On Saturday, I caught an afternoon showing of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (it was good) and then enjoyed a dinner of buffalo wings (which were kind of crumby). It seemed a quiet Saturday, unremarkable in its mundanity. I returned home content to catch some Stanley Cup hockey with occasional click-thrus to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Little did I know that wildness was afoot.

Pauline Meyer Earns First Team All-American Honors

Don’t ask me to deliver too much detail about the 3000M Steeplechase, an athletic event held in its current format since 1865. Reader’s Digest Edition: you jump over things, you splash into water, you run for a very long time.

Meyer was the first A-State distance runner to reach the NCAA Outdoor Track & Fields finals and the first Red Wolf to make a final since the great Sharika Nelvis. Meyer, the SBC Meet record holder for the mile, finished the steeplechase at eighth, crossing the finish line at 9 minutes and 50 seconds.

Camryn Newton-Smith ALSO Earns First Team All-American Honors

The Red Wolves had never earned TWO All-American Honors in one NCAA Outdoor until Saturday, when multi-event specialist Camryn Newton-Smith finished 8th in the heptathlon.

Newton-Smith struggled somewhat during the event’s first day, finishing a surprising 21st in the 200-meter, one of her stronger events. However, the senior bounced back on day 2, placing third in the javelin and fourth in the long jump. Newton-Smith ended the meet with a personal best 5,887 points and top-ten finishes in 5 of 7 events.

Cori Keller Wins 2023 Miss Arkansas Competition

Beauty is a sport. Cori Keller, the 25-year-old Miss Metro from Stuttgart, was crowned Miss Arkansas at the Robinson Center in Little Rock.

Keller, who earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and a master’s degree in mass communication at Arkansas State, is also a former Red Wolves Dancer and serves ESPN sideline reporter. Keller joins Claudia Raffo (2018) as a recent Miss Arkansas winner from Arkansas State.

Three Red Wolves Basketball Players Arrested for Thieving

While the women were delivering honor to A-State, three members of the A-State men’s basketball team were cuffed & stuffed by the Jonesboro PD on Saturday night. Terrance Ford, Julian Lual and recent transfer Dyondre Dominguez face charges for “theft of $1,000 or less” from a local store (sounds like somebody helped themselves to some five-finger discounts).

“Theft of $1,000 or less” is a Class A Misdemeanor in Arkansas which could land you a year behind bars. However, I’d rather face the judge than the fully-bearded visage of Bryan Hodgson. Good luck with that, guys.

IMAGES: Bobby McDuffie / McDuffie Images, LLC, Arkansas State Athletics, and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Colin Murphey