No collegiate women’s team has ever run the mile relay as fast as Arkansas did Saturday
Rosey Effiong, Nickisha Pryce, Kaylyn Brown and Amber Anning are not just Arkansas record holders, not just McDonell Field record holders.
The Razorbacks women’s track-and-field stars are college record holders.
Arkansas’ mile relay quartet sat an all-time collegiate best Saturday night in the NCAA West First round by running 3:21.55 in front a partisan Razorbacks crowd. In reaching the mark, the relay team not only qualified for the NCAA Championships, but broke the record set by SEC rival Kentucky in 2022.
Pryce ran her split in 49.90 and by the time Anning, the anchor leg, crossed the finish line, it would be another five-plus seconds before second-place Texas joined her.
Anning, Effiong, Joanne Reid and Britton Wilson hold the collegiate mile relay indoor record, too, a mark they set at the 2023 NCAA Championships at 3:21.75. And Effiong was on the Arkansas relay team in 2022 that had to watch Kentucky the record. She was thrilled with getting it Saturday.
“I was like, ‘It’s about time,'” she told the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A few hours before setting mile relay record, the same group of runners clinched individual spots in the 400-meter dash at the NCAA Championships. Pryce, Anning and Brown won their heats and Effiong ran a person best (50.11), but finished behind Brown that heat.
