Arkansas aiming to contend for national title
FAYETTEVILLE - For the first time after 12 conference meets, coach Lance Harter’s Razorbacks women could finish higher at the NCAA Women’s Championships than at their SEC Women’s Championship meet.
Harter’s Razorbacks had won 11 consecutive SEC Cross Country, SEC Indoor Track and SEC Outdoor championships, meaning the best they could do nationally was match what they did at conference, which they did twice, winning national titles at the 2015 NCAA Indoor and 2016 NCAA Outdoor.
They come into the NCAA Outdoor Championships today and Saturday in Eugene, Ore., off a sixth-place team finish at the SEC Outdoor last month in Knoxville, Tenn.
Between redshirting 2018 NCAA Indoor champion hurdler and all-round sprinter and relay member Payton Chadwick and All-American pole vaulter Desiree Freier outdoors this spring so they can complete the 2019 season with the Razorbacks hosting both the SEC Indoor and SEC Outdoor Championships, and injuries to 2018 NCAA Indoor/SEC pentathlete champion and would have been 2018 NCAA Outdoor/SEC Outdoor heptathlete champion but for a season-ending foot injury, and All-American distance runner Taylor Werner (back injuries) on the sidelines, the Razorbacks were sixth at the SEC Outdoor.
They won’t win the NCAA Outdoor with that much firepower missing, yet still contend for a top four national trophy finish, which would top their sixth place in the SEC.
On a NCAA Championship basis, pole vaulting twin sisters Lexi (nee Weeks) Jacobus and Tori (nee Weeks) Hoggard of Cabot finished 1-2 at the NCAA Indoor and SEC Outdoor, and could do so again in Eugene for an 18-point team base.
Add the amazing All-American Nikki Hiltz, once deemed likely out for this outdoor season with a knee injury that had her training in the pool way more than on the track, as an All-American contender in the 1,500 to Jada Baylark breaking Olympic gold medalist Veronica Campbell-Brown’s Razorbacks record in the 100-meter dash; All-American steeplechaser Devin Clark, hurdler Janeek Brown and both relay times qualified with Brooks, able to sprint though not jump in the heptathlon because of the ankle on her plant foot, running on the 4x100 and Arkansas could score a lot with still less than usual representation.
“The experts out there think we can be anywhere from sixth to ninth in the nation,” Harter said.
“With the number of setbacks and number of things we’ve had to overcome this season, I would gladly take that. But indoors we were picked somewhere between sixth and ninth and we ended up second. If we can grab a trophy, that would be truly remarkable.”