In her first conference championships since she transferred from Baylor in the Big 12, Ackera Nugent set a pair of new personal bests in the 60m hurdles and 60m dash as Arkansas crowned themselves SEC champions on Saturday.
Nugent, who holds the U20 60m world record of 7.92, stormed to a personal best 7.81 to win the silver medal behind NCAA record holder Masai Russell, who took gold in 7.77s.
The winning time was just outside Russell’s collegiate record of 7.75 run earlier in the season.
Russell, a senior at Kentucky, broke the previous meet record of 7.89 set by LSU’s Tonea Marshall in 2020 and facilities record of 7.79 that had been held by Clemson’s Briana Rollins since 2013.
Nugent, who was also under the previous meet record, eclipsed her previous best of 7.88 set in January.
Tennessee’s Charisma Taylor ran 8.03 for the bronze medal.
Nugent would have gone into the hurdles final with a boost in confidence after winning the bronze medal in the 60m dash in a personal best of 7.20, finishing just behind silver-medallist Georgia’s Kaila Jackson who clocked 7.17.
Tennessee’s Jacious Sears ran a personal best 7.11 to win the gold medal.
Arkansas’ women topped the table with 130.5 points. Florida was second with 84 while Tennessee finished third with 56.33 points.
Alabama and Ole Miss shared fourth place with 54 points each.
Meanwhile, Arkansas' men also wrapped up the men's title scoring 102.25 points, some of which were contributed by Clemson's Roje Stona.
The former St Jago thrower hit a brand new personal best of 19.96m that won him the bronze medal in the men's shot put.
The top three men all produced personal bests as silver-medallist Jordan West of Arkansas hit his best throw ever of 20.29m.
The winner, John Meyer of LSU, had the winning mark of 20.37m.
Florida finished second in the men's standings with 73 points while Alabama's 63 points put them third.
Georgia (59) and Tennessee (54) rounded out the top five.