FAYETTEVILLE — The NCAA championship indoor track and field teams won’t be crowned for another six weeks, but the University of Arkansas men’s and women’s teams are ranked No. 1 in the first coaches’ poll of the season going into this weekend’s Razorback Invitational.
“Obviously we feel good about it, but we realize it’s just a poll,” Razorback men’s Coach Chris Bucknam said. “It means we’re moving in the right direction.”
The Arkansas women swept NCAA indoor and outdoor track and cross country titles in 2019, so the Razorbacks are used to being No. 1.
“Our kids have just done a great job early in the season,” said Lance Harter, coach of the women’s team. “So obviously the experts have thought about the rankings and put us up there on top. Hopefully we can continue to post some great marks.”
The Razorback Invitational, held today and Saturday at the Randal Tyson Center, will include No. 10 Southern California and No. 22 Georgia in the men’s field along with Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Oregon, Colorado and Iowa State.
A highlight event will be tonight’s distance medley relay featuring Arkansas, Oregon and Ole Miss.
Razorbacks senior Amon Kemboi, who won the mile in 3:58.26 last week, will anchor the relay tonight and run the 3,000 meters on Saturday.
“Hopefully we can keep it close and get him in the mix with the milers from Oregon and Ole Miss,” Buckman said. “We would like to get the distance medley qualified [for nationals] and also [get qualifiers] the 3,000 where we have a lot of our runners entered.
“We’re looking for qualifying marks not only for the NCAA meet, but also the SEC Championships, where marks need to be among a top 24 descending order list.”
Phillip Lemonious, the junior college national champion in the 60-meter hurdles, is scheduled to make his Arkansas debut.
In the women’s events, Arkansas will face competition that includes No. 3 Georgia and No. 6 Southern California.
Arkansas’ 1,600 relay team of Paris Peoples, Tiana Wilson, Morgan Burks-Magee and Rosey Effoing, has the world’s leading time at 3:32.18, will go against Southern California, Georgia and Mississippi State.
Harter said the pole vault also should be a highlight event with Arkansas’ crew led by Nastassja Campbell — who cleared 14-2 last week — going against a strong group from Georgia.