FAYETTEVILLE - Usually when a college coach leads his team to a national championship, he has several months to enjoy the victory before gearing up for the next season.
Not so in track and field.
Two weeks after Arkansas’ men’s team won the NCAA indoor title to end Florida’s three-year run, the Razorbacks open the outdoor season today in San Marcos, Texas, at the Texas State Elite meet along with Texas, UCLA and host Texas State.
Arkansas comes into the outdoor season ranked No. 2 nationally behind Texas A&M. The top five also includes No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Texas and No. 5 Auburn.
“It is kind of a rebooting, so to speak,” Arkansas Coach Chris Bucknam said. “I think we do a pretty good job of understanding that these kids can go to the well emotionally only so many times a year.
“We’re going to take it slow this next month and get our kids back up to full strength again. It will be a process, but we’ve been through the process before.
“It’s not all about jumping back into the fire here and expecting great things the first few weeks. We’re moving outside, the track is bigger, we’re in the elements now. It’s a new season and we’re going to approach it like we have in the past, and that’s with confidence and yet some calm about the fact we’ve got some time to get ready by the end of the April and in May to compete again, and hopefully at even a higher level.”
Bucknam, in his fifth season at Arkansas after coming from Northern Iowa, led the Razorbacks to their first national championship since 2006. While his Arkansas teams had won a combined 10 SEC titles in cross country and track, winning the NCAA title was especially significant because predecessor John McDonnell had led the program to 40 national championships.
Arkansas won this year’s NCAA indoor title with 74 points while Florida was second with 59. At the 2012 NCAA Indoor meet, Florida won with 52 points and Arkansas was second with 47.
“Last year we were coming off a heartbreaking loss to Florida,” Bucknam said of shifting gears to the outdoor season. “That was even harder. We got so close and just missed it.”
McDonnell attended the NCAA meet and congratulated Bucknam in person for winning the championship. Bucknam said he’s also received congratulatory calls, e-mails and texts from several former Razorbacks.
“It’s really been gratifying to hear from Coach Mac and the alums,” Bucknam said. “A big part of what we do is having them feel good about where the program is going. It’s good to get back on top.”
Next weekend, Bucknamwill take Arkansas’ distance runners to the Stanford Invitational while the Razorbacks sprinters and field events athletes compete at the Razorback Spring Invitational in Fayetteville.
Texas A&M will be among the teams competing with Arkansas at the John McDonnell Invitational in Fayetteville April 12-13. The Razorbacks will go against Oregon in a dual meet in Eugene, Ore., April 19-20 and host the Arkansas Invitational April 27 with Florida in the field. The SEC meet is May 9-11 in Columbia, Mo., with the NCAA West Regional May 23-25 in Austin, Texas, and the NCAA Championships June 5-8 in Eugene.
It’s a challenging schedule the Razorbacks will begin easing into today at the Texas State meet as they start to put the success of the indoor season - which also included the SEC title - behind them.
“It took a few days, but now that we’ve put a little distance behind it since the NCAA meet, it’s starting to sink in a little bit that we had a pretty good meet,” Bucknam said. “A pretty good indoor season.”
Sports, Pages 28 on 03/23/2013