No. 17/13 Track and Field’s Garrett and Smallwood win SEC hurdle titles

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Akala Garrett and Kendrick Smallwood led No. 17/13 Texas Track and Field with hurdle titles on the final day of the SEC Outdoor Championships. The 17th-ranked men finished seventh with 53.5 points, and the No. 13 women tied for ninth with 52 points.

Smallwood became the first male Longhorn to ever win a SEC track and field title on Saturday with a school-record time of 13.13 in the 110-meter hurdles. Smallwood now owns the five fastest times in UT history and is tied for the 12th-fastest time in NCAA history. The win gave the Longhorns 10 team points.

Garrett later won the second-ever SEC track and field title for UT’s women in the 400-meter hurdles with her time of 54.84. Her time equals her eighth-fastest time in school history and she has now won back-to-back 400mH conference titles after setting the Big 12 Championship record last season at 54.73. Freshman Mackenzie Collins was seventh with a time of 58.37, and the two combined for 12 team points.

In the men’s 400m hurdles, Kody Blackwood improved his personal best by .01 second to finish in 48.78 for the silver medal. Blackwood’s time improves his spot to No. 3 on the school’s all-time performer list. Chris Brinkley Jr. was seventh with a personal-best time of 50.58. The two combined for 10 team points.

Grad transfer Elizabeth Stockman used an 80-meter kick to secure the bronze medal in the 1500-meter run with her time of 4:20.88. She scored six team points for the Longhorns.

Sophomore Osawese Agbonkonkon returned to the high jump and finished tied for seventh clearing 2.12m (6-11.5) to score 1.5 points. Kelsey Daniel was also seventh in the men’s triple jump with a season-best mark of 15.79m (51-9.75) to score two points.

Back on the track, Kenondra Davis finished fourth with a personal-best time of 22.68 in the 200-meter, while freshman Holly Okuku was eighth in 23.10. Davis later finished eighth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.35 and the two combined for seven points.

Xavier Butler added a fifth-place finish in the men’s 200m with a time of 20.28 for four points.

The women’s 4×100-meter relay of Carleta Bernard, Okuku, Davis and Nita Koom-Dadzie finished eighth with a time of 43.85 to score one team point. The men’s relay saw Smallwood, John Rutledge, Almond Small and Butler finish fourth with a season-best time of 38.81 – the seventh-best time in program history.

Isaac Alonzo added a point for the men finishing eighth in the 5000-meters with his season best performance of 13:56.61.

Texas ended the competition with the women’s 4×400 relay of Ramiah Elliott, Garrett, Carleta Bernard and Okuku finishing sixth in 3:31.90. The men’s 4×400 relay of Nabil Tezkratt, Logan Popelka, Blackwood and Rutledge were fifth in 3:04.42.

Texas Scorers:

Nina Ndubuisi – Shot Put (1^st) – 10 pts

Akala Garrett – 400mH (1^st) – 10 pts

Elizabeth Stockman – 1500m (3^rd) – 6 pts

Aaliyah Foster – Long Jump (4^th) – 5 pts

Kenondra Davis – 200m (4^th) – 5 pts

Eva Jess – 10K – (5^th) – 4 pts

Meagan Humphries – Heptathlon – (5^th) – 4 pts

Elliott, Garrett, Bernard, Okuku – 4×4 (6^th) – 3 pts

Mackenzie Collins – 400mH (7^th) – 2 pts

Bernard, Okuku, Davis, Koom-Dadzie – 4×100 (8^th) – 1 pt

Holly Okuku – 200m (8^th) – 1 pt

Kenondra Davis – 100m (8^th) – 1 pt

Kendrick Smallwood – 110mH (1^st) – 10 pts

Kody Blackwood – 400mH (2^nd) – 8 pts

Solomon Washington – Long Jump (4^th) – 5 pts

Smallwood, Rutledge, Small, Butler – 4×100 (4^th) – 5 pts

Brock Lewis – Decathlon – (5^th) – 4 pts

Xavier Butler – 200m (5^th) – 4 pts

Tezkratt, Popelka, Blackwood, Rutledge – 4×400 (5^th) – 4 pts

Logan Patete – 3K Steeple – (7^th) – 2 pts

Isaac Alonso – 10K – (7^th) – 2 pts

Kelsey Daniel – Long Jump (7^th) – 2 pts

Chris Brinkley Jr. – 400mH (7^th) – 2 pts

Kelsey Daniel – triple Jump (7^th) – 2 pts

Osawese Agbonkonkon – High Jump (t-7^th) – 1.5 pts

Isaac Alonzo – 5K (8^th) – 1 pt