FAYETTEVILLE — Since his 2008 Arkansas arrival, no Arkansas head coach speaks more prudently or respectful of his SEC opposition than men’s track mentor Chris Bucknam.
Bucknam’s prudence doesn’t supersede honesty.
So with his men defending their SEC Outdoor Championship on Thursday through Saturday in Baton Rouge, La., Bucknam last Friday didn’t backtrack from his observation during last winter’s indoor season.
Do you still believe your Razorbacks will be a better outdoor than indoor team?
“Yes,” Bucknam replied. “I still feel like we’ve got a really, really good outdoor team.”
If they prove better outdoors than indoors, then they indeed will prove “really, really good.”
Indoors at the SEC Championships in Fayetteville, the victorious Razorbacks outpointed runner-up Florida 100.25-73.
At the NCAA Indoor in Albuquerque, N.M, Arkansas handily won the national championship 63-40 over Georgia. Florida, with 34 points, was third.
“Our indoor team was on point and we nailed it at the NCAA Championship,” Bucknam said. “The 14 guys that we brought, 13 scored. If we can continue to come together as a team and improve and pull this thing together I do feel our outdoor team has the same kind of potential, if not even a little bit better. We’re deep and well-rounded.”
Outdoors adding the discus definitely deepens Arkansas, which won NCAA indoor first-places by triple jumper Jaydon Hibbert, long jumper Carey McLeod and its 4x400-meter relay.
The Razorbacks scored 16 SEC shot-put points from runner-up Jordan West, an All-American fifth at the NCAA meet, Roje Stona third and Ralford Mullings seventh.
All not only shoot for shot points in Baton Rouge but are discus dynamos, especially Stona and Mullings.
“Stona has the fourth-best throw in NCAA history,” Bucknam said.
Adding defending NCAA Outdoor decathlon champion Ayden Owens-Delerme, All-American long jumper Wayne Pinnock, All-American distance man Patrick Kiprop and 400-meter All-American Christopher Bailey among others bodes for an Arkansas juggernaut.
Yet several among the SEC could rebut, Bucknam asserts.
Behind nationally No. 2 Arkansas, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and LSU nationally rank Nos. 3 through 6.
“We’re going to get challenged right and left,” Bucknam said.
Approaching his final SEC and NCAA meets, revenge seldom marks the motive for retiring Arkansas women’s coach Lance Harter’s Hall of Fame career with seven national championships and 44 SEC outdoor-indoor-cross country crowns.
It does this week. By four points in last year’s SEC outdoor, Florida snapped Arkansas’ three-sport straight string of 10 SEC titles.
Harter stresses the Gators’ 2022 outdoor bite even after swamping them 130.5-84 and winning the 2023 SEC indoor and leaving them a distant third while setting three collegiate records winning the 2023 NCAA indoor, 64-60 edging Texas
“Oh, yes,” Harter said. “That definitely is a factor. It interrupted our chain by four points. It’s a reconfirmation to those kiddos that every point is important.”
Nationally, Florida ranks second, Arkansas third and LSU, Texas A&M, Georgia, Kentucky and Ole Miss sixth through 10th.