Sky is the limit

FAYETTEVILLE -- Injuries could have derailed Taliyah Brooks' college track and field career, but they didn't.

Brooks has come back from tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee playing basketball as a senior at Wichita Falls (Texas) Rider High School and breaking her hip long jumping as a true freshman at Arkansas to be one of the top heptathletes in the country.

"I guess I have a high pain tolerance, but those injuries are behind me now," Brooks said. "I'm on my way back."

Going into the SEC Outdoor Championships, which begin Thursday in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Brooks is a three-time All-American and ranks second nationally in the heptathlon with a best of 5,991 points this season, second only to Southern California's Amalie Iuel's 6,011.

"Taliyah has battled and overcome a lot," said Arkansas assistant Chris Johnson, who coaches the sprinters and hurdlers. "No one can predict how an athlete is going to deal with injuries, but she's gotten the best care possible and she's a really tough kid, too."

In addition to going in the heptathlon Thursday, Brooks will compete this weekend in the 100-meter hurdles, long jump and 400-meter relay.

"We understand that's a lot on her plate, but we feel like she's done the work and we've gotten her physically and mentally prepared," Johnson said. "We expect her to do well in all of her events.

"She's healthy and happy now. Hopefully, the sky is the limit."

Brooks was used to being healthy competing in sports growing up.

"I'd never had any major injuries in my life, so when I had two in back-to-back years, I was kind of down," she said. "But the coaches and trainers at Arkansas helped me through it. They built me back up."

Brooks began her comeback last year by finishing seventh in the pentathlon at the SEC and NCAA indoor meets and 16th in the heptathlon at the NCAA outdoors.

"I was rusty from not competing for two years," she said. "I knew I had to work much harder than everybody else just to keep up with where I used to be, but the confidence started coming back.

"I've got my edge back this year."

Brooks finished second in the pentathlon at the SEC (4,376 points) and NCAA (4,432) meets during this year's indoor season.

"She caught fire last year and was an All-American as a freshman, then this year her progression has just been phenomenal," Arkansas women's Coach Lance Harter said. "She's a major factor at the NCAA level and can possibly be a top 10 athlete at the USA Championships."

Brooks' best marks in the heptathlon's seven events include 20 feet, 11¾ inches in the long jump (an Arkansas school record), 13.16 seconds in the 100 hurdles, 6-0 in the high jump, 24.29 in the 200, 39-3¼ in the shot put and 120-11 in the javelin.

"She's very gifted, she's very coachable and she works very hard," Johnson said. "Obviously, we want more from her, and we want better, but we have to exercise some patience, too.

"When she was a redshirt freshman, that was her coming-out year. She's adapted to the system and training. She's done the work and competed under those stressful conditions in the big meets and managed it well."

Brooks is completing her communications degree, with a minor in legal studies, this semester and will work on a master's during her final two years of eligibility at Arkansas. She recently was elected president of the UA's Student Athletic Advisory Committee.

"She's got everything going for her," Harter said. "She's unbelievably talented and super bright. She's really attractive. She's got a great personality.

"If you had a daughter, you'd love for her to be like Taliyah. We're elated she's here."

Arkansas sophomore Payton Stumbaugh ranks second to Brooks in the SEC heptathlon scoring this season with 5,985 points, but the Razorbacks' duo main competition for the conference title figures to be Georgia junior Kendell Williams.

Williams is third in the SEC this season with 5,957 points, but she's a three-time NCAA pentathlon champion and won the event this year at the conference meet. She was second at the NCAA outdoors last year in the heptathlon.

Brooks said she grew up competing against Williams in AAU junior meets around the country.

"We'd go back and forth," Brooks said. "I'd win one year, she'd win the next year."

Brooks isn't predicting she'll beat Williams in the SEC heptathlon, but she's not ruling it out, either.

"We'll just see what happens," Brooks said. "I'm definitely going to put up a fight. She's not going to take it home that easy.

"I think I can beat her. I've just got to put it all together."