Arkansas XC teams run in national championships

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas cross country coaches Lance Harter and Chris Bucknam recently welcomed the nearly week-long arctic blast into Fayetteville.

Temperatures are likely to linger as close to the day’s projected 16-degree low as the 32-degree high today with a 20-percent chance of snow at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Madison, Wisc. Harter’s No. 5 women’s team, Southeastern Conference champion and South Central Regional qualifying champion will complete, along with Bucknam’s No. 17 men’s team.

“Getting a little taste of the upper Midwest right now and it couldn’t come at a better time,” Bucknam said midweek before departing for Madison. “We’ve been in bad conditions all year.

“I don’t think we’ve had one race in conditions that it hasn’t been raining or something, So the type of course and weather conditions don’t matter to this team. They’re fit and they are ready to run.”

Harter’s Razorbacks could be contenders for a top-four podium team finish in the 6,000-meter race. Katrina Robertson, a freshman born in Austin, Texas, and raised in Australia, leads Harter has led the team in every race she has run.

“I said, ‘What did you think about snow? It was your first time ever to see it?” Harter said. “She goes, ‘It was beautiful. Now what are we doing for workout? Let’s step up and get this thing done.’

“She’s a unique individual. She’s so adaptable. Whatever the task that is challenging, she seems to have a tendency to have an answer for it.”

Robinson, the South Central Regional champ and SEC runner-up, Lauren Gregory, Carina Viljoen, Taylor Werner and Sydney Brown dominated the SEC and South Central meets with Maddy Reed and Cabot’s Micah Huckabee as Arkansas’ sixth and seventh runners beating the top five runners of most other teams.

The favorites are New Mexico, Boise State and Colorado. Harter said Arkansas, Oregon, Michigan State and Villanova could also be in contention.

“I think there are seven or eight teams that could challenge to be on the (top four) podium on a given day,” Harter said. “If you’re on the podium, you are always in the hunt possibly to go for the gold.”

Winning seems far fetched for Bucknam’s men’s team with Northern Arizona as the prohibitive favorite on the 10-meter course, but it seems Arkansas inevitably defies national polls.

“We always want to do better than the polls have us,” Bucknam said. “I’d like to say we’re going for a win. That might be unrealistic but we are going to put our best foot forward. We’ve been top five two weeks in a row and the the Top 10, top six the last three.”

Gilbert Boit, the SEC Men’s champion, and Cameron Griffith lead the Razorbacks. They also run regional scorers Ryan Murphy, Matt Young and Ethan Moehn with Colin O’Mara and Graham the sixth and seventh men at last week’s South Central Regional.

“I thought that was probably the best race that we put together all year,” Bucknam said.