Great Scott, Hogs dominate again
The first SEC cross country championships held in College Station, Texas, turned out to be more of the same for the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Senior Dominique Scott won her third consecutive individual title Friday, running through heavy rain to lead Arkansas’ fourth-ranked women’s team to its third consecutive SEC team championship and 16th overall in 25 years, while the Razorbacks’ eighth-ranked men’s team won its sixth consecutive championship and 23rd overall since joining the conference in 1991.
Scott, who ran the 6,000-meter course in 19 minutes, 23.6 seconds, became the third female to win three consecutive SEC titles, joining Arkansas’ Amy Yoder (199799) and Auburn’s Angela Homan (2003-05). Scott is the only female to win three SEC cross country individual titles while also leading her team to three consecutive conference championships.
Arkansas won the women’s title with 38 points, followed by No. 13 Mississippi State with 95.
“I felt so good during the race, I just knew today was going to be a good day,” Scott said. “Having crossed the line
and won a third title actually kind of feels surreal. It’s a really cool feeling, but even more important the Razorbacks won again today.”
Other Arkansas finishers in the top 10 were senior Kaitlin Flattman (sixth), freshman Devin Clark (eighth), juniors Valerie Reina (11th) and Regan Ward (12th), sophomore Kelsey Schrader (13th) and senior Sydney Brown (20th).
“If we had taken our two seniors out of our lineup, we still would have won the meet by 31 points,” Arkansas
Coach Lance Harter said. “It was a pretty dominating performance
“We knew Dominique was going to dictate her own terms as far as how much she’d win by. That’s a luxury you can have when you’re as good as she is.”
Alabama’s Antibahs Kosgei won the men’s individual title, finishing in 23:24.2 over the 8.000-meter course, but Arkansas placed six runners in the top 10 to run away with the team championship.
Led by juniors Christian Heymsfield (23:25.2) in second and Frankline Tonui in third (23:23.5), the Razorbacks won with 25 points. Texas A&M was second with 98.
“We went out and were really aggressive at the beginning of the race,” Arkansas Coach Chris Bucknam said. “We tried to take as many teams out of it as we could, and it was successful. Our guys really looked strong. After the first half of the race, we just pulled away.”
Razorbacks also finishing among the top 10 were sophomores Alex George and Austen Dalquist, senior Gabe Gonzales and sophomore Jack Bruce.
“It shows the depth of our team,” Bucknam said. “I’m just proud of how our guys took care of business.”
Arkansas has won 40 conference men’s titles 42 years, including its last 17 years in the Southwest Conference.
Bucknam said some former Razorbacks attended the meet and many others contacted him with texts or calls to offer congratulations on Arkansas’ latest title.
“Those guys all worked extremely hard to have Arkansas keep winning championships,” Bucknam said. “It’s an incredible standard to bear, and we’re trying our best to uphold it.”