UALR’s relay team ready to turn heads again

It was as if a No. 16 seed reached the Final Four in basketball, John Lamb said, when the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s men’s 400-meter relay team won the NCAA West Regionals and advanced to this week’s NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore.

The UALR sprint coach’s four runners were ranked 104th when they beat a field of 24 teams during the May 25 prelims at Sacramento, Calif., with a school-record time of 39.35 seconds.

It is the first time a UALR relay team has advanced to a national championship meet.

“We were so off the radar, that it was like, ‘Arkansas-Little Rock? We haven’t heard this time all year,’ ” said Lamb, a Little Rock Central graduate who ran track at UALR in 2007-2010.

The Trojans will compete in the first heat of the semifinals at 6:32 p.m. today, against Sam Houston State, Stanford, TCU, Florida State, North Carolina A&T, Kentucky and Penn State.

If UALR finishes first or second, it will advance to the final Friday at 7:32 p.m.

Senior Travion Clark will run the opening leg for the Trojans, followed by junior Charles Okeze and junior Ch’kilas Calhoun, and freshman Keshawn Andrews will run the anchor leg.

Clark is the only returning member of last year’s 400 relay team, which set UALR’s previous school record with a 39.82-second time that finished 17th at the West Regionals.

UALR has only had three other athletes advance to the NCAA Outdoors, most recently, Chris Johnson in the men’s 100 in 2005.

“Even to this day, like we still say it and it feels weird to hear it,” Clark said. “We said it for like a day and a half, and now we realize that we won the battle but we still got to win the war. We’re on to the next meet now.”

Okeze transferred to UALR from Middle Tennessee State, while Calhoun transferred from Arkansas Baptist, and Andrews signed after finishing his senior season at Jonesboro High School.

Andrews, who won the state title in the Class 6A 100 in 2017, said he was familiar with his teammates because he would check on their times while he was in high school.

Andrews said local high school track athletes have noticed the Trojans’ ascent.

“We’ve set a standard,” Okeze said. “We ain’t no dust-up school. We’re trying to put our name out there. Arkansas’ got Fayetteville, A-State. We’ve got Little Rock, too. We’re driving the future.”

Okeze will also individually compete in the 200 semifinals at 8:44 p.m. He qualified with a time of 20.77 at the West prelims, which ranks 21st among the 24 runners.

Although the Trojans relay team won the West Regionals, they arrive at Hayward Field at Eugene, Ore., as the 10th fastest relay team.

“We don’t mind being the underdogs,” Clark said.

“Exactly,” Okeze said. “We’re going to go to nationals and we’re going to do the same thing.”

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