Arkansas returns to Louisville for national event
FAYETTEVILLE — Fresh off Southeastern Conference and regional championships, sixth-ranked Arkansas’ women’s cross country team will make a return trip to Louisville, Kentucky for the NCAA Cross Country Championships Saturday morning.
The Razorbacks have finished in the top-10 two out of the past three season and are looking for its first podium finish since 1999, which saw them finish as the team runner-ups with a score of 125 points.
“Everyone has a strength and everyone has a weakness,” head coach Lance Harter said. “The momentum we created with the win at the SEC and the win at the regional meet gives us all of the momentum we could possibly ask for.”
The Qualifiers:
Automatic Bids: No. 1 Colorado, No. 2 New Mexico, No. 3 San Francisco, No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 NC State, T-No. 6 Arkansas, No. 8 Michigan, No. 9 Providence, No. 10 Penn State, No. 11 Furman, No. 13 Villanova, T-No. 14 Iowa State, T-No. 14 Michigan State, T-No. 17 Georgia, No. 20 Mississippi, No. 23 Oklahoma State, No. 26 Dartmouth, Texas
At-Large Bids: T-No. 6 Oregon, No. 13 Boise State, No. 14 BYU, T-No. 17 Wisconsin, No. 19 Utah State, No. 21 Minnesota, No. 22 Washington, T-No. 23 California, No. 25 Eastern Kentucky, No. 27 Eastern Michigan, No. 28 Syracuse, No. 29 Indiana, No. 30 Columbia
“It’s clear cut,” Harter said. “The University of San Francisco and the University of New Mexico and their international crew. The defending champion Oregon has everyone back. We’re excited about representing Arkansas and our crew is capable of handling those types of people.”
The Razorback Seven
Nikki Hiltz, Therese Haiss, Lauren Gregory, Ashton Endsley, Sydney Brown, Carina Viljoen, Taylor Werner
Harter will take a young crew that features two freshmen and two sophomores to Louisville including returning All-American Taylor Werner. The sophomore became the sixth freshman in Arkansas history to earn All-American recognition finishing 16th with a time of 20:10.50 at the championship meet last season.
“I’m so excited for nationals,” said Werner. “Our team is ready as ever and I think we could surprise a lot of people if we race to our potential. Racing the course and racing against other competitive teams will definitely play into our advantage. We know how to race the course and can get an idea of how the race will go based on some of our competitors. As long as we go in confident and race ready, then we have as much advantage as anybody else. I have a good feeling about it this year!”
The Razorbacks will be led by seniors Nikki Hiltz and Therese Haiss Saturday. Hiltz has been stellar for the Razorbacks this postseason, finishing in first at regionals while shaving nearly 40 seconds off of her personal best time in a 6K race. The Santa Cruz, California native has led as the fastest Razorback in three of her five races this season.
“The goal this weekend for the team is to podium,” said Hiltz. “That’s awarded to the top-4 teams and going in we are ranked sixth, but at championships meets rankings don’t mean anything. Anything can happen. If we go out there and do what we’ve been doing all season long, I know we will walk away with a trophy. Personally, I’m shooting for All-American and I know that some of my teammates are as well. If we can find each other early on in the race, run as a pack and work together I know we will get there.”
Arkansas at the NCAA Championships
- NCAA Championship Appearances » (first 1982, 16th place)
- Podium finishes » 5
- All-Americans » 32
- Best finish » Runner-up (4x)
- Lowest score » 71 (1993)
We’ve Been There
The Razorbacks are familiar with the course at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park, having competed in there earlier this season at Pre-Nationals. Harter’s crew faced some of the same top teams at that meet that they will face again at the championships. The Razorbacks finished ahead of six top-25 programs at the time, including then No. 4 Michigan. Arkansas finished third overall at the race, just behind then No. 2 Oregon and No. 1 Colorado.
Meet Info
The women will lead off the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championships at 9:45 a.m. CT with the 6K race. The men’s 10K race will follow at 10:45 a.m. after which an awards ceremony will be held for the top individual performers and team podium finishers.
No. 15 Hogs poised for final postseason challenge
FAYETTEVILLE — Having emerged unscathed through conference and regional championships battles, 15th-ranked Arkansas faces its final postseason challenge this weekend, taking on the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Louisville, Ky. Saturday, Nov. 18.
The Hogs will be on the hunt for their first podium finish since 2005, which saw them finish as the team runner-ups with a score 105 points to Wisconsin.
“I’m really, really confident with the fitness levels of our guys,” head coach Chris Bucknam said. “I feel like the work that we put in is going to benefit us this Saturday.”
31 Teams Competing at the NCAA Championships:
Automatic Qualifiers: No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 2 BYU, No. 3, Syracuse, No. 4 Portland, No. 7 Furman, No. 9 Virginia Tech, No. 10 Michigan, No. 11 Michigan State, No. 12 Washington, No. 13 Iowa State, No. 15 Arkansas, No. 18 Oklahoma State, No. 20 Iona, No. 21 Texas, No. 22 Middle Tennessee, No. 25 Ole Miss, T-No. 28 Princeton and Navy.
At Large Qualifiers: No. 5 Colorado, No. 6 Stanford, No. 8 Colorado State, No. 14 Oregon, No. 16 UCLA, No. 17 Air Force, No. 19 Southern Utah, No. 23 Boise State, No. 24 Alabama, No. 26 Utah State, No. 27 Washington State, T-No. 28 NC State and T-No. 28 Virginia. (SEC teams in bold)
“Northern Arizona are the defending champions and BYU looks incredibly strong, but anything can happen,” Bucknam said. “There are a lot of good teams out there so it’s going to be a battle.”
Senior Leaders
Bucknam returns three All-Americans to the national meet in Jack Bruce, Austen Dalquist (All-American on the track) and Alex George. A 2015 transfer from University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Bruce earned his first All-America recognition that season, placing 23rd at the NCAA Championships as the Hogs’ No. 1 runner. He proved his worth for Arkansas a second time, at the 2016 NCAA bout, placing 19th in a competition pool which featured 251 runners.
“It’s pretty crazy that my cross country career is going to come to a close at the same place I properly established myself as a runner,” Bruce said. “I think we’re a lot more mature and wiser as a unit, certainly more established than we were two years ago. I’d like to etch my own piece of history in our program and live up to the standards left by our alumni. That said, we’re going in with the mindset of bringing home our first cross country national title since 2000.”
Last year George paced the Razorbacks at the national meet finishing 15th off a 30 minute, 10.10 second performance in frigid conditions at the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Indiana. George heads into the 2017 installment of the NCAA meet with an improved 10K personal best of 29:45.40, which he secured at the Chile Pepper Festival this past September.
“Being a leader is something I never thought I would be when I started here my freshman year,” George said. “I’ve been trying to teach the younger kids about the mistakes I’ve made throughout the my time here and how they can avoid it. I believe the plan for nationals is to get out strong and run near the front. I’ll probably key off of Jack and do what we did last year. It’s nice having a teammate to run up front with and to keep you grounded to a smart race plan.”
Sixth, Fifth…
The Razorbacks have been steadily progressing through each passing year, having finished sixth at NCAAs in 2015 and fifth in 2016. With his senior trio in tow plus exceptional talent in Cameron Griffith, Kyle Levermore, Ethan Moehn, Andrew Ronoh and Matt Young, Bucknam’s squad is primed to make waves at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park and ready to be thrust back into the national spotlight.
Nine Championships, 12 All-America Honors
Since taking over as the head coach of the Razorbacks in 2008, Bucknam has coached at least one Hog to All-America status in each season. In 2010, Dorian Ulrey became Bucknam’s first two-time cross country All-American. Ulrey was followed by Stanley Kebenei, who attained that status in 2014 and by current Hog Jack Bruce who attained that status in 2016. Bruce has the potential to become Bucknam’s first three-time All-American.
Arkansas Cross Country at the NCAA Championships
• 100 All-American selections
• 46 NCAA Championships appearances (first 1957, 13th place)
• 20 NCAA podium finishes (top-four)
• 11 NCAA titles
• 3 NCAA individual titles (Joe Falcon, 1987 and Godfrey Siamusiye, 1995 and 1996)
– Most Recent: 1996, Godfrey Siamusiye
• Best Finish 31, (1-2-4-8-16), 1993
• Largest Margin of Victory, (127 points), 1999 | 1. Arkansas, 58, 2. Wisconsin, 185
Meet Info
The 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championships will begin at 9:45 a.m. CT with the women’s 6K race. The men’s 10K race will follow at 10:45 a.m. after which an awards ceremony will be held for the top individual performers and team podium finishers.
Live results will be available for the meet through the NCAA. Additional information regarding the meet can be found at USTFCCCA’s National Championships Central
2017 Cross Country Schedule
Fri, Sept. 1 – Cowboy Preview (Stillwater, Okla.) 1st of 4
Fri, Sept. 15 – Iona College Meet of Champions (New York, N.Y.) 2nd of 11
Sat, Sept. 30 – Chile Pepper Festival (Agri Park) 1st of 40
Sat, Oct. 14 – Pre-Nationals (Louisville, Ky.) 9th of 40
Fri, Oct. 27 – SEC Championship (Athens, Ga.) 1st of 13
Fri, Nov. 10 – NCAA South Central Regional (College Station, Texas) 1st of 23
Sat, Nov. 18 – NCAA Championship (Louisville, Ky.)
*italicized meet denotes completion.
Art Adamson Invite awaits Arkansas in College Station
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas hits the road this weekend to compete in the annual Art Adamson Invitational in College Station, Texas, from Thursday to Saturday.
The prestigious invite will host 10 women’s programs, including three that are ranked in the CSCAA Top 25. Two are in the top three, with No. 1 Stanford and No. 3 Texas A&M. Arizona State, who is ranked 24th, will also be attendance. Other programs joining Arkansas are Boise State, Hawai’i, LSU, SMU, Incarnate Word and Utah. In the latest CSCAA Top 25, Arkansas was receiving four votes, being ranked tied for 28th in the country.
“We are really excited to come to College Station and see how we perform this weekend,” said head coach Neil Harper. “We have been working hard and I am excited to watch these ladies compete against some of the fastest swimmers in the world. This is a great test to compete against Olympic gold medalists and NCAA Champions.”
Arkansas enters the invite with a 6-2 record, including a 2-1 mark in conference action. Last time out, Arkansas picked up its second conference road win of the year, knocking off Vanderbilt 133-67, after opening the meet with nine consecutive victories. The day prior, Arkansas defeated Nebraska at home 154-84, claiming each of the first 11 events of the meet.
Arkansas has recorded 39 individual wins this season. Of the 39 first-place finishes so far this season, 34 are split between the freshman and senior classes, as each freshmen account for 13 and seniors have 21.
The three-day meet will feature swimming prelims beginning at 9:30 a.m. and evening finals at 6 p.m. Diving preliminaries and some finals will occur between the morning and evening swim sessions with one diving final in the evening session.
Live swimming results will be available here, while much of the meet will be on SEC Network+ and can viewed with the WatchESPN app. Diving results will be available here.
SCHEDULE
Thursday, Nov. 16
200 Freestyle Relay
500 Freestyle (Macias, Palsha, Lemon)
200 Individual Medley (Tatlow, Hannam, Garrison, Angell, Umberger, Strathman, Edwards, Porporis)
50 Freestyle (Weekley, Kelly, Thaman, Carney, Michailoff-Russell, Chambliss, Gregson, Lemon, Holland, Strathman)
1-Meter Diving (Gillis, Green, Schultz, Welch)
400 Medley Relay
Friday, Nov. 17
200 Medley Relay
400 Individual Medley (Hannam, Garrison, Macias, Palsha, Umberger, Porporis)
100 Butterfly (Weekley, Garrison, Pigliacampi, Weiss, Chambliss, Hale, Degnan, Torkelson, Roberts, Holland)
200 Freestyle (Macias, Tatlow, Carney, Lemon, Michailoff-Russell, Thaman, Gregson, Kelly, Holland)
100 Breaststroke (Strathman, Edwards, Hale, Angell)
100 Backstroke (Tatlow, Angell, Umberger, Degnan, Hannam, Chambliss, Gregson, Porporis, Holland, Torkelson)
3-Meter Diving (Gillis, Green, Schultz, Welch)
800 Freestyle Relay
Saturday, Nov. 18
Platform (Gillis, Green, Welch)
1650 Freestyle (Macias, Palsha, Lemon)
200 Backstroke (Hannam, Umberger, Degnan, Porporis, Macias, Holland, Torkelson)
100 Freestyle (Weekley, Pigliacampi, Thaman, Chambliss, Kelly, Carney, Michailoff-Russell, Gregson, Lemon, Strathman)
200 Breaststroke (Strathman, Angell, Palsha, Edwards, Hale)
200 Butterfly (Tatlow, Garrison, Weiss, Pigliacampi, Roberts, Degnan)
400 Freestyle Relay
