Arkansas aiming for track title
FAYETTEVILLE Coach Chris Bucknam’s Arkansas Razorbacks appear too injury depleted and teams like nationally No. 1 ranked SEC champion Florida too talented for Arkansas to contend for a team national championship at the NCAA Outdoor Men’s Track and Field Championships today and Thursday in Eugene, Ore.
But the No. 13 national ranking currently thrust upon these Razorbacks could allow them to sneak up on people given the firepower of hurdler Kemar Mowatt, sprinter Kenzo Cotton, distance runner Cameron Griffith, decathlete Gabe Moore and a blazing 4x100 with Cotton, Mowatt, Obi Igbokwe and Roy Ejiakuekwu, plus a 4x400 relay, 110-meter hurdler Larry Donald and long jumper Harrison Schrage.
“I think we are in a position where we can sneak up on some people,” Bucknam said. “Now I don’t think that’s an appropriate way to look at it, but we just have to go out and do the best we can to put points on the board. Obviously, the attention getters now are Florida and A&M and some of those schools, but we’ve got a good contingent of athletes covering a wide variety of events. We’ve got some pretty good athletes.”
And those athletes abound on both relays.
“Our 4x400 last year came into the (NCAA Outdoor) about fifth or sixth and we broke the school record and ran 3:01 and got second,” Bucknam said of the sprint crews coached by sprints coach Doug Case. “So you never count our 4x400 out and you never count our 4x100 out.”
Mowatt and Cotton are more than just pretty good.
The reigning SEC Outdoor 400meter hurdles champion last month in Knoxville, Tenn., Mowatt last spring ran third at the NCAA Outdoor for Arkansas, then fourth in the world representing Jamaica at last summer’s World Championships.
He runs his last races as a Razorback this week in Eugene, as does Cotton, the 15-time All-American senior sprinter individually craving one last national title shot in the 100 and 200-dashes and a mainstay on the 4x100.
“He could end up being that superstar because he’s so consistent at what he’s doing,” Bucknam said of Cotton’s collegiate farewell.
“Kemar has a great shot,” Bucknam said. “Our 4x100 has a great shot. Cameron Griffith (in the 1,500). You have to go back to the Indoor 3K where he was third at the NCAA Championships and was just out of it (winning) by a tenth of a second. He’s got a great kick in the 1,500, even though Josh Kerr from New Mexico is the reigning champ, Cam has the foot speed if he’s in the right position to put himself with anybody.
"It’s going to be a matter of getting to the final and being in position to have a great kick. You look at the SEC distance medley relay. Robert Dominic from Ole Miss is the third fastest all-time collegiate miler and Cameron out kicked him for the distance medley win at the indoor on that anchor. He’s a dangerous athlete.”
Decathlete Moore was an All-American sixth in the NCAA Indoor and Derek Jacobus, coming out of a redshirt trying to boost Arkansas’ SEC Outdoor totals for a shot at Florida, qualified for the NCAA Outdoor with his fourth place conference decathlon points.
“Gabe finished sixth indoors in the hep and I think he’s a better decathlete so I’m excited,” Bucknam said. “I think we’ve got two good decathletes. That’s seven events and this is 10. We’ve got some sleepers in there that could score, but we need some firsts, seconds and thirds, those 10, eight and six, but we also need some other guys to get on the board and get some points.”