorback women’s team as well as the 50th and 51st NCAA titles for the Arkansas track and field program overall.
Chris Johnson earned his second National Coach of the Year accolade in 2024 as he became the first women’s head coach to win indoor and outdoor NCAA team titles in his initial season as head coach.
Previously, Johnson has been named National Assistant Coach of the Year five times, with three accolades indoors and twice outdoors.
In his first season as women’s assistant coach with the Razorbacks, Boogie Johnson earns his second collegiate national coaching honor following seven regional accolades. He has twice been named USATF National Coach of the Year as a professional coach.
Arkansas became the third women’s program to sweep NCAA Championships in the same year more than once, joining LSU and Texas. The Razorbacks also swept titles in 2019.
In total, there have been only six schools to sweep women’s NCAA team titles since the first one in 1986. The other three programs include Arizona State, Florida, Oregon.
Arkansas established historic achievements in claiming the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championship by a four-point margin (63-59) over Florida.
The Razorbacks became the first to ever sweep the first four places in an event, as the 1-2-3-4 super sweep in the 400m generated 29 points to score the most points by either a men’s or women’s team.
Arkansas surpassed the 24 points Texas women scored in the 400m in 1996 with a 1-2-3 finish. UTEP men totaled 28 points in the 10,000m during the 1981 NCAA meet while Florida State women scored 27 points in the 200m off a 1-2-3-6 finish in 1984.
During the course of the 2024 indoor and outdoor seasons, Arkansas produced a 1-2-3-4-7 performance in the SEC Indoor 400m for 31 points, then had a NCAA Indoor 1-2-3 for 24 points. At SEC Outdoor, a 1-2-3-5 400m effort totaled 28 team points. The crew posted the top four times in the NCAA West First Round.
Nickisha Pryce became the first Razorback to win the NCAA Outdoor 400m as her winning time of 48.89 seconds broke the collegiate record of 49.13 established in 2023 by Arkansas sprinter Britton Wilson.
Pryce also bettered the Jamaican national record of 49.30 set in 2002, and ranks equal 13th on the all-time world list.
Arkansas’ 400m foursome all generated the best times for place in a NCAA final. Freshman Kaylyn Brown ran 49.13 as runner-up to become the fastest 19-year-old ever in the world. British sprinter Amber Anning clocked 49.59 in third while Rosey Effiong produced her first sub-50 with a 49.72 in fourth place.
The 2023 NCAA final had a pair of sub-50 times for first and second. Previously, there were three individual winners who posted sub-50 times. To have four in one race and from the same program was remarkable.
The Razorback foursome ended the meet with an astounding 4 x 400m victory as they clinched the team title by breaking their own collegiate record of 3:21.92 by nearly four seconds (3.96).
A winning time of 3:17.96 ranks as the fourth best performer and 10th best performance on the world all-time list. Only three countries have been faster than Arkansas – Soviet Union (3:15.17 OG 1988), United States (3:15.51 OG 1988), and East Germany (3:15.92 1984).
The splits for the Razorback foursome included Anning (50.52), Effiong (49.21), Pryce (49.19), and Brown (49.04) as they controlled the race from the start and steadily increased its lead to a five-second winning margin over Tennessee (3:23.32) and Texas (3:23.68).