NCAA CROSS COUNTRY SOUTH CENTRAL REGIONAL

Razorbacks sweep in College Station, advance to Wisconsin

Arkansas coach Chris Bucknam talks to runners prior to the start of the Chile Pepper Festival on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018, in Fayetteville.

University of Arkansas men's cross country coach Chris Bucknam did a good enough job preparing his team that the Razorbacks won the NCAA South Central Regional in College Station, Texas, on Friday morning, with him staying in his hotel room because of a stomach virus.

"It's the second meet I've missed in 40 years of coaching," Bucknam said later in the day while waiting to fly home. "The first one was when my daughter, Kate, was born in 1993."

NCAA SOUTH CENTRAL REGIONAL CROSS COUNTRY RESULTS

at College Station, Texas

WOMEN’S TEAM RESULTS

  1. Arkansas 21
  2. Texas 99
  3. Texas State 122
  4. Texas A&M 154
  5. Rice 162

Other Arkansas teams

  1. Arkansas State 319
  2. UALR 470

WOMEN’S INDIVIDUAL FINISHERS

(from Arkansas schools)

6,000 meters

  1. Katrina Robinson, Arkansas, 20:20.3
  2. Taylor Werner, Arkansas, 20:29.0
  3. Lauren Gregory, Arkansas, 20:29.0
  4. Carina Viljoen, Arkansas, 20:33.9
  5. Sydney Brown, Arkansas, 21:07.2
  6. Micah Huckabee, Arkansas, 21:13.0
  7. Maddy Reed, Arkansas, 21:13.05
  8. Shanieke Watson, UALR, 21:20.0
  9. Anaelle Charles, ASU, 21:40.0
  10. Gracie Hyde, UCA, 22:07.5
  11. Pauline Meyer, ASU, 22:11.0
  12. Sophia Oury, ASU, 22:49.9
  13. Kyandra Chandler, ASU, 22:53.9
  14. Vianney Sanchez, UALR, 23:07.0
  15. Rebecca Eldien, ASU, 23:26.6
  16. Hunter Paul, UALR, 23:39.3
  17. Sammy Brainard, ASU, 23:56.0
  18. Madison Grimm, ASU, 23:58.8
  19. Hannah Manning, UALR, 24:27.6
  20. Kimberly Boni, UALR, 26:46.8

MEN’S TEAM RESULTS

  1. Arkansas 59
  2. Texas 76
  3. Texas A&M 135
  4. Rice 141
  5. North Texas 162

Other Arkansas teams

  1. UCA 260
  2. UAPB 709

MEN’S INDIVIDUAL FINISHERS

10,000 meters

  1. Jamie Crowe, Lamar, 31:36.3

(from Arkansas schools)

  1. Gilbert Boit, Arkansas, 31:43.8
  2. Cameron Griffith, Arkansas, 32:09.7
  3. Ryan Murphy, Arkansas, 32:07.7
  4. Matt Young, Arkansas, 32:16.0
  5. Ethan Moehn, Arkansas, 32:16.1
  6. Colin O’Mara, Arkansas, 32:22.8
  7. Graham Brown, Arkansas, 32:35.4
  8. Julien Jeandre, UCA, 33:18.9
  9. Jared Hamilton, UCA, 33:32.7
  10. Markus Schweikert, UCA, 33:28.5
  11. Alex Hanson, UCA, 33:40.6
  12. Brock Collins, UCA, 33:46.9
  13. Jaron Hamilton, UCA, 34:15.0
  14. Hunter Henderson, UCA, 34:41.9
  15. Wade Garner, UAPB, 35:13.2
  16. D’Andre Mighty, UAPB, 38:11.1
  17. Akeem Marshall, UAPB, 38:43.6
  18. Laurel Heath, UABP, 38:50.7
  19. Romario Marshall, UAPB, 39:06.7
  20. Toshin Agreed, UAPB, 39:15.4
  21. Tyran Lyons, UAPB, 41:32.2
  22. Alexander Collier, UAPB, 43:02.2

The No. 19-ranked Razorbacks won their sixth consecutive regional title and 38th overall with 59 points to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships on Nov. 17 in Madison, Wis.

Arkansas' No. 5 women's team won its eighth consecutive regional title and 23rd overall with 21 points to advance to the NCAA Championships.

Texas finished second in both races with the men scoring 76 points and the women 99 to also qualify for the national meet.

Junior Gilbert Boit, who won the SEC championship, finished fifth at the regional and ran the 10,000-meter course in 31:43.8 to lead the Arkansas men.

All seven of the Razorbacks' entrants finished in the top 25, including Cameron Griffith taking 11th and Ryan Murphy 12th.

With Bucknam falling ill, volunteer coach Cale Wallace, a former Razorbacks All-American, took over coaching duties at Friday's meet.

"Cale did a phenomenal job of taking to the guys and getting it done," Bucknam said. "The kid can coach."

Bucknam also praised his runners for their preparation and maturity.

"We've got a great culture with our guys," he said. "They've competed in a lot of big meets and they know what it takes."

Bucknam said Boit led for much of the race, but didn't push it the final 1,000 meters because the Razorbacks already were assured of finishing among the two teams to qualify for nationals.

Lamar senior Jamie Crowe won in 31:36.3.

"We just tried to run hard enough to make sure we were in one of the top two positions, and our guys did a great job with that," Bucknam said. "We didn't have to go to the well, which was good, because we have to be really dialed in a week from now for nationals.

"This was probably the best race we've put together so far this season even though we didn't have to go to the limit. Hopefully that's a good sign for next Saturday."

Arkansas freshman Katrina Robinson won the women's 6,000-meter race in 20:23.3.

"That was real nice for Katrina to get the title," Arkansas women's Coach Lance Carter said. "She made a move with about 1,000 meters to go, and she made it look effortless. She just popped out to the lead and held it."

The Razorbacks took the top four places with Taylor Werner second, Lauren Gregory third and Carina Viljoen fourth. All seven of their entrants finished in the top 14.

"We talked about the idea that through the season you've built up a reputation of being pretty intimidating and why change that now?" Harter said of the Razorbacks' approach. "So we went to the front and set ourselves up to be as comfortable as possible for as long as possible."

Harter said the Razorbacks perfectly executed the plan of running easy as a lead pack and taking early control of the race.

"The kids said the race felt really easy," he said. "I think our workouts are even harder. We just took care of business."

The University of Central Arkansas' men's team finished 10th with 260 points and the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff was 24th with 709.

Arkansas State University's women's team was 11th with 319 points and the University of Arkansas-Little Rock was 18th with 470.

Sports on 11/10/2018