FAYETTEVILLE -- Kemar Mowatt competed in track and field in his native Jamaica as a hurdler along with Omar McLeod.
"Omar was the big guy back in Jamaica in high school," Mowatt said. "I was basically a nobody at the time."
McLeod, who won three individual NCAA titles at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville in two years before turning pro after his sophomore year in 2015, is bigger than ever. He won Olympic and World Championship titles last year.
But Mowatt -- who followed McLeod to Arkansas after a brief stop at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi -- isn't a nobody now.
The junior from St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, will go into this week's NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., as one of the favorites to win the 400-meter hurdles.
After advancing out of the West Preliminaries in Austin, Texas, Mowatt will run Wednesday in the NCAA Championships looking to advance to Friday's final.
Mowatt ran a school-record 48.79 seconds to win the SEC title last month to break Sam Glover's top Arkansas mark of 49.08 set in 2000. His time ranks third nationally this season.
Before transferring to Arkansas from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last year, Mowatt's top time was 51.13, so he's improved by 2.34 seconds since joining the Razorbacks and working with assistant coach Doug Case.
"In high school in Jamaica I didn't get a scholarship offer from any of the big schools," Mowatt said. "I had one from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which is a Division I school, but the program isn't that good. So I stayed there for my first year and tried to get to a big school."
Mowatt said he told Razorbacks Coach Chris Bucknam at the 2015 NCAA West Preliminaries in Austin that he'd like to run for Arkansas. Bucknam responded they could talk if Mowatt got a scholarship release.
Getting a release from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi took a little time.
"I was the top guy there, so of course they didn't want me to leave," he said. "But I knew my potential, and I knew it was way beyond what I was doing there.
"I just needed an opportunity. They understood eventually. At Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, I didn't really have anybody to chase or anything to prove really. But Arkansas is a championship school."
Last year, Mowatt earned two All-American honors running legs on Arkansas' 400 relay team indoors and outdoors and finished fourth in 400 hurdles at the SEC meet. His top time was 50.66, a modest improvement over his freshman season.
"There's a process with our program, and it takes a year to get up to speed with what we're doing," Bucknam said. "It doesn't happen all at once.
"You're in a new system with a new coach, and you're going to be pushed a lot harder. There's something about being on a team where you're going to be pushed in practice. That's what he's garnered from being here at Arkansas."
Case said Mowatt's hard work and time invested in the program are paying off.
"We had watched him run before he got here, and you could see that if he had the right kind of training and learned to be a better hurdler in certain aspects of his race, we could fix it," Case said. "It helps that he's a guy that does everything right.
"He warms up right. He does the workout the way it's prescribed. He's a great practice athlete, and that helps him be a great competitor at meets. But as good as he's become this year, he can run faster."
Clive Pullen, the Razorbacks' senior NCAA champion and Olympian from Kingston, Jamaica, helped with Mowatt's transition to Arkansas. They didn't know each other previously but are close friends now.
"When Kemar came here, I took him under my wings like a little brother," Pullen said. "I'm proud of how he's worked his way up, and now he's one of top men in the nation."
Mowatt has advanced to the NCAA Championships in an individual event for the first time. As a freshman, he finished 16th in the West Prelims by running 51.42. Last year, he was running well in his West Prelims first-round race in Lawrence, Kan., but hit the sixth hurdle and fell to miss a chance to advance.
"I was going to win that race easily," Mowatt said. "It was a tough break."
Case said what happened in Lawrence has helped Mowatt.
"Before every race, I tell him, 'You have to be a really good hurdler today,' " said Case, emphasizing proper form and technique. "It makes him aware that he's got to do everything right, because he's good enough that if he doesn't mess up, he's going to do something really good."
Sports on 06/06/2017