UK women's track and field team wins pair of individual NCAA titles, finishes 2nd overall

Dezerea Bryant and Kendra Harrison both won individual titles and Kentucky's women finished second overall at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore.

The runner-up finish was the best in school history. UK was seventh at the NCAA outdoors in 2014.

Meet-host Oregon edged Kentucky 59-50. Texas A&M scored 47, Arkansas had 43 and Georgia was fifth with 41 points.

Bryant won a photo finish with Oregon's Jenna Prandini in the 200 meters. Her time — 22.18 seconds — was the second-best in NCAA history. Bryant also defeated previous NCAA champs Kamaria Brown (Texas A&M), who was third, and Kyra Jefferson (Florida), who was fourth.

"I'm happy as hell," Bryant said to ESPN after taking the race by 3⁄10 of a second.

"It was very exciting. I wasn't really expecting it," Bryant said. "The only thing that was going through my mind was 'just finish the race and lean as hard as you can.'"

Harrison produced the third-best NCAA time in history in the 100-meter hurdles when she won in 12.55 seconds.

Harrison, who was edged in the stretch and finished second in the 400-meter hurdles, scored 18 of Kentucky's 50 points. Her total was the second best of anyone at the meet behind Prandini's 24.

Harrison completed the 2015 NCAA short hurdles double. She won the indoor 60-meter hurdles in March, becoming UK's first national champion in the event.

She hasn't decided if she will focus on just one event after college.

"I'd still like to do both," she said. "I can get a lot faster in both events, so we'll see."

UK's Leah Nugent was third behind Harrison in the 400-meter hurdles.

UK Coach Edrick Floreal provided context for Harrison's near sweep of the hurdles.

"Being able to have 35 minutes rest and do both is absolutely impressive," Floreal said. "I don't think people realize how tough that is. In the history of track there's been woman that's won both (Queen Harrison), and she came within a couple of tenths of winning both with 35 minutes rest. ... So I think that performance is fantastic."

Bryant earned bronze in the 100 meters, and UK's Keilah Tyson was seventh.

Beckie Famurewa was seventh in discus.

Kentucky's second-place team finish is on the heels of its program-best fifth place outing in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in March.

The women's seventh-place finish last season was the program's previous best at the outdoor championships.

Prandini won the 100 meters, leading the Oregon women to their first team championship in 30 years.

A day earlier, under the new meet format, the Oregon men cruised to their second straight team title, making it the first time the Ducks men and women have won the championship the same year. They did it on their home track, in the second of an eight-year contract to host the championships at Hayward Field.

"We saw them go out there and win. We saw how pumped up they were," Prandini said. "We didn't want the men to outshine us, so we got on the track and did our thing."

Coach Robert Johnson called his team's double triumph "awesome."

"You can't put it into words how we're feeling on the inside,'" he said. "We put in a lot of work to get to this point. For us to be able to achieve it here in front of our Hayward Field faithful — outstanding."

Texas A&M was the last school to win the men's and women's title in the same meet, accomplishing it in consecutive years from 2009 to 2011.

This story was originally published June 13, 2015 at 7:48 PM with the headline "UK women's track and field team wins pair of individual NCAA titles, finishes 2nd overall."