FAYETTEVILLE -- In their two epic plays that led to a a 53-52 victory in overtime over Mississippi on Saturday in Oxford, Miss., Coach Bret Bielema's Arkansas Razorbacks taught their football followers never to take for granted that a cause is lost.
By contrast, it seems Arkansas' cross country teams convince their followers to take for granted their conference championships as won before they win them.
Arkansas' cross country men always did under John McDonnell. Annually from 1974-1990 in the Southwest Conference and from 1991-2007 in the SEC, McDonnell's men won conference cross country titles as surely as November follows October.
Now Arkansas Coach Lance Harter's Razorback women and Arkansas Coach Chris Bucknam's Razorbacks is making that an autumn routine once again as the leaves fall. Their Razorbacks won again at the SEC Championships on Oct. 30 in College Station, Texas.
Both teams are ready to return to College Station for Friday's South Central Regional required to qualify for the NCAA Championships Nov. 21 in Louisville, Ky.
Since arriving at Arkansas in 1990, Harter has coached 16 teams to SEC cross country crowns, including from 2013 through 2015.
Buckham inherited an injury-plagued Razorbacks team from McDonnell in 2008, the program's lowest cross country ebb since 1973.
That ebb coincided with Alabama and Auburn investing heavily into cross country at the expense of some track sprints and field events.
SEC cross country also-rans his first two years, Bucknam retooled the Razorbacks annually to win SEC cross country championships since 2010.
At College Station, Bucknam's men won 25-98 over runner-up Texas A&M while Ole Miss, the preseason men's favorite, was third with 122 points.
Harter's women won 25-98 over runner-up Mississippi State.
Their Razorbacks made it look easy, which is both an honor and perhaps just a trifle frustrating, Bucknam and Harter acknowledge as did McDonnell before them.
It's all part of the honor of piloting the program expected to live up to McDonnell's legacy.
"I wouldn't trade for the world," Bucknam said.
But as McDonnell said often, those conference cross country crowns may have looked automatic but they weren't.
"It's never easy," Bucknam said. "We made it look easy but that's because our guys did a phenomenal job of everything from teamwork to no egos putting all the time and effort into a championship season. I'm just glad to see them hoist that trophy. It's a big deal to win that SEC championship."
Harter said it looks easy for his team because senior Dominique Scott joins former Olympic great Amy Yoder winning three SEC cross country crowns.
It's forgotten, Harter said, how hard Scott worked upon finishing 41st as a SEC cross country freshman or "the blood in the water" that Mississippi State sensed preseason with the gist of last year's Arkansas team graduated other than Scott.
The rest of the conference's women's teams are getting as sick of Harter's teams as the SEC men's teams were sick of McDonnell.
"That's five SEC titles in a row now with cross country, indoor track and outdoor track," Harter said.
Sports on 11/09/2015