GYMNASTICS
UA's Williams earns SEC honor
University of Arkansas gymnast Lauren Williams was named SEC freshman of the week Tuesday by the conference office.
The Rogers native scored career highs on both the vault (9.925) and the floor exercise (9.925) as the Razorbacks posted a program-record score of 197.475 in a win over LSU on Friday before a sold-out crowd at Barnhill Arena.
Williams ranks No. 23 nationally on the floor exercise with an average score of 9.9, the highest among SEC freshmen and sixth-highest in the conference. She is also No. 43 on vault, leading all SEC freshman with an average score of 9.856. Williams has not scored below 9.875 on the floor or below 9.8 on the vault.
Williams is the first Razorback to be honored by the SEC since the 2021 season and she's the first Arkansas gymnast to be named freshman of the week since Sarah Shaffer on March 20, 2018.
No. 18 Arkansas will return to action Friday at Walton Arena in Fayetteville against No. 2 Florida at 7 p.m.
-- Tom Murphy
BASKETBALL
UALR's Lee earns conference honors
For the third time this season, University of Arkansas-Little Rock forward Faith Lee was recognized as one of the Ohio Valley Conference's Freshman of the Week, sharing the honor with Tennessee-Martin's Sharnecca Currie-Jelks.
Lee scored 24 points in road wins against Morehead State and Tennessee Tech, shooting 61% from the field with 12 of her points coming in the fourth quarter of the two contests. The Monroe, La., native is the first Trojan to claim three conference weekly awards in a season since Chastity Reed was named Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week three times during the 2009-10 season.
-- Mitchell Gladstone
UCA women, HSU push games back
The University of Central Arkansas women's team and Henderson State University both announced Tuesday they have pushed back games this week back one day because of winter weather.
UCA's home game against North Alabama has been moved from Thursday to Friday and will now start at 2:30 p.m. Henderson State's men's and women's teams will face Southern Nazarene on Friday and Oklahoma Baptist on Sunday. Game times each day (5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Sunday) have not changed.
GOLF
UALR men, women tabbed as Ohio Valley favorites
The Ohio Valley Conference announced Tuesday that the University of Arkansas-Little Rock's men's and women's teams will enter their respective spring seasons as conference favorites.
The Trojan men received eight of nine first-place votes, seven points clear of second-place Tennessee Tech, with the women earning six of seven first-place votes -- seven points ahead of Morehead State.
UALR's men's team enters the spring ranked 39th nationally by GolfWeek and 43rd by GolfStat after averaging 285.73 in the fall, winning the Olympic Club Intercollegiate and Trinity Forest Invitational while finishing as runner-up at the Windon Memorial Classic. The women are currently ranked 149th, but their 297.72 fall scoring average ranks as the best in program history.
-- Mitchell Gladstone
BASEBALL
Weather shuffles SAU's schedule
This week's winter weather has caused Southern Arkansas University to shuffle its season-opening four-game schedule this weekend at the Mike Dugan Collegiate Invitational in Hot Springs.
The Muleriders begin their season Friday at 10 a.m. against Rogers State. That will be followed with a 1 p.m. game Saturday against Northwest Missouri State, a 4 p.m. game Sunday against Northeastern (Okla.) State and wraps up Monday with a game against Washburn (Kan.) at 12:30 p.m.
SOFTBALL
Arkansas No. 7 in preseason coaches poll
The University of Arkansas will begin the season ranked No. 7 in the USA Today/NFCA preseason poll, which was released Tuesday.
Arkansas is one of nine SEC school ranked in the poll, joining No. 4 Florida, No. 9 Alabama, No. 13 Tennessee, No. 15 Georgia, No. 20 Kentucky, No. 23 Mississippi State and No. 25 LSU.
Oklahoma received 32 first-place votes and sits atop the poll, followed by UCLA, Oklahoma State, Florida and Florida State.
The Razorbacks open their season Feb. 10 in Las Vegas at the Rebel Kickoff, where they will face Weber State and UNLV on the opening day.
TRACK AND FIELD
Bailey named SEC co-runner of the week
University of Arkansas senior Chris Bailey was named the SEC co-runner of the week Tuesday.
Bailey ran a world-leading time of 45.09 seconds to win the 400 meters at the Razorback Invitational last weekend. The next fastest 400 time in the world during the indoor season is 45.91 seconds.
Bailey, who is also the current world leader in the 600 meters with a time of 1:15.18 at the Razorback Invitational, bettered the school and meet records with win in the 400. The previous school record of 45.29 seconds was set by Terry Gatson in 2005 as a silver medalist in the NCAA Championships. The previous meet record was set by Florida's Najee Glass in 2015, who had a time of 45.34 seconds in the event.
Arkansas 1,600-meter relay team honored
The University of Arkansas' women's 1,600-meter relay team was honored Tuesday by being named the SEC's runners of the week.
The team of juniors Amber Anning, Nickisha Pryce and Rosey Effiong, as well as senor Paris Peoples, improved its world-leading time to 3 minutes, 26.40 seconds at last weekend's Razorback Invitational. That's nearly four seconds better than a time of 3:30.38 they ran two weeks ago.
The relay time ranks as the fifth-best collegiate performance ever and is No. 2 on the school's all-time list, just behind the 3:24.09 collegiate record set by the Razorbacks at the 2022 SEC Championships.
-- Democrat-Gazette Press Services