Well, Arkansas distance runner Scott MacPherson pulled off a bit of a surprise on Friday night.

  The senior hung with the leaders in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, was third with one lap remaining and finished a surprising fifth in the finals with a time of 8 minutes, 38.87 seconds. 

  MacPherson’s impressive showing scored four points for the Rarzorbacks and moved them into third in the overall team race with 18 total points. Not bad for his final outdoor race of his collegiate career.

Good morning. Or make that good afternoon.

I spent a little more time than usual in bed this morning after being out at John McDonnell Field past 1 a.m. But after trying to get some sleep, I’m back out here for day two of the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

There’s a lot going on today. Ryan Malashock is in Omaha for the College World Series, where Arkansas will be practicing today and meeting with the media. Alex Abrams and I will be out here at track letting you know everything going on out here on day two.

Make sure you keep an eye on the blog for updates from both sides. We also have a special page set up for our track coverage here at at the NCAA meet. You can find it by clicking this link. And on our Twitter pages at @NWAOnlineHogs or @NWARobbie

We’ve got a few things worth reading in today’s paper if you haven’t seen them yet.

• Alex Abrams wrote a feature on Arkansas pitcher Dallas Keuchel and some of the struggles he has had lately.

• Paul Boyd handled our MLB Draft coverage. Four Razorbacks were selected on Wednesday.

We have plenty from track and field, too.

• On the men’s side, the Razorbacks got two of their three long jumpers into tonight’s final, Alex wrote. A little later, Scott MacPherson slipped through to the finals of the 3,000 steeplechase.

• The women’s team had to wait a long time to compete because of a three-hour rain delay. But once they did, Shelise Williams, pole vaulters Katie Stripling and Sarah Landau, and Denise Bargiachi advanced in their events.

It’s almost 1 a.m. Thursday and unfortunately I’m still at John McDonnell Field, covering the opening day of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Because it’s so late, there’s no chance of me getting the results from two of Arkansas’ top runners into Thursday’s edition of The Morning News. Instead, I decided to post it on the blog, so people can read about how things went for distance runner Scott MacPherson and sprinter J-Mee Samuels.

So here you go. I’m heading home to crash in bed.

MacPherson’s Waits For Good News

Arkansas distance runner Scott MacPherson was forced to stand around John McDonnell Field late Wednesday night, waiting to see if he had one more race to run in his collegiate career.

MacPherson had already run in the first heat of the 3,000-meter steeplechase semifinals. But after finishing sixth with a time of 8 minutes, 43.96 seconds, he needed a little help from the runners in the second heat to advance to Friday’s finals.

Only the top five finishers in each heat advance, along with the next four fastest runners. MacPherson had to sweat it out for a few minutes, but the senior ended up earning one of the final spots in the finals.

“I think with about a lap to go (in the second heat), I kind of had a little bit more hope. That’s not a good place to be,” MacPherson said, smiling. “I don’t like being in that bubble, but hey, that’s how it went and now I can just focus on the finals.”

The senior jumped out to an early lead in his heat and made sure that the pace was particularly fast. He led for the first few laps before slipping to fourth.

MacPherson said he wanted to move out to the front of the pack, so he could avoid getting into trouble and possibly tripped up while running alongside the rest of the competition.

The senior also wanted to force a fast race, which ended up working to his advantage as he watched a slower second heat.

“I figured it’s nationals, so there’s a lot of nerves out there and hopefully I can rattle a couple of guys,” MacPherson said. “You never know how a race is going to go until you’re out there.”

Before the race, MacPherson had plenty of time to kill because of a rain delay that pushed the start of the 3,000-meter steeplechase back by more than three hours.

So what did he do?

“I got to go home and sit on my couch a little bit,” said MacPherson, who admitted he hung around his apartment with his family that came in from out of town.

Samuels Out

Sprinter J-Mee Samuels ran his final three races as a Razorback on Wednesday, but his night came to an end with no chance of him competing for title.

Samuels clocked an impressive 10.22 seconds in the 100-meter dash preliminaries on Wednesday afternoon, but he failed to advance to the finals when he ran a 10.43 in the semifinals later in the day.

“When I got done, I realized I ran a pretty slow time,” Samuels said. “So I figured it wouldn’t make it.”

The senior had to wait for the lengthy rain delay to end before he could take the track for the 100-meter dash semifinals. But he refused to blame the long wait on his lackluster time.

“I’m not going to blame anything. Everybody had the same conditions,” Samuels said. “I just ran the best I could and it just didn’t work out that way today.”

Samuels also ran the final leg on Arkansas’ 4×100 relay team that just narrowly missed out on advancing to the finals. The Razorbacks finished 10th with a time of 39.43 seconds.