FAYETTEVILLE — When Lance Harter was coaching cross country and track and field at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo in the 1980s, he kept hearing from out-of-state coaches about the Drake Relays.
“They’d say, 'If you really want to hit the pinnacle, you need to go to the Drake or Penn Relays,'” Harter said. “Drake and Penn allow you to have relays for the distance runners as well as the sprinters.”
Harter, who will be retiring at the end of June after 34 years as the Arkansas women’s cross country and track and field teams, listened to his peers and made the Drake and Penn Relays part of the Razorbacks’ schedule in some years.
Arkansas’ teams have done well enough at the Drake Relays that Harter is being inducted into the Drake Relay Hall of Fame on Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa.
The Razorbacks are competing at the Drake Relays this weekend as well as at the LSU Invitational in Baton Rouge.
Arkansas has won 10 Drake Relays titles under Harter, with victories in 2002, 2007, 2011, 2012 and 2015.
“I’m honored to be going into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame,” Harter said. “I’ve been very fortunate to be in some other Halls of Fame, and I’m looking forward to being in this one.”
Harter, who has led Arkansas to seven national and 44 SEC championships, previously was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, UA Sports Hall of Honor and Halls of Fame for the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, Cal Poly and the California Collegiate Athletic Conference.
Last year Kentucky Coach Lonnie Greene, an Arkansas assistant for Harter, was inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame.
“Lonnie called to congratulate me,” Harter said. “He was just real sentimental about it, us being in the Hall of Fame together.”