Shafiqua Maloney on the left at Arkansas Invitational
Shawn Price
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A pair of meet records along with a career best time among three victories during the Arkansas Invitational last Friday earned Razorback senior Shafiqua Maloney a share of the women’s SEC Runner of the Week honor, as announced by the conference office on Tuesday.
Maloney established collegiate leading marks for 400m (52.33) and 800m (2:04.82) as well as Arkansas in the 4x400 relay (3:30.79) as she anchored with a 52.29 split.
Opening with the 400m, Maloney bettered her previous indoor best of 52.51 in leading a Razorback 1-2-3-4 finish. Maloney is now ranked No. 8 on the UA al-time list. For the 2022 season she is the current collegiate leader and ranks fourth on the world list.
On the all-time indoor list for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Maloney is the second best performer with the 10th best performance. The national record of 51.48 was set at the Randal Tyson Track Center during the 2007 NCAA Championships by Kineke Alexander.
Scheduled to rabbit the 800m through 600m, Maloney finished the race as the Razorbacks went 1-2 and broke the meet record of 2:07.40 set in 2012 by Vera Rudakova. Maloney, who holds the UA school record and St. Vincent national record with a 2:01.22, currently ranks third on the 2022 world list.
Her splits in the 800m race included 30.26, 31.47 [1:01.73], 32.27 [1:34.00], and 30.82. Teammate Quinn Owen passed 600m in 1:34.63 and finished in 2:07.48 as runner-up.
In the 4x400 relay, racing against another Arkansas squad among the field, the Razorback foursome of Paris Peoples (53.57), Rosey Effiong (52.39), Morgan Burks-Magee (52.54), and Maloney (52.29) broke the meet record set by the same UA crew in 2021 by four seconds.
Arkansas is the current world-leader in the relay by two-plus seconds. The second Razorback crew clocked 3:33.93, which ranks fourth in the world for 2022.
SEC Indoor Track and Field Weekly Honors – Jan. 18, 2022
Women’s Co-Runner of the Week: Grace Stark, Florida
Florida’s Grace Stark won the 60m hurdles at the Clemson Invite with a school record time of 7.86 seconds. The time leads the NCAA this season and is tied for third all-time in NCAA history with Tonea Marshall.
Women’s Co-Runner of the Week: Shafiqua Maloney, Arkansas
Arkansas’ Shafiqua Maloney posted a collegiate-leading career best of 52.33 to lead a Razorback 1-2-3-4 sweep in the 400m. She currently ranks fourth on the 2022 world indoor list. Then in the 800m a 2:04.82 collegiate leading time bettered the meet record. Maloney ranks third on the 2022 800m world indoor list. Then a 52.29 anchor split by Maloney in the 4x400 relay produced a meet record winning time of 3:30.79, the current world leader by two-plus seconds.
Women’s Field Athlete of the Week: Lamara Distin, Texas A&M
Texas A&M’s Lamara Distin won the Ted Nelson Invitational high jump with an indoor personal best clearance of 6-2/1.88m. She stands at No. 2 on the world list, and she became the second-best high jumper indoors in Aggie history. Her mark is currently ranked No. 1 in the NCAA and she set a Ted Nelson Invitational meet record.
Women’s Co-Freshman of the Week: Kennedy Wade, Texas A&M
Texas A&M’s Kennedy Wade won the 400m dash of the Ted Nelson Invitational with a time of 54.26. Her time is currently fifth fastest in the SEC and eighth best in the NCAA. Wade also ran on the 4x400m relay that won with a time of 3:40.76, which ranks No. 5 in the SEC and No. 16 in the NCAA.
Women’s Co-Freshman of the Week: Kenondra Davis, Georgia
Georgia’s Kenondra Davis made her collegiate debut and was third in the 200-meter dash with the sixth-best time (23.62) in UGA history and the eighth-fastest finish in the NCAA this year at the Clemson Invite. She also clocked a 7.43 in the 60m to take over the No. 7 slot in the school record books.