FAYETTEVILLE -- It's been an eventful past few months for Dominique Scott.

In December, she married Cameron Efurd in her hometown of Capetown, South Africa.

Scott capped her Arkansas career in June by winning the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore., to lead the Razorbacks to the team title. That performance helped Scott secure a professional contract.

On Friday, she'll run for South Africa in the Olympics 10,000 final in Rio de Janeiro.

Scott met Efurd, who also ran for the Razorbacks, after she enrolled at Arkansas.

"It's been incredible all the things that have happened for me since I came to Fayetteville," Scott said before leaving for the Olympics. "The University of Arkansas has given me every opportunity I could have ever wished for to pursue my dreams.

[ARKANSANS IN RIO: Full coverage of 23 in Olympics]

"To now be standing here with a sponsorship from Adidas and a ticket to the Rio Olympic Games is just amazing. I wouldn't be here without the University of Arkansas and Lance Harter.

"They just nurtured me into the athlete and woman I am today. I'm forever grateful to them."

Harter is in his 27th season as coach of the Arkansas women's cross country and track and field teams. Scott said she considers him a family member, especially since she went to college 8,700 miles from home.

"He's been like my USA dad here in the States," she said.

Scott developed into a five-time NCAA champion and 12-time All-American at Arkansas, but she wondered about her place in the program after finishing 110th at the NCAA cross country meet as a true freshman.

"Coach Harter could have very easily taken away my scholarship after that first semester and sent me back to South Africa," she said. "But he saw something in me and continued to push me and believe in me."

Harter said he never considered pulling Scott's scholarship, but he couldn't have predicted her career achievements.

"I thought she could make it the NCAA meet and score for us, but the idea she'd win all these national titles and run in the Olympics?" Harter said. "That was way beyond any expectations that I might have had.

"But I think she always had the desire and the passion to be what she is now. She had the genetic tools it takes to be a runner of this caliber, but she's also very driven to go to the top and has worked hard enough to do it.

"Getting up five days a week at 6 o'clock in the morning to go run, pounding out the miles, she put herself in this position."

Scott, 24, said runners from Kenya and Ethiopia figure to dominate the 10,000 on Friday, but she hopes to run competitively and lay the groundwork for future success.

"This year is all about experience for me at the Olympics and taking it all in," she said. "So hopefully in the next four years' time, I'll be back at the Olympics and be a veteran and know what I'm doing.

"Distance runners usually peak in their early 30s, so I know I've definitely got one more Olympics in me and hopefully two more."

Harter said he expects Scott to enjoy a long pro career.

"She's still very, very young in this business," he said. "If she's patient and lets it evolve and stays healthy, then in 2020 and 2024, those will be the years for her to cash in and chase Olympic medals."

Sports on 08/09/2016